Gray Matters

Adam White and Jace Lington talk with James-Christian Blockwood about his recent Government Executive article on civil service reform. They discuss current proposals to make more civil servants removable at will as well as ways to build a nonpartisan, professional federal workforce that protects the interests of the American people.

Show Notes:

• Let's Rethink the Management of our Civil Service, GovExec, April 28, 2023
• Partnership for Public Service, Website
• "You Report to Me” Gray Matters Podcast with David Bernhardt, May 10, 2023
• “Do Public Sector Unions Make Government Unaccountable?” Gray Matters Podcast with Philip K. Howard, January 24, 2023
• From Merit to Expertise and Back: The Evolution of the U.S. Civil Service System, Joseph Postell, Gray Center Working Paper, February 6, 2020
• Restoring Accountability to the Executive Branch, Philip K. Howard, Gray Center Working Paper, February 6, 2020
• Quick Actions to Improve Recruitment, Hiring, and Accountability in the Federal Workforce, Jeffrey Salmon, Gray Center Policy Brief, March 2021

• Civil Service: Pulling In or Pushing Away, Sally Katzen, Gray Center Policy Brief, August 2020
• Jimmy Carter and Civil Service Reform, Stuart E. Eizenstat, Gray Center Working Paper, May 22, 2019

Adam White and Jace Lington talk with former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt about his new book, You Report to Me: Accountability for the Failing Administrative State. In the book, Secretary Bernhardt offers his perspective on reforming the administrative state based on years of public service at the Department of Interior spanning multiple presidential administrations.

Show Notes:

You Report to Me: Accountability for the Failing Administrative State, Encounter Books, May 9, 2023

Jace Lington talks with Adam White about the new book, Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936–1986, by James Rosen. They discuss Scalia’s early life and career, including his family, his faith, and his work in private practice and as a lawyer and teacher. Adam highly recommends the book for anyone interested in Antonin Scalia and his contributions to our understanding of the Constitution and American institutions.

Show Notes:

• Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936–1986, James Rosen, Regnery
• Scalia’s Rise, Adam White, Commentary
• Teaching About the Law, Antonin Scalia, Christian Legal Society Quarterly
• Antonin Scalia, Legal Educator, Adam White, National Affairs

Former Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia delivers the Second Annual C. Boyden Gray Lecture on the Administrative State. Following an introduction by Boston University School of Law Dean Emeritus Ron Cass, Secretary Scalia discusses his time working at the Department of Labor and how his experience leading a cabinet agency affected the way he thinks about debates involving the administrative state.

Show Notes:

• Video of Panel

Former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney and Stanford Law Professor Michael W. McConnell discuss the importance of Congress's power of the purse in constitutional government, an issue of significant importance in cases now before the Supreme Court, in a conversation with Gray Center Co-Executive Director Adam White.

Ronald A. Cass, Sally Katzen, and Noah J. Philips kick off the 2023 Annual Gray Lecture with a conversation about the "rule of law" in administrative law. This panel discussion builds on a forthcoming symposium featuring essays on the rule of law that will soon appear in the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty. The Gray Center and the NYU JLL cohosted an event in February on campus at NYU to discuss the themes of the essays. We were glad to bring the conversation to Washington, D.C., to continue the discussion.

Notes:

Video of the panel discussion

Adam White and Jace Lington talk with Judge Glock, director of research and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, about how progressive reformers designed independent regulatory commissions to replace the function of juries, the subject of his new article in Regulation magazine. Glock argues that the original approach to staffing regulatory commissions during the Progressive Era focused on... Source

The Honorable Neomi Rao gives keynote remarks about the tendency of courts to look at tradeoffs between the executive and judicial branches and largely ignore Congress in separation of powers cases. Her speech came out of a forthcoming symposium in the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty and took place on campus at NYU. Source

Professors Gary Lawson and Sally Katzen join Adam White to talk about the Roberts Court and administrative law on a panel moderated by Judge Steven J. Menashi. The discussion came out of a forthcoming symposium in the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty and took place on campus at NYU. Source

Professors Noah A. Rosenblum, Thomas W. Merrill, and Philip Hamburger talk about what the rule of law means in the context of administrative law on a panel moderated by Judge Rachel P. Kovner. The discussion came out of a forthcoming symposium in the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty and took place on campus at NYU. Source