Benjamin Kapnik · July 2012
80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1527 (2012)
This Essay presents the first study on the benefits of Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ”) for the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), an agency with a reputation for being politicized. Examining affirmance rates of FCC decisions at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as a proxy for the quality of administrative factfinding, this Study suggests that ALJs do not improve the quality of FCC adjudications. Although further data is necessary, the results offer empirical support that agencies, such as the FCC, may want to follow the 1992 recommendations of the Administrative Conference of the United States to employ “administrative judges.”
