Forty Years of Deference to Federal Agencies Ended in a Single Supreme Court Opinion For forty years, when a federal agency interpreted an ambiguous statute in a way that was merely reasonable, even if a court might have read the law differently, courts were required to defer to the agency’s interpretation. This principle, known as… Read more »
A Sixteen-Word Phrase That Decides Some of the Biggest Cases in American Law Tucked into the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is a single clause, just sixteen words long, that has been the legal basis for some of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in American history. It has… Read more »
A Missing Piece of Paper That Reshaped American Government In the final hours of his presidency, John Adams signed a stack of judicial appointments late into the night. One of those appointments, a commission naming William Marbury as a justice of the peace for the District of Columbia, was signed and sealed but never delivered…. Read more »
The Agency That Investigates You Also Convicts You, Fines You, and Keeps the Money Imagine you own a home along the California coast. One day, the California Coastal Commission opens an enforcement investigation against you. It assigns its own staff to investigate. Those same staff recommend charges. The Commission holds a hearing where it decides… Read more »
