Gray Matters

We often think of modern cost-benefit analysis as being a requirement primarily of executive orders, not statutes. Needless to say, Executive Order 12291 and 12866, and other executive orders and presidential documents, are of central importance. But Congress has done much on matters of cost-benefit analysis, too, often requiring agencies to consider costs and benefits... Source

In 1994, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 50 years. Upon taking office, Speaker Newt Gingrich and his colleagues undertook major institutional reforms. What do those reforms tell us about conservatives’ modern views of the Constitution’s first branch of government, and how did those reforms affect Congress’s relationship to the President and... Source

Administrative Law scholars think of 1946 as the year that Congress enacted the Administrative Procedure Act. But too often we neglect another major law that Congress enacted in that year: the Legislative Reorganization Act. The LRA was intended to position Congress for long-term management of the administrative state. But its proponents were disappointed to see major provisions dropped from the.....

Today’s guest is Professor Joshua Wright — a University Professor of Law at George Mason University, Director of the law school’s Global Antitrust Institute, a former FTC Commissioner, and one of the nation’s leading scholars of antitrust law and policy. Professor Wright and Jan Rybnicek recently co-authored an essay on recent calls to use antitrust law to regulate or break up “big tech” companies...

On September 24, 2020, the Gray Center co-hosted a live webinar, “After 50 Years, What Is the National Environmental Policy Act Today?” in partnership with Antonin Scalia Law School’s Society for Environmental and Energy Law. On January 1, 1970, President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law. A briefly worded but powerful law, NEPA requires federal agencies to... Sour...

Today’s guest is Professor Adam Mossoff, a leading scholar of intellectual property and Co-Founder of Scalia Law’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP). Three years ago, CPIP and the Gray Center co-hosted a major conference on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a new regulatory body empowered to revoke companies’ patents through an administrative process instead of a......

We admit it, administrative law is a complicated subject — and, some say, a notoriously dull one. AdLaw is often a challenging subject to teach in the classroom, and even more challenging outside of it. The Gray Center is only one of several institutions that attempt to bring these issues to non-specialists. Another is Ballotpedia.org: Two years ago it created an Administrative State Project to......

The Federal Trade Commission is a century-old agency facing some of the most cutting-edge technologies and issues of our time. How should an agency apply old laws to new technologies? To conclude the Gray Center’s series of podcast conversations on innovation and regulation, Commissioner Noah Phillips joins Adam White to discuss issues ranging from the nondelegation doctrine... Source

During this era of disruptive technological change, heavy-handed regulation can stifle innovation and unintentionally undermine the public interest. Yet regulators are tasked by Congress with promoting particular policies, often under old statutes with outdated information. How can regulators best do their jobs in a way that promotes innovation and the public interest? In a pair of new Gray Center...

Conversations about “the administrative state” usually focus on federal regulators, but for many upstart tech companies, local regulation often presents the most significant challenges. Uber and Lyft, for example, famously collided with local taxicab regulations. And “short-term rental” companies like AirBNB have faced countless regulations from countless regulators. That is the subject of a new.....

Nearly 25 years ago, Congress enacted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, declaring web sites would not be treated as “publishers” in posting third-party statements, and that their “good faith” efforts to edit or moderate content would not expose them to legal liability. In those days, this legal protection helped the early generation of Internet web sites grow and change the world. Sou...

Philip Howard, a lawyer and author, founded Common Good to call for fundamental reform of America’s bureaucratic, legal, and political institutions. And he sees the nation’s most recent controversies—government responses to Covid-19, and episodes of police misconduct—as exemplifying the breakdown of governance and social trust. In a July op-ed for USA Today, he wrote that “America needs a new... S...

The fourth year of any presidential term is driven by a sense of urgency, and the administration’s regulatory or deregulatory agenda is no exception. President Trump’s fourth year has been further complicated by the Covid-19 outbreak, and the administration’s regulatory and deregulatory responses. To put the last few months into perspective and to look ahead to the coming months... Source

The words “executive privilege” are not found in the Constitution, but some form of presidential secrecy has been asserted by presidents from George Washington onward. The Supreme Court’s latest term ended with major decisions in two cases involving executive privilege: Trump v. Mazars USA, involving subpoenas from the House of Representatives; and Trump v. Vance, involving subpoenas from a New......

How should transformative technologies approach the administrative state, and vice versa? In his latest book, “Evasive Entrepreneurs & the Future of Governance,” Adam Thierer of the Mercatus Center reports that tech companies are finding ways to outpace the regulators—and that this is a very good thing. In this episode, the Gray Center’s director Adam White interviews Thierer about his book (a...

On July 6, the Federalist Society invited Adam White to interview Richard Epstein about his new book: “The Dubious Morality of Administrative Law,” for a public teleforum. Adam and Richard had a wide-ranging conversation about the book’s origin and major themes, and then Richard took questions from the audience. Richard previously keynoted two Gray Center conferences. Source

On June 18, 2020, the Gray Center co-sponsored a live webinar, “A Discussion on Tort Liability for Businesses During COVID-19,” in partnership with the Law and Economics Center at Antonin Scalia Law School. Risks of the COVID-19 spread create substantial uncertainty for businesses when deciding whether to open up and conduct business, especially as they try to identify their duties in preventing.....

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on......

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on......

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on......

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on......

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on......

With the arrival of new Supreme Court justices, and with the emergence of new debates among scholars like Adrian Vermeule and Philip Hamburger over the Constitution and the administrative state, what will happen to Administrative Law? In a recent Harvard Law Review article, Notre Dame’s Professor Jeffrey Pojanowski assesses the scene and suggests a new school of thought: “Neoclassical... Source

On November 15, 2019, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Technology, Innovation, and Regulation.” For this conference, scholars wrote and presented papers on the way regulation affects technological innovation, and vice-versa. The Gray Center convened expert panels on topics including whether social media should be regulated for “neutrality,” “regulatory sandboxes” and other......

On November 15, 2019, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Technology, Innovation, and Regulation.” For this conference, scholars wrote and presented papers on the way regulation affects technological innovation, and vice-versa. The Gray Center convened expert panels on topics including whether social media should be regulated for “neutrality,” “regulatory sandboxes” and other......