Constitutional Political Economy – LPE Project https://lpeproject.org The Law and Political Economy Project Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:10:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://lpeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-LPE_Favicon_512px_BlackBG-450x450.png Constitutional Political Economy – LPE Project https://lpeproject.org 32 32 Students for Fair Admissions and the Threat of Decentralism https://lpeproject.org/blog/students-for-fair-admission-and-the-threat-of-decentralism/ Wed, 25 Jun 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11665 SFFA in a recent dear colleague letter, the Department of Education has created a gap between what the law requires and the agency’s interpretation of the law. This gap, in addition to inviting anticipatory overcompliance, risks giving rise to inconsistent policies at different colleges and universities.]]> One common critique of informal rulemaking by an executive agency—say, issuance of a “no action” letter, publication of an “interpretation” of a regulation or law, or some other expression of agency perspective—is that the executive branch is effectively legislating by abusing the coercive force of the communication. Agencies are supposed to exercise only the power that Congress has given them...

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]]> Agencies Outflanked https://lpeproject.org/blog/agencies-outflanked/ Tue, 27 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11607 A handful of Supreme Court decisions, decided within the past three years, have made agency action increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the outside. Over the past few months, the Trump Administration has worked to dilute agencies from the inside, laying off government workers in various areas of the federal government. Consequently, the so-called administrative state, consisting of a complex...

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]]> Federal Labor Unions Strengthen the Administrative State https://lpeproject.org/blog/federal-labor-unions-strengthen-the-administrative-state/ Mon, 05 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11534 Since taking office in January, President Trump has waged an all-out assault on the federal workforce. The attack is multi-pronged and raises a dizzying number of statutory and constitutional questions—everything from how reductions in force must be conducted under the relevant civil service laws to whether the Supreme Court’s precedent in Humphrey’s Executor, which protects members of independent...

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]]> Trump’s Strategy to Undermine Court Rulings and the Rule of Law https://lpeproject.org/blog/trumps-strategy-to-undermine-court-rulings-and-the-rule-of-law/ Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11458 During the first two months of his second term, Donald Trump has frequently deployed the power of the executive branch to attack those who stand in his way. He has, for instance, sought to financially cripple law firms that have previously opposed him, opened investigations into media companies whose coverage he views as unfavorable, retaliated against citizens and institutions in states whose...

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]]> The New Carceral Public Health Law https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-new-carceral-public-health-law/ Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11436 In recent years, scholars and advocates have noted a worrying trend: The judiciary has become increasingly hostile toward state actions that aim to improve the public’s health. For example, as Michelle Mello, David Jiang, and Wendy Parmet have recently documented, the U.S. Supreme Court and many lower federal courts have constrained the scope of the state’s public health powers by...

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]]> Courts Are Useful, but We Cannot Depend on Them to Save Democracy https://lpeproject.org/blog/courts-are-useful-but-we-cannot-depend-on-them-to-save-democracy/ Tue, 04 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11389 The United States currently has an elected president and an unelected billionaire who are flagrantly breaking its laws. As members of Congress wrongly insist they have no leverage to do anything about this, we who care about democracy are pleading for others to help. Is it consistent with democracy to direct these pleas to the federal judiciary—a branch of government staffed by unelected judges?

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]]> From the Vault: LPE & Administrative Law https://lpeproject.org/blog/from-the-vault-lpe-administrative-law/ Wed, 26 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11364 This post is part of a series highlighting some of our favorite entries from the archives. Read the rest of the posts here. *** The American administrative state is in crisis. In recent years, the Supreme Court has dismantled core doctrines of administrative law; in recent weeks, President Trump and his henchmen have attempted to implement radical measures to reshape the executive branch.

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]]> Did Trump Just Empower States and Cities to Regulate Labor Relations? https://lpeproject.org/blog/did-trump-just-empower-states-and-cities-to-regulate-labor-relations/ Thu, 06 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11268 Last week, President Trump announced that he was removing Gwynne Wilcox from her seat on the National Labor Relations Board. As a Board member, Wilcox – the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB – has statutory protections against such removal, protections that Trump clearly intends to contest and that Wilcox will invoke in challenging her removal. As it stands, however, the removal leaves only...

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]]> The Anti-Constitutional Attack on Birthright Citizenship https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-anti-constitutional-attack-on-birthright-citizenship/ Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11249 Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visitors is flagrantly unconstitutional. It defies over 120 years of Supreme Court precedent, as well as the clear command of the Fourteenth Amendment’s text. It deserves exactly the kind of dismissive response that it received from District Judge John C. Coughenour...

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]]> America’s First Religious Public School? https://lpeproject.org/blog/americas-first-religious-public-school/ Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000 https://lpeproject.org/?p=11242 On June 5, 2023, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board narrowly approved the application for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Charter School, the first religious charter school in the United States. This development arrives at a time when charter schools have become a significant part of the American education system, enrolling over 3.7 million students nationwide—more than double the...

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