Braden Boucek
If Elias wanted to save a life or write a law, his educational level would not disqualify him. Unfortunately, it does disqualify him from cutting hair.
Read this articleJames W. Coleman
On January 1, 1970, President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law. The law requires that the government issue a report—known as an environmental impact statement—before taking major federal actions that significantly impact the environment. NEPA is not a substantive environmental standard; the government can approve a harmful project. It is merely procedural, reflecting the sensible adage “look before you leap.”
Read this articleWayne A. Abernathy
Guidance from regulators to the regulated can be valuable when kept within the bounds of genuine guidance. When it moves toward compulsion, it moves onto ground obnoxious to the rule of law. The joint statement of five financial regulators reinforces that understanding.
Read this articleJ. Kennerly Davis
Joel Nolette is a litigation attorney at Mintz Levin in Boston, and an active member of the Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group, currently serving on its Executive Committee.
Read this articleAlex J. Pollock
In a conceptually important opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that the governance structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutional.
Read this articleDonald Kochan
On July 19, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit brought by the City of New York and others against several large oil companies. The lawsuit claimed those companies were responsible for public and private nuisances under federal common law for the transboundary effects of emissions causing climate change. These municipality lawsuits for climate change are the subject of a Federalist Society Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group podcast from July 3, titled “Municipality Lawsuit on Climate Change and Public Nuisance: Litigation Update.”
Read this articlePeter Wallison
There may be cases where executive branch officials need to be independent of the president, but they are likely to be exceedingly few. The Supreme Court, if it takes an appeal from the 5th Circuit’s decision, should approach the issue from this perspective.
Read this articleAndrew Varcoe
In a trenchant Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Chapman University law professor and constitutional law expert Donald Kochan assesses an important recent decision rendered by Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in two controversial climate-change lawsuits brought by Oakland and San Francisco against a small subset of the world’s energy companies.
Read this articleAlison Somin
On Wednesday, July 3, the Departments of Education and Justice announced that they withdrew a group of Obama-era guidances regarding the use of race in school admissions.
Read this articleWayne A. Abernathy
It is difficult to find a public statement by a financial services policymaker these days where the policymaker does not invoke the importance of tailoring bank regulation and supervision. This is major progress from the days of one-size-fits-all programs. A fundamental characteristics of the U.S. banking system is its diversity of business models, developed over the years to match the diversity of financial services customers. Can bank supervision be tailored to accommodate that diversity?
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