Gray Matters

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

Adam White and Jace Lington chat with Ronald A. Cass about the future of judicial deference to agency actions. They discuss Cass’s recent papers, “Fixing Deference: Delegation, Discretion, and Deference Under Separated Powers,” published by the New York University Journal of Law & Liberty, and “Getting Deference Right,” published by National Affairs. Ron insists on the crucial distinction between court decisions on what the law means and agency decisions about policy implementation.

Notes:

• Fixing Deference: Delegation, Discretion, and Deference Under Separated Powers (NYU JLL, 2023)
• Getting Deference Right (National Affairs, 2024)
• Loper Bright Amicus Brief, Gray Center Separation of Powers Clinic
• Gray Center 2023 Rule of Law Symposium

The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, the Mercatus Center, and the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy recently hosted a full-day symposium on the future of financial regulation.

This episode of Gray Matters is a panel discussion featuring law professors Bridget C.E. Dooling and Kristin E. Hickman along with former OIRA Administrator Paul J. Ray and AEI Senior Fellow Emeritus Peter Wallison, moderated by Gray Center Co-Executive Director Adam White.

They discuss OIRA oversight of financial regulators and how to reform federal financial regulations.

Notes:

• Videos from the conference

The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, the Mercatus Center, and the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy recently hosted a full-day symposium on the future of financial regulation. This episode of Gray Matters is a panel discussion featuring the Hoover Institution's John H. Cochrane and professors Kathryn Judge, Jonathan R. Macey, and Todd J. Zywicki, moderated by Scalia Law professor Paolo Saguato. They discuss banking regulation, consumer finance, and what might be coming next in the world of financial regulation.

Notes:

• Videos from the conference