Preface

• Pages: 3-3
• Author: Richard J. Pierce, Jr.

iii

PREFACE

This book is written prim arily to help law studen ts understand

the basics of federal administrative law. It emphasizes the powers of

agencies, the ways in which they exercise those powers, the

procedures they use to take actions of various types, and the

relationships between agencies and the three branches of

government-executive, legislative, and judicial. It does no t discuss

state or local administrative law. The legal systems and doctrines

applicable to state and local agencies are too vast and variable to be

susceptible to a treatment that is both accurate and concise.

Beginning in the late twenty-tens, conservative advocacy

organizations joined with some re gulated firms to launch a broad

attack on the administrative state. That effort accelerated when the

Supreme Court issued its opinion in Axon Enterprise v. FTC, 598

U.S. 175 (2023). The Court held that an individual or firm that is the

subject of an agency proceeding can challenge the constitutionality of

the agency’s structure at the beginning of a case. So far, the attack

on the administrative state has achieved mixe d results. This edition

discusses the changes in law that have taken place so far and

identifies the major issues that courts will address in the near future.

RICHARD J. PIERCE, JR.