Administrative agencies make policy, regulate, and adjudicate across issues ranging from natural resource management and environmental protection to public benefits and workplace safety. This course examines the constitutional and statutory framework surrounding the operation and governance of administrative agencies. The first part of the course focuses on constitutional topics, including the non-delegation doctrine, presidential control over administrative agencies, and the delegation of adjudicative authority to non-Article III courts. In particular, it examines whether and to what extent the arrangements that mark the modern administrative state are consistent with the structural objectives that underlie our constitutional system of separated powers and checks and balances. The second part of the course considers the operation of federal agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which prescribes the administrative framework for rule-making, adjudication and judicial review.
Blais, Lynn E.