Happy Juneteenth, everyone. I'm noticing that it shows up in my Google Calendar as a holiday for the first time, which is pretty cool.
This week has been a big one for law geeks and aspiring lawyers. The Supreme Court affirmed in one case that federal anti-discrimination laws also protect gay and trans people, and in another that the administration can't end DACA (for now, more on that later).
The DACA case in particular reminds me how important one particular class was in law school, because it keeps coming up in the most interesting Supreme Court cases:
Administrative Law.
Huh? Like, what administrative assistants can and can't do?
I know, it sound really uninteresting and boring.
In fact, Administrative Law is a fascinating area that governs how agencies in the executive branch can or can't make rules and enforce them.
That covers agencies like the Department of Education, Homeland Security, the IRS, the Environmental Protection Agency, Customs and Border Protection, the FCC, the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department, NASA, the FBI and intelligence agencies, the Federal Election Commission, cybersecurity, transportation safety, and many more.
Pretty much every part of life on earth and beyond.
So much of the US regulatory system — the rules that govern what we can and can't do — get made by the executive branch, not the legislative branch.
Wait, doesn't the Constitution say that the legislature is the branch of government that gets to make laws? Why is the executive branch doing so much of that? What happened to the three branches of government and separation of powers and checks and balances? You know, the Federalist Papers?
Well, it's complicated. But what that means is that Administrative Law also involves Constitutional Law. In many ways, it's a Constitutional Law class by another name.
To circle back to yesterday's DACA ruling: Despite the headlines in the media (which are often so, so misleading when it comes to Supreme Court rulings), the Supremes did not say that DACA is protected, full stop. Rather, it said that the executive branch did not follow a certain process that it was supposed to have followed in order to end DACA (more specifically, the Administrative Procedure Act).
Some would argue that the opinion even gave Trump's legal advisors specific instructions about how to go back and fix the President's order so that the administration could end DACA the "right" way. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that they redraft the order ending DACA in a way that is likely to be upheld.
Unless his legal advisors screw it up. Which they very well might. They are not very competent.
In hindsight, Administrative Law was the most interesting class I took in law school, and the area of law that consistently keeps coming up in those headline-grabbing Supreme Court decisions. It's an elective class that you get to take in 2L or 3L, so I'm here to tell you not to overlook it when you're picking your classes. Do not judge this class by its underwhelming and unexciting title in the course listings.
After you've taken Administrative Law, you'll also be able to use shorthand that signals "Hey I'm a lawyer, you're a lawyer!" When you hear people saying "Of course, Chevron" or "But Chevron!" or "Arbitrary and capricious!" — that's from Administrative Law. It's like a bat signal.
You'll join that club soon enough.