Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Columbia Law Review Sidebar
Publication Date
2012
ISSN
1945-2268
Page Number
147
Keywords
administrative law, democracy, judicial review
Disciplines
Administrative Law | Law
Abstract
Linda Cohen and Matthew Spitzer's study, "The Government Litigant Advantage," sheds important light on how the Solicitor General's litigation behavior may impact the Supreme Court's decision making agenda and outcomes for regulatory and administrative law cases. By emphasizing how the Solicitor General affects cases that the Supreme Court decides, Cohen and Spitzer's findings confirm that administrative law's emphasis on lower appellate court decisions is not misplaced. Some say that D.C. Circuit cases carry equal-if not more-precedential weight than Supreme Court decisions in resolving administrative law issues. Cohen and Spitzer use positive political theory to provide a novel explanation for some of this bias towards circuit court decisions in defining the rule of law in administrative law practice and scholarship. However, this Comment argues that what Cohen and Spitzer's empirical finding of "government litigant advantage" means more generally for the rule of law in the regulatory context requires further elaboration.
Recommended Citation
Jim Rossi,
Of Dialogue--And Democracy--In Administrative Law, 112 Columbia Law Review Sidebar. 147
(2012)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/556