Deference in Doubt? The Future of Chevron and the Administrative State

Administrative agencies in the Executive Branch are a primary source of our nation’s public policy, creating regulatory frameworks under the guidance of congressionally enacted statutes. These expert institutions’ primary purpose is to protect the safety and well-being of all Americans by ensuring that our air and water are clean, our food safe, and financial institutions do not run amok, among many other things. However, the deference traditionally afforded to agencies is currently under attack in the courts and elsewhere. The assault on the administrative state comes not only in the form of doctrinal attacks on Chevron deference, but through regulatory capture by regulated industries, budget cuts that prevent agencies from fulfilling their mandates, and technical hurdles to administrative rulemaking. What responses to these attacks are possible, and can we identify new paths forward to provide for democratic inclusion in the regulatory process and ensure accountability of agencies in pursuing the public good?

 

Speakers

 

Kate Shaw, Assistant Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (moderator)

Boris Bershteyn, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

K. Sabeel Rahman, Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School; Fellow, New American Foundation; Four Freedoms Fellow, Roosevelt Institute 

Christopher Walker, Assistant Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law 

Allison Zieve, General Counsel and Director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, Public Citizen