Federal charges belong before federal courts is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Regulation and administrative law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

As OFCCP has turned into a combination social engineer and extractor of big-ticket settlements, few big companies are willing to fight back, given the breadth of arbitrary power the agency holds over them as well as the distant threat of debarment or other sanctions. But recently two big tech firms have stepped forward as exceptions: Google, in a dispute we wrote about in 2017 on demands for employee documents, and now Oracle, which is suing rather than accept what it considers an unreasonable settlement demand. [Veronique de Rugy, syndicated/Casper Star Tribune; WSJ editorial; Kate Cox, ArsTechnica; Anthony Kaylin, ASE; Pamela Wolf, CCH]

Another company, Oracle, stands up to the federal contract cops is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Regulation and administrative law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

In two new executive orders, Trump reins in agency guidance is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Since my update post last year, there have been a number of new developments. Soon after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s announcement of the new policy, followed by the revocation of dozens of existing guidance documents, then-Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand issued a January 2018 directive telling Department of Justice attorneys not to rely on allegations of noncompliance with agency guidance, in and of themselves, as reason to initiate civil enforcement actions. And this past winter, DOJ updated its Justice Manual to limit the use of guidance as a basis for direct liability in both civil and criminal enforcement. “Guidance is not law. It’s not binding. And it shouldn’t be given the force or effect of law,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Charles Cox in a January speech.

Plus OMB guidance on the Congressional Review Act (it applies to some guidance documents) and a new study by Prof. Nicholas Parrillo for the Administrative Conference, which found that

regulated parties are most likely to feel that they have no real choice but to obey guidance 1) when they need to obtain preapproval before doing business, 2) when repeat interactions with regulators are inevitable and full compliance all the time is unlikely no matter how hard they try; 3) when the consequences of agency enforcement, or even the opening of an enforcement action, are severe; and 4) when the regulated party employs a large dedicated compliance staff.

These might serve as interesting guideposts in looking for ways to revamp regulatory schemes in such a way that agencies’ whims will no longer be received as law.

Restraining regulation by guidance document is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

All nine justices agreed that courts need to work harder to ensure that a regulation truly is ambiguous before giving the agency re-interpreting it any sort of deference.

In other words, the Court limited the number of cases where judges defer to agencies, while setting out standards for evaluating those cases that boil down to “when the agency is correct and brings its expertise to bear, having considered the reliance interests of those being regulated” rather than just making legal or political judgment calls willy-nilly. That sounds like reining in the administrative state!…

At bottom, Kavanaugh makes the perfect analogy that sums up the unanimous Court’s position: “Umpires in games at Wrigley Field do not defer to the Cubs manager’s in-game interpretation of Wrigley’s ground rules.” Administrative agencies are now on notice that it’s not “anything goes” when they decide to rewrite their own rules, that judges will hold their feet to the statutory fire.

In short, while Kisor didn’t overturn Auer, it represents a pretty good start at limiting executive-agency overreach….

Earlier here and here.

Kisor v. Wilkie: high court toughens scrutiny of agency legal positions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Part of its ingenuity was in couching in seemingly sober and cautious terms an idea whose implications (especially welfare rights) were otherwise controversial, so as to appeal to moderates and also to the sorts of thinkers who would soon be termed libertarian. (The New York Times, in its obituary, says that “The New Property” article “defended an individual’s right to privacy and autonomy against government prerogative,” which sounds either Cato-ish or positively anodyne.) …

Reich’s remedies did not really operate to curtail big government, while they did advance the power and role within it of lawyers and those comfortable with legal process. In that way too, Reich outran his peers at capturing the spirit of his era.

Included: a discussion of the seeming, but in the end illusory, parallels between Reich’s early-1960s writing interests and those of economist Milton Friedman. More: anecdotes of Reich at Yale from Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito, via Josh Blackman. And a personal anecdote: classmates told me about this guy who’d roam the Old Campus engaging freshmen in long conversations, who was this famous author — but when he talked with my entryway-mates I happened not to be there, so I missed him.

How Charles Reich helped define the 1960s is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system