12/17/19  //  Commentary

Democratic dissents are the last good thing coming from Trump’s NLRB. Now they’ll disappear.

12/16/19  //  In-Depth Analysis

The Trump HHS has proposed to repeal important nondiscrimination regulations that apply to healthcare providers and insurance companies. But the Administration's reasoning is deeply flawed.

12/5/19  //  Uncategorized

First, real talk: yes, Versus Trump really did get a shoutout at the impeachment hearings on Wednesday! More on that next week. But on this week’s Versus Trump, Jason and Charlie discuss two guns cases. Listen now!

11/6/19  //  Commentary

The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a case about whether the Trump Administration can revoke DACA. But progressives ought to be wary of the long-term effects of prevailing. A win here could very well make it very hard to undo the lax enforcement policies of the current Administration.

9/5/19  //  In-Depth Analysis

This week on Versus Trump, Jason discusses the continuing illegal intransigence of the Department of Education, with Eileen Connor and Toby Merrill of Harvard's Project on Predatory Student Lending. Listen now!

8/19/19  //  Commentary

Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a proposed rule that would substantially limit enforcement of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. This rule is deeply flawed.

1/28/18  //  Daily Update

The Government Accountability Office will investigate alleged fraud during the comment period on the FCC's proposed net neutrality rules. President Trump's decision to allow agencies with leftover funding to remain open during the government shutdown may have been illegal.

1/14/18  //  Daily Update

A federal judge denies Leandra English's motion for a preliminary injunction in the dispute over who is acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

12/4/17  //  Daily Update

A federal judge denied Leandra English's request for a temporary restraining order in the fight over who is the acting director of the CFPB.

11/26/17  //  Daily Update

The Department of Justice will no longer offer administrative guidance, thus reducing administrative transparency. The front-runner to head the U.S. Census Bureau espouses controversial views about redistricting and elections.

10/31/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump's regulatory task forces claimed they had identified dozens of regulations that could be repealed.

10/21/17  //  Daily Update

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would require federal agencies to increase security for outgoing email and website traffic. President Trump has dismantled critical portions of President Obama's accomplishments through executive action and left further action up to Congress.

3/17/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Republican criticism of CBO's report on the American Health Care Act echoes long-standing criticism of cost-benefit analysis at OIRA. There are lessons to be learned here.

1/14/18  //  Latest Developments

Take Care is pleased to host a symposium on Constitutional Coup

7/1/19  //  Commentary

It's extremely likely that the citizenship question will appear on the 2020 census—and the Chief intended precisely that result

3/22/17  //  Commentary

Uncertainty created by presidential action can be destructive. That is painfully clear in the healthcare field, where President Trump's vague, confusing, and ever-changing policies are already causing harm.

1/25/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Easha and Jason discuss several lawsuits filed over President Trump's recent Proclamation that substantially cuts the size of two National Monuments: Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both in Utah. Listen now!

1/8/18  //  Commentary

An introduction to this week's symposium on my new book, 'Constitutional Coup: Privatization’s Threat to the American Republic'

3/17/17  //  Commentary

Perhaps some good may come from Trump’s ham-fisted efforts to drain the swamp: a revitalization of the bureaucracy, which renders important services to the nation.

2/15/18  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Easha and Jason discuss a new lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration's approval of Kentucky's new rules for its Medicaid program. The new rules will require some Medicaid recipients to work 20 hours per week to receive health benefits, and they also impose other novel requirements. Listen now!

1/18/18  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Easha, Jason, and Charlie discuss the big decision that forced the Trump Administration to restart the DACA immigration program. Listen now!

4/12/17  //  Commentary

There's been a stunning development in the pending D.C. Circuit case about the CFPB's constitutionality: DOJ has recently filed a brief in another separation-of-powers case that directly and irrefutably contradicts the main argument in its brief attacking the CFPB.

3/27/17  //  Quick Reactions

Trump's son-in-law will lead a new office to "overhaul the federal bureaucracy." But Kushner can't wield real power without crashing into federal anti-nepotism rules. So our new government efficiency czar can't make big decisions himself. Oh, the irony ...

4/1/19  //  In-Depth Analysis

The government's efforts to insulate Secretary Ross's decision from judicial review are wholly without merit. Here's why.

4/28/17  //  Commentary

Protecting the civil service from purges, intimidation, or politicization is vital to a healthy democracy. That's why United to Protect Democracy has filed suit to combat a troubling pattern of bullying civil servants and trying to silence dissent.

3/7/19  //  Commentary

If adding new administrative procedures will so obviously advance a libertarian agenda, might not relaxing existing administrative constraints advance progressive goals?

5/3/18  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Easha, Charlie, and Jason continue their investigation of the relationship between federal and state law by debating the Trump Administration's reversal of Obama-era guidance about marijuana enforcement. Listen now!

1/10/19  //  Uncategorized

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Charlie, Jason, and Easha bring you a shutdown special, where they talk about the President's emergency powers as well as a lawsuit contending the government is violating federal labor law by not paying workers on time. Listen now!

11/9/18  //  Uncategorized

The Department of Health and Human Services has issued broad new exemptions for religious and moral objections. What effect will the exemptions have? And will they stand up in court?

4/5/18  //  Commentary

How Trump's appointees to the NLRB are rushing to judgment and undermining fair process.

12/5/17  //  Commentary

On Monday, President Trump announced that his administration was taking dramatic action to reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah. The President’s announcement is out of step with historical use of the Antiquities Act.

1/18/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

Final thoughts on the future of the administrative state under President Donald Trump

5/2/19  //  Commentary

This week on Versus Trump, Jason discusses some fascinating research about how the Trump Administration has fared in the courts with Bethany Davis Noll, the Litigation Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity. They discuss challenges to Trump's regulatory agenda, why the Administration is losing at a historic rate, what is slipping through the cracks, and what come next. Listen now!

9/27/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Executive bullying creates a potential taint of illegitimacy, of arbitrariness, that could color the political and moral legitimacy of future governmental actions

5/5/17  //  Commentary

Yesterday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s most recent Executive Order, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.” While there has been muted reaction to Trump’s executive order, the FFRF complaint makes two important points that have been mostly unappreciated.

9/5/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Dreamers should invoke administrative law to block Trump's DACA decision

10/31/18  //  Uncategorized

A hand-picked district court judge in Texas might soon enter an injunction prohibiting the enforcement of all or part of the Affordable Care Act across the entire country. Something is very wrong with that picture.

2/26/19  //  Commentary

Congress must take steps to ensure that any 2020 transition is an improvement over Trump's transition in 2016

4/22/19  //  In-Depth Analysis

SCOTUS would do well to remember that elections — and the agencies that administer them — require special safeguards

11/30/17  //  Commentary

The case for net neutrality comes down a pithy adage: Trust [that carriers won’t violate net neutrality principles], but verify [compliance through enforceable rules]

3/28/17  //  Commentary

President Trump has said that “the best thing we can do politically speaking is let Obamacare explode,” and there’s a lot he can do to make that explosion a reality. Here is what you need to know about what might come next.

12/6/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

By Mark Totten: A quick dive into the data shows Mulvaney has curbed enforcement and, as a result, compromised the agency’s mission.

3/20/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Although Judge Gorsuch is often described as "good" for the separation of powers, on key issues he is a formalist and would take a decisively pro-presidential view.

3/16/17  //  Commentary

HHS Secretary Price says the CBO report on the American Health Care Act is not believable because he will reduce costs through regulatory changes. Don't be fooled.

10/17/17  //  Quick Reactions

The President has not even tried to suggest that he is using his power in the law's interest. Rather, he has boasted that he is using his power to kill it

3/19/17  //  Commentary

Can EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt lawfully discard his agency's duty to regulate greenhouse gases? Probably not.

1/12/18  //  Commentary

This decision, however attractive as a matter of policy, strikes me as mistaken under the law. It warrants swift reversal by higher courts.

7/30/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

The Trump Administration is changing the rules around hiring and firing of Administrative Law Judges, and is doing so in disturbing ways.

1/16/18  //  Commentary

Highlights from a recent conference on deregulation in the Trump era

8/16/18  //  Commentary

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Charlie begin their run of shows with Easha on leave and discuss a fascinating new lawsuit contending that the Trump Administration is unconstitutionally "sabotaging" the Affordable Care Act as a whole. Listen now!

8/24/17  //  Commentary

On this week’s episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Charlie talk about the Trump Administration's position in a lawsuit contending that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—commonly known as the CFPB—is unconstitutional, because its sole director does not serve at the pleasure of the President but instead serves a set term and can be terminated only for-cause. Listen now!

3/17/17  //  Commentary

Trump proudly describes it as a regulation buster, but OIRA has effectively neutered his widely-derided executive order

8/2/18  //  Commentary

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Easha discuss a new executive order and accompanying guidance by the Trump Administration that dramatically change the rules for hiring Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) across the entire federal government. Listen now!

8/24/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

A promising way for Congress to check the Executive, as well as to enhance its own efficacy and public standing, is by promoting expertise in the executive branch

8/3/17  //  Uncategorized

On this week’s episode of Versus Trump, Jason has an interview with Toby Merrill, the director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard Law School, about several lawsuits she's involved with against newly-confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Listen now!

10/10/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Put simply, the Pruitt EPA is issuing its proposed repeal order despite its own best analysis showing that repealing the Clean Power Plan is a very, very bad idea.

4/5/18  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Easha discuss lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration's decision to ask a question about citizenship on the 2020 census. Listen now!

7/11/17  //  Commentary

The Trump administration wants to allow nursing homes to require their residents to arbitrate any disputes. Will that reduce nursing home quality?

10/12/17  //  Commentary

The Trump administration will terminate the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing payments, further destabilizing the already-fragile exchanges on the eve of open enrollment. The legal fallout will be complex, messy, and expensive.

7/12/17  //  Commentary

A recent D.C. Circuit opinion vindicates the principle that while agencies may have discretion over how laws are enforced, they cannot use that enforcement discretion to cancel legal obligations altogether.

8/9/18  //  Commentary

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Jason, Charlie, and Easha—in her last episode for several months—discuss the fast-moving lawsuit by states against the Trump Administration and Cody Wilson seeking to block distribution of plans for 3D-printed guns. As usual, you can listen online below, and subscribe via this page with any podcast player or here in iTunes.

12/18/17  //  Quick Reactions

The LA Times has reported on a $300M deal between the Department of Homeland Security and Accenture. This is a major development.

5/2/17  //  Quick Reactions

FCC's action welcomed by industry but will trigger (another) massive legal fight.

2/18/19  //  Commentary

If recent decisions from the Court of Federal Claims stand up on appeal, insurers could recover roughly $12 billion a year, every year, until Congress intervenes to stop the bleeding.

10/19/17  //  Commentary

Yesterday, a group of 19 states asked a California district court to stop the Trump administration from cutting off the cost-sharing payments. Their lawsuit likely isn't meritorious.

1/7/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

No, Congress doesn't have a duty to provide the resources necessary for the executive branch to adequately fulfill its constitutional functions.

11/9/17  //  Commentary

You want updates, so we've got updates! On this week’s episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Easha revisit several important cases and news items that we've previously mentioned so that you have the latest information on them. Listen now!

6/21/18  //  Quick Reactions

Justice Kennedy wrote a concurrence today that could rock the world of administrative law, with huge implications for federal policy.

11/24/17  //  In-Depth Analysis

Under Dodd-Frank, now that Richard Cordray has resigned as Director, the CFPB’s Deputy Director is the Bureau’s acting Director. President Trump may decide he doesn’t care what Dodd-Frank says, but he doesn’t get the final say.

5/31/18  //  Uncategorized

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Easha, Charlie, and Jason discuss recent important cases in the world of immigration, including a new lawsuit contending that the Trump Administration may not pursue its apparent policy of legally separating immigrant children from adults that they enter the country with. Listen now!

9/10/18  //  Commentary

Undoing existing rules governing mercury pollution would be both pointless and dangerous. It would also be illegal.

12/18/17  //  Commentary

A district court has stopped the Trump administration's hasty and poorly justified effort to relieve employers of their legal obligation to cover contraception.

12/12/17  //  Commentary

What exactly does it mean for the Federal Trade Commission to take on net neutrality?

5/16/17  //  Commentary

Trump suggested in a recent signing statement that he could disregard an appropriations restriction on federal marijuana enforcement. But Trump is mistaken.

1/8/19  //  In-Depth Analysis

The EPA just issued an incredibly bizarre proposed rule about whether it is 'appropriate and necessary' to regulate power-plant emissions of mercury. What gives?

5/10/18  //  Commentary

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Easha and Jason reveal their big announcement: we're doing our first ever live show: Saturday, June 9, in DC, as part of the ACS National Convention. After that excitement, they get into a handful of updates about cases about auto emissions, HUD programs, the ban on military service by transgender individuals, and more. Listen now!

10/11/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Jason and Charlie talk about the fight over Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's potential testimony in an important lawsuit over the census. Listen now!

3/24/17  //  Quick Reactions

Hearings on President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor revealed little about the future of labor policy. But the hearings made crystal clear that Trump's executive orders and proposed budget threaten even popular and effective government programs.

2/19/19  //  Commentary

Should insurers gets every penny of cost-sharing payments that they're owed under the Affordable Care Act? Or have they mitigated their damages?

9/7/17  //  Quick Reactions

Federal employees are publicly reaffirming their loyalty, patriotism, and commitment to the Constitution.

3/25/19  //  Quick Reactions

Does the administration really think that the very position it advanced just month ago is so untenable that it must now adopt an even crazier view?

4/3/17  //  Commentary

The State Department's decision authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline raises a profound question about when courts can review agency action based in presidential power. The answer to that question has major implications for the rule of law.

4/13/18  //  In-Depth Analysis

Can Scott Pruitt be stopped in court?

7/2/19  //  Commentary

There really is nothing the administration can now do that ought to lead to approval of the citizenship question

4/25/17  //  Commentary

The March for Science reminded us that cutting funding to science today harms generations to come. Yet there is also another, subtler way the Trump Administration threatens to impose future costs on young people: the way in which it calculates costs themselves in cost-benefit analyses essential to our administrative state.

3/27/17  //  Quick Reactions

Jared Kushner says he will run government like a business. But this administration has no understanding of government, or of business. And it doesn't respect the distinctive, unbusinesslike practices and principles of running a government.

5/17/18  //  Commentary

On this week's episode of Versus Trump, Easha, Charlie, and Jason discuss a series of recent rulings that have stopped the Trump Administration from revoking federal grants to entities that have been working to reduce teen pregnancy. Listen now!

3/8/18  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Easha, Jason, and Charlie discuss a recent district court opinion that rejected California's challenge to the Trump Administration's expedited border wall projects in California. Listen now!

3/27/17  //  Commentary

A confused and poorly reasoned decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit shouldn’t be read to shield agencies from judicial review whenever they happen to be following an executive order.

6/1/17  //  Commentary

The Trump Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a massive expansion of the program that provides employers and exemption from providing their employees with contraceptive coverage. But they have not sought notice-and-comment on the rule, and that could be a major problem.

4/13/17  //  Commentary

The future of the CFPB remains murky. With political attacks and judicial challenges piling up, here's what you need to know about the path ahead for Elizabeth Warren's crowning achievement.

5/25/17  //  Commentary

On a new episode of Versus Trump, Take Care's podcast, we discuss the status of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, a major case about transgender rights, and then speak with Patti Goldman of Earthjustice about an important lawsuit that her organization has filed.

4/18/17  //  Commentary

The Trump administration is engaging in climate denial by concealing information relevant to environmental policy.

1/5/18  //  Commentary

The agency’s conflicting rationales seem largely arbitrary. Moreover, its action abandons a longstanding bipartisan consensus favoring net neutrality.

5/23/17  //  Commentary

Last Thursday, fifteen states and the District of Columbia moved to intervene in House v. Price, the case about the ACA’s cost-sharing reductions. At the same time, they asked the court to hear the case promptly. This is a bigger deal than it may seem, and could offer some comfort to insurers that are in desperate need of it.

1/12/18  //  Commentary

The FCC was targeted for a misinformation campaign and then relied upon an uncorrected record to support its order undoing net neutrality protections. That might matter.

3/29/18  //  Commentary

Where there is smoke, there is usually a fire

8/27/17  //  Daily Update

The President's control over regulatory policy raises questions about checks and balances, and makes clear the need for an independent Congressional Budget Office.

7/30/17  //  Daily Update

Commentary continues on the early deregulatory efforts of the Trump administration.

4/16/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump appointed Neomi Rao, a law professor at George Mason University, as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The administration also sought to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its "one in, two out" executive order regarding regulation.

6/4/17  //  Daily Update

The FCC continues its efforts to undo net neutrality rules.

3/16/17  //  Daily Update

The Trump Administration appears eager to fight the administrative state by changing the rules of the game for regulation. Here are some useful analyses of the story thus far.

4/23/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump's deregulatory agenda begins to take shape and Professor Naomi Rao is nominated to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

7/23/17  //  Daily Update

The Protect Democracy Project is seeking the release of communications it believes may reveal the administration's plans to discredit the Congressional Budget Office.

4/2/17  //  Daily Update

This week in administrative law saw analysis from Nick Bagley in Take Care.

6/25/17  //  Daily Update

The Administration focuses on repealing rather than promulgating regulations.

4/9/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump is still slowly nominating cabinet members. He is revealing his attitude toward the administrative state through proposed budget cuts and use of the Congressional Repeal Act.

7/30/17  //  Daily Update

The Trump administration is overselling its deregulatory achievements but key appointees that may change that are nearing confirmation.

5/14/17  //  Daily Update

President Trump's signing statements to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 drew claims of unconstitutionality.

7/16/17  //  Daily Update

Is the State Department's decision to delete resources, such as court manuals and environmental studies, illegal?

4/30/17  //  Daily Update

This week, Eli Savit analyzed the Trump Administration's new formulas for cost-benefit analyses. Though President Trump has signed more executive orders than any president since FDR, many of those orders contain little substance.

3/26/17  //  Daily Update

As President Trump leaves top advice-and-consent posts unfilled, commentators examined the American public’s complicated feelings about the federal bureaucracy and whether President Trump’s “one in, two out” regulation policy is anything more than a publicity stunt.

6/11/17  //  Daily Update

As appointed positions remain empty and the Trump Administration does not push rulemaking, agency regulation has ground to a near-halt.