CEI Lunch Briefing: The case for administrative law court reform

Article III of the U.S. Constitution establishes an independent judicial branch. Outside the judiciary, more than 40 regulatory agencies have in-house administrative law courts (ALCs). ALCs circumvent the constitutional protections of blind justice and the separation of powers. Reform is long overdue.

In ALC proceedings, the agency writes the rules, appoints the judges, pays their salaries, and establishes the procedural rules for the defendant’s attorney. ALCs also deny defendants access to a jury trial. In this system, ALCs act as prosecutor and judge. Unsurprisingly, an overwhelming number of cases rule in the agency’s favor.

A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report, Conflict of Justice: Making the case for administrative law court reform, argues that ALCs unjustly empower regulators and should be abolished. The report urges Congress to pass legislation formally moving ALCs out of the agencies and into the standard court system.

Please join CEI for a Capitol Hill lunch briefing on ALC reform featuring keynote remarks from Rep. Harriet Hageman, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee. Panelists include CEI experts Stone Washington and Ryan Young, NCLA Senior Counsel Peggy Little, PLF Attorney Josh Robbins and and Senior Legal Fellow Will Yeatman, moderated by Matthew Adams, CEI Government Affairs Manager.

When: Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm.

Where: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Room HVC-201, First St SE, Washington, DC, 20515

Register: https://cei.org/register-for-event/

Chick-fil-A lunch will be provided to guests. 

For the purposes of congressional ethics rules, this is a widely attended event.

Representative Harriet Hageman represents the state of Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives. She chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs and serves on the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. She is also a member of the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Study Committee, and the Congressional Western Caucus. Rep. Hageman has extensive experience engaging in complex discovery and trials against federal agencies. Prior to being elected to Congress, she was a litigator for 34 years. Hageman is nationally known for challenging federal overreach, protecting private property rights, and fighting against the unconstitutional and unlawful acts of unelected bureaucrats. She received both her bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Wyoming. Hageman is licensed to practice law in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, the District of Columbia, and has been admitted before the United States Supreme Court.

Peggy Little is the senior counsel of New Civil Liberties Alliance. She has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Little is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v. DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, she was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Little directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.

Josh Robbins is an attorney in Pacific Legal Foundation’s separation of powers group. He litigates cases to defend the structural protections of the U.S. and state constitutions that guarantee liberty for all Americans. Prior to joining PLF, Josh was an associate at a large law firm where he litigated cases in federal and state courts. He clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston. Josh earned a B.A. in economics and international studies from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Will Yeatman is a senior legal fellow on PLF’s Constitutional Scholarship team, where he helps take the fight for individual liberty to the modern-day leviathan known as the administrative state. Will came to the liberty movement as a result of his Peace Corps service in Central Asia. Following his time abroad, he worked on environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, then put his legal education to work by writing amicus briefs and researching regulatory reform at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. He holds a B.A. in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in international studies from Denver University, and a J..D from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Ryan Young is a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His research focuses on regulatory reform, trade policy, antitrust regulation, and other issues. Young holds an M.A. in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a B.A. in history from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was previously CEI’s 2009-2010 Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow. Before joining CEI, he worked in the Cato Institute’s government affairs department.

Stone Washington is a research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Advancing Capitalism. His research primarily focuses on financial developments in the market, ESG investing, and federal regulation of the economy. Outside of CEI, Washington is pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from George Washington University. His doctoral research focuses on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision-making process is influenced by the policy interests of federal agencies and nonprofit advocacy groups. In the past, he served as a teaching assistant in Clemson University’s Department of Political Science and as a graduate writing fellow in the Pearce Center for Professional Communication.

Matthew Adams is the senior government affairs and coalitions manager at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In this role, he develops CEI’s relationship with Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and allies. Adams was previously a policy analyst at CEI, where he focused on financial services policy. Prior to joining CEI, he worked at the American Action Forum, Americans for Tax Reform, and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Matthew received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and history from American University in Washington, DC. At American, he was active in both College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty.