Administrative law is in a state of flux, but is it in a state of crisis? That was the topic of Is Administrative Law in Crisis?, a discussion group on the opening day of the 2025 SEALS annual meeting. The group consisted of more than fifteen administrative law scholars, including several casebook authors.
The session was broken into two sections. The first focused on recent events’ substantive ramifications for administrative law. Led by organizer Linda Jellum, the group began by discussing how some of the Trump Administration’s conduct with respect to universities, law firms, and immigrants implicated the separation of powers, in particular the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. Conversation focused on the impact of the Administration’s broad interpretation of its statutory authority, which in some cases departs from traditional executive branch customs and practices. The group’s focus was then directed to the judicial branch’s role, with specific attention paid to recent departures from precedent by the Supreme Court in cases involving agency statutory authority and judicial review. Finally, the group talked about recent disputes over the president’s authority to remove agency officials. It debated the justifications for, and potential effects of, the Supreme Court’s recent shadow docket decisions seemingly invalidating for-cause removal protections for heads of independent agencies.
The second category for discussion—how to teach administrative law most effectively in this period of drastic change—flowed naturally from the first and inspired an interesting exchange about how to bring administrative law to life for students despite relative uncertainty in several doctrinal areas. Some participants suggested a practice-focused approach for students centered around processes (like notice-and-comment rulemaking) that are common in administrative law and have not been recently drawn into question by either the Administration or the courts. Others described using recent lower-court cases to increase student interest in ongoing disputes within administrative law. Consensus emerged around the importance of framing the active debates within administrative law as differences in ideology, rather than partisan politics, and of creating an inclusive environment in the classroom to promote discussion and limit feelings of alienation or prejudgment. Participants then discussed examples from their own teaching of ways to manage potentially divisive or controversial issues. The pedagogy discussion closed with participants offering some positive takeaways from recent developments, such as the simplification of some traditionally dense doctrines, like judicial review under Chevron, and the highlighting of administrative law’s utility for the rule of law.
Sunday July 27, 2025 from 3:00-5:30 p.m.