Forced closure of houses of worship during the Covid pandemic demonstrated how far-reaching administrative edicts could be. In the early weeks of the pandemic, amidst uncertainty about the virus, most Americans were willing to adjust their normal behavior out of an abundance of caution in the face of a virus with an unknown lethality. They…

They say stress reveals a person’s weaknesses in a way few other things can.  The same goes for institutions, as they are nothing but collections of individuals.  Covid’s stress on one of these institutions—the Administrative State—shattered the carefully crafted illusion that bureaucrats have access to a wisdom unavailable to the rest of us.  The ground…

Judge Bumatay’s dissent in Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs, Stationary Eng’rs, Loc. 39 v. NLRB, 127 F.4th 58, 79 (9th Cir. 2025), suggests that SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109 (2024)—which held that the SEC’s in-house adjudication of civil-penalty claims violated the accused’s right to a jury trial in an Article III court—may be key…

American citizens should not allow federal agencies to replace their own discernment and instinct by blindly believing that regulations reduce risk—the government will never be a benevolent parens patriae. Skepticism of the government is a natural result of being in the public interest legal profession, but entering motherhood heightened this distrust. The sanctity of protecting…

A pending Supreme Court case threatens the right of many citizens’ to challenge agency actions that unlawfully harm them. In Food and Drug Administration v. RJ Reynolds Vapor Co, the Supreme Court will either confirm that right or permit the FDA to shut the courthouse door on many people and businesses harmed by unlawful agency…

The recent flurry of pardons issued by our outgoing and incoming presidents raises a question I’ve pondered from time to time but never resolved: Can (and should) presidents grant clemency to deserving people who committed no crime but nevertheless find themselves condemned to perpetual misery and impecunity for committing putatively “civil” violations prosecuted by federal…