MSHA’s Pattern of Violations Authority: Reviving An Untapped Resource of Enforcement Power
Alexa E. Welzien · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1613 (2011) On April 5, 2010, a deadly combination of methane gas and coal dust ignited Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. The explosion instantly killed twenty-nine miners and became the deadliest mining disaster to occur in nearly forty years.... Read More
Defining Executive Deference in Treaty Interpretation Cases
Joshua Weiss · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1592 (2011) From establishing partnerships to setting international norms, treaties have always played an important role in managing U.S. relations abroad. Unsurprisingly, questions about who has interpretive power over treaties are not new. Beyond a vague notion that the Executive’s treaty interpretations receive some deference,... Read More
Judicial Deference to Retroactive Interpretative Treasury Regulations
Andrew Pruitt · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1558 (2011) Can the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), by exercising its regulatory powers over the federal tax laws, reverse taxpayer-favorable court decisions? In a series of recent cases, most prominently Intermountain Insurance Service of Vail, LLC v. Commissioner (“Intermountain II”), the IRS has argued that... Read More
Updating the SEC’s Exemptive Order Process Under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to Fit the Modern Era
Christopher P. Healey · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1535 (2011) In the late 1930s, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) was commissioned by Congress to study the then-unregulated investment company industry. This series of studies “laid the foundation” for the current system of investment company regulation under the Investment Company Act... Read More
Saxe’s Aphorism
John Copeland Nagle · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1505 (2011) If “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made” then you should think twice about reading John Manning and Matthew Stephenson’s book, Legislation and Regulation. Manning and Stephenson are both Harvard Law School professors,... Read More
Seminole Rock’s Domain
Matthew C. Stephenson & Miri Pogoriler · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1449 (2011) In carrying out their duties, federal administrative agencies must often interpret statutes and regulations that are not entirely clear. Sometimes an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous legal text may not seem like the best or most natural interpretation of... Read More
Agency Delays: How a Principal-Agent Approach Can Inform Judicial and Executive Branch Review of Agency Foot-Dragging
Michael D. Sant’Ambrogio · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1381 (2011) How long should it take a government agency to act on a nondiscretionary duty? When does the agency’s decisionmaking process become unreasonably delayed, warranting judicial intervention to compel agency action? These questions are central to the operation and accountability of the modern... Read More
Rulemaking, Democracy, and Torrents of E-Mail
Nina A. Mendelson · July 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1343 (2011) Bold claims have been made for democracy and federal administrative agency notice-and-comment rulemaking, now the dominant mode of administrative action. An agency’s public proposal of a rule and acceptance of public comment prior to issuing the final rule can help us view... Read More
Screening for Children: Choice and Chance in the “Wild West” of Reproductive Medicine
Benjamin B. Williams · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1305 (2011) While the struggle over abortion rights in the United States continues vociferously, as recently highlighted by the passage of nationalized health care, a new type of reproductive medical procedure has arrived, unnoticed and unregulated. Preimplantation genetic screening (“PGS”) and in vitro fertilization... Read More
We Can’t Stay This Way: Changing the Standard for Staying Injunctions Pending Appeal After eBay
Daniel C. Tucker · June 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1276 (2011) This Note proposes a new framework for the Federal Circuit to use when deciding whether to stay an injunction pending appeal in patent cases. The new framework would allow the court to clearly and quickly articulate the reasons for its decision while... Read More