Law360 (January 3, 2021, 12:02 PM EST) — President-elect Joe Biden may need to flex his administration’s regulatory muscle to fulfill many of his ambitious campaign pledges, a strategy that could run headlong into a conservative U.S. Supreme Court wary of administrative power. Biden will enter a divided government if Republicans hold on to at least one…

James Madison once said that the concentration of all government powers in one branch is “the very definition of tyranny.” Yet, today, administrative agencies regularly exercise all three of those powers. They issue rules with the force of law. They enforce laws. And they prosecute people through a system of administrative proceedings before administrative law…

Law360 (December 16, 2020, 4:43 PM EST) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and members of his cabinet were hit with a lawsuit Tuesday by a group of landlords challenging his executive order allowing tenants to use their security deposits to cover back rent during the COVID-19 crisis. The lawsuit contends the governor does not…

When it comes to a public-health crisis of this magnitude, you can’t fight city hall — in this case the state’s chief executive officer. As expected, the state’s highest court last week upheld Gov. Charlie Baker’s exercise of emergency powers enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the governor’s…

Eviction Moratorium in Illinois Continues through January 11, 2021 In an expected move, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker once again extended the state’s eviction ban for another 30 days on December 11, 2020. The revised executive order defined new financial conditions for individuals covered under the eviction ban when it was unveiled in mid-November of 2020. Renters who…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rendered its decision in the Desrosiers v. Baker case upholding Governor Baker’s pandemic orders as consistent with the Civil Defense Act (CDA). The order delivers a blow to the plaintiffs who include mom-and-pop businesses, two church pastors; the head of a religious academy, and others. The constitutional rights to due process of law and…