Gray Matters

Adam White and Jace Lington chat with Beau J. Baumann about his historical research into the Offices of Legislative Counsel. They discuss his forthcoming paper, Resurrecting the Trinity of Legislative Constitutionalism, and how Progressive reformers at the turn of the twentieth century built institutions to arrest congressional decline.

Notes:

Resurrecting the Trinity of Legislative Constitutionalism, Beau J. Baumann 

How Chief Justice Taft Wrote the Famous Myers Opinion, with Robert Post, Gray Matters 

Jace Lington chats with Jenn Mascott about Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump. They discuss the Appointments Clause and the broader context of the debate surrounding the special counsel investigation of the former president.

Notes:

• Judge Aileen Cannon's decision in US v. Trump
  
• Justice Thomas's concurring opinion in Trump v. US
  
• Jenn Mascott's Stanford Law Review article on the Appointments Clause
  

This is a rebroadcast of a panel discussion from an event we co-hosted on May 15, 2024, with the Manhattan Institute and the Federalist Society. The panelists discuss whether state tort law is an appropriate tool for addressing climate change and the petition for certiorari in Sunoco LP, et al. v. City and County of Honolulu.

Featured Speakers:

• Jonathan Adler, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
• James Copland, Senior Fellow and Director of Legal Policy, Manhattan Institute
• Donald Kochan, Antonin Scalia Law School
• Jennifer Mascott, C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

This is a rebroadcast of the Gray Center's Federal Preemption and Environmental Regulation Webinar. We hosted this event on April 29, 2024, to discuss the issues involved in two pending cases where energy companies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether the Clean Air Act preempts attempts by Honolulu, Hawaii, to redress certain climate change-related alleged injuries. 

Featured Speakers:

• Jonathan Adler, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
• Richard Epstein, New York University
• Edmund LaCour, Solicitor General of Alabama
• Jennifer Mascott, C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
• Adam White, C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State 

Notes:

• Video of the Webinar

Adam White and Jace Lington chat with former OIRA Administrator Paul J. Ray about his new paper, “Lover, Mystic, Bureaucrat, Judge: The Communication of Expertise and the Deference Doctrines.” In the paper, Mr. Ray critiques the expertise rationale for Chevron deference, arguing that agency employees can share much of the special knowledge they use to make decisions with reviewing courts. 

Notes:

• Lover, Mystic, Bureaucrat, Judge: The Communication of Expertise and the Deference Doctrines, Paul J. Ray 
• Keynote Address and Fireside Chat, October 2023, Chevron on Trial: The Supreme Court and the Future of Agency Authority and Expertise 

The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State and the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy recently hosted a series of webinars ahead of a forthcoming symposium on Equity and the Administrative State.

This episode of Gray Matters is a panel discussion from February 23, 2024, about affirmative action and other ways regulators pursue equity through the administrative state featuring Ming Chen, Jesse Merriam, and Bijal Shah, moderated by Kmele Foster.

Notes:
Video of the Webinar

The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State and the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy recently hosted a series of webinars ahead of a forthcoming symposium on Equity and the Administrative State.

This episode of Gray Matters is a panel discussion about the use of racial classifications to make public policy and how race has affected the character of American institutions featuring David Bernstein, Jonathan Berry, and Joy Milligan, moderated by Renée Landers.

Notes:

• Watch a video of the discussion
  

Jace Lington chats with Scalia Law Professor Donald J. Kochan about Florida and Disney. They discuss his recent paper applying public choice theory to Florida’s Reedy Creek Improvement Act of 1967 and why the special treatment Disney received from the state is not a good model for state and local regulation.

Notes:

• Disney v. Democracy? A Public Choice and Good Governance Analysis of Florida’s Reedy Creek Improvement Act of 1967 and Its Resulting Regime, Donald J. Kochan
  

Adam White and Jace Lington chat with Law Professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman about lingering issues following the Supreme Court’s decision in the Biden v. Nebraska student loan case. They discuss a recent paper Shugerman presented at a Gray Center research roundtable, “Biden v. Nebraska: The New State Standing and the (Old) Purposive Major Questions Doctrine.”

Notes:

• Biden v. Nebraska: The New State Standing and the (Old) Purposive Major Questions Doctrine, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
• Major Questions About Presidentialism: Untangling the “Chain of Dependence” Across Administrative Law, Jed Handelsman Shugerman and Jodi L. Short
• Standing Without Injury, Jonathan H. Adler
• An Originalist Defense of the Major Questions Doctrine, Michael D. Ramsey
• The Major Questions Doctrine: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Remedy, Thomas W. Merrill
• The Ghosts of Chevron Present and Future, Gary S. Lawson
• The Major Answers Doctrine, Lisa Heinzerling
• The New Purpose and Intent in Major Questions Cases, Anita S. Krishnakumar
• The Major Questions Doctrine: Unfounded, Unbounded, and Confounded, Ronald M. Levin
• The Minor Questions Doctrine, Aaron L. Nielson
• The Major Questions Doctrine Outside Chevron‘s Domain, Adam R.F. Gustafson

Adam White and Jace Lington chat with Law Professor Michael D. Ramsey about how originalists can defend the major questions doctrine as a substantive canon of interpretation. He examines post-ratification court practice and other substantive canons designed by judges to minimize the harms of judicial error when interpreting ambiguous statutes. Ramsey recently presented a paper on this subject at a Gray Center research roundtable.

Notes:

• An Originalist Defense of the Major Questions Doctrine, Michael D. Ramsey
• The Major Questions Doctrine: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Remedy, Thomas W. Merrill
• The Ghosts of Chevron Present and Future, Gary S. Lawson
• Biden v. Nebraska: The New State Standing and the (Old) Purposive Major Questions Doctrine, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
• The Major Answers Doctrine, Lisa Heinzerling
• The New Purpose and Intent in Major Questions Cases, Anita S. Krishnakumar
• The Major Questions Doctrine: Unfounded, Unbounded, and Confounded, Ronald M. Levin
• The Minor Questions Doctrine, Aaron L. Nielson
• The Major Questions Doctrine Outside Chevron‘s Domain, Adam R.F. Gustafson