Administrative agencies create and execute thousands of rules each year to carry out policies to benefit the public interest. In some instances, however, agency rulemaking is challenged by persons, groups, and organizations claiming to be harmed by decisions made during the rulemaking process. In challenging agency rulemaking, persons, groups, and organizations might issue one of several complaints ranging from the amount of time it took the agency to create and execute rules to the degree to which rules created and executed are constitutional. Once a person, group, or organization challenges an agency's rulemaking and files a lawsuit, the court must confirm that they have standing to do so. If they do, the court must decide how to resolve the challenge. Depending on the nature of the complaint made, the court may use specific standards and criteria to resolve the challenge. For instance, if the complaint was that rulemaking was delayed, the court would likely go back to the original statute handed down by Congress to see if a deadline was issued. Once the court decides how to resolve the challenge, the decision is final.
To prepare for this assignment:
- Review the assigned pages in Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy. Pay particular attention to who has a right to challenge a rule in court, the types of complaints brought against administrative agencies, and the standards and criteria courts use to consider challenges to agency rulemaking. Also, consider specific examples of challenges against agency rulemaking and reflect on how the courts resolved them.
- Review the assigned pages in Administrative Law and Politics: Cases and Comments. Focus on the Massachusetts v. EPA case and how the Courts came to a decision.
- Review Administrative Law and Politics: Cases and Comments, and think about the role of judicial review in challenges against agency rulemaking. Focus on the access to, and scope of, judicial review.
- Using the Internet and/or Walden Library, find and select an example in which agency rulemaking was challenged by a person, group, or organization. Be sure to find an example in which the courts reviewed the case and made a decision. Hint: The following agencies frequently encounter lawsuits: the EPA, OSHA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
- Consider the type of complaint on which the lawsuit was based.
- Reflect on why the person, group, or organization in your example was permitted to bring a lawsuit in federal court, based on the principle of standing.
- Think about the standards and/or criteria the court used to make a decision.
The assignment:
- Briefly describe the example of the challenge to agency rulemaking you selected.
- Explain why the person, group, or organization in your example challenged the agency's rulemaking. In your explanation, be sure to include a brief description of the type of complaint on which the lawsuit was based.
- Explain why the person, group, or organization was permitted to bring the lawsuit to federal court. Be specific.
- Explain how the court came to a decision about the case. In your explanation be sure to include brief descriptions of standards and/or criteria the court used to make a decision.