Comment

Comment by guest_blog on March 11, 2015 at 10:43am

The Supreme Court ruled today that federal agencies do not have to follow procedures for notifying the public and collecting comment

“Because an agency is not required to use notice-and-comment procedures to issue an initial interpretive rule, it is also not required to use those procedures when it amends or repeals that interpretive rule,” Sotomayor wrote.

The decision contradicts the D.C. Circuit Court’s Paralyzed Veterans doctrine, which holds that an agency must use the APA’s notice-and-comment procedures when it wishes to issue a new interpretation of a regulation that deviates significantly from one previously adopted.

Justice Samuel Alito said the Paralyzed Doctrine likely stemmed from fear that federal agencies were becoming too powerful and concerns that Congress was affording them too much lawmaking authority

“I do not dismiss these concerns, but the Paralyzed Doctrine is not a viable cure for these problems,” he said.

http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/235054-supreme-court-si...