Disclosure, Eventually: A Proposal to Limit the Indefinite Exemption of Federal Agency Memoranda from Release Under the Freedom of Information Act
Kyle Singhal · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1388 · On June 30, 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, which made some headway towards increasing agency compliance and efficiency with Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests. The Act requires, among other things, the creation of a consolidated online FOIA request... Read More
In Defense of Churches: Can the IRS Limit Tax Abuse by “Church” Impostors?
Lidiya Mishchenko · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1361 · A large gap in our Tax Code allows certain religious organizations to amass extraordinary riches while preying on the faithful. Their conduct is causing damage to the church as an institution and is inconsistent with the purpose of tax exemptions—to provide a public good. This Essay proposes... Read More
Using Interpretive Methodology to Get Out from Seminole Rock and a Hard Place
Matthew Mezger · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1335 · Though not directly at issue in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, several of the Supreme Court Justices felt compelled to question the legal validity of Auer deference. This rule granting agencies deference when interpreting their ambiguous regulations has been a longstanding precedent in administrative law, but several... Read More
Revisiting the Public Rights Doctrine: Justice Thomas’s Application of Originalism to Administrative Law
Laura Ferguson · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1315 · Administrative agencies today adjudicate vastly more disputes than do Article III courts. The constitutional underpinnings of the administrative agency’s adjudicative power remain somewhat murky, however, as does today’s conception of which cases administrative agencies can appropriately adjudicate. The Supreme Court has said that Article III courts alone... Read More
The Future of Deference
Richard J. Pierce, Jr. · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1293 · In this Essay, Professor Richard Pierce describes the history of the deference doctrines the Supreme Court has announced and applied to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes and rules over the last seventy years. He predicts that the Court will continue to reduce the scope and... Read More
Preambles as Guidance
Kevin M. Stack · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1252 · Debates over administrative agencies’ reliance on guidance documents have largely neglected the most authoritative source of guidance about the meaning of agency regulations: their preambles. This Article examines and defends the guidance function of preambles. Preambles were designed not only to provide the agency’s official justification... Read More
Chevron Bias
Philip Hamburger · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1187 · This Article takes a fresh approach to Chevron deference. Chevron requires judges to defer to agency interpretations of statutes and justifies this on a theory of statutory authorization for agencies. This Article, however, points to a pair of constitutional questions about the role of judges—questions that have... Read More
Overseeing Agency Enforcement: A Foreword to the Annual Review of Administrative Law
Rachel E. Barkow · 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1129 · A big part of what agencies do—indeed, the core of their executive power—is law enforcement. Whether it is a statute or an agency regulation, agencies make sure that individuals and entities comply with the law. In the case of some agencies, such as prosecutors’ offices or police... Read More
A Risk-Based Approach to Limited Liability for Individuals and Corporate Parents
Dane P. Shikman 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1104 Corporate parents and individual shareholders are fundamentally different. In particular, they have different sensitivities to economic risks—yet the limited liability doctrine has failed to account for that difference. This Note argues the customary practice of mechanically applying a checklist of veil- piercing factors commonly favors corporate... Read More
Beyond Comparison: Practical Limitations of Implementing Comparative Juror Analysis in the Context of Sexual Orientation
Julia Haigney 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1075 Serving on a jury is an important civic duty. As such, the exclusion of potential jurors on the basis of their race, gender, or other discriminatory characteristics violates their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, according to Batson v. Kentucky and its progeny.... Read More