Creation Stories: What Did the 79th Congress Mean to Accomplish?

On June 11, 1946, President Truman signed the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) into law, and it was intended to be “a bill of rights for the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose affairs are controlled or regulated in one way or another by agencies of the Federal Government,” according to its lead sponsor in the Senate. If we were to redesign the APA for today’s version of the administrative state, what would it be? To mark the 75th anniversary of the APA, on June 11, 2021, the Gray Center hosted a conference gathering many of the George Mason Law Review Symposium Issue authors together at the Historic Decatur House in DC for an afternoon of conversations on this and related questions.

The first panel session, titled “Creation Stories: What Did the 79th Congress Mean to Accomplish?” focused on papers by four Symposium Issue authors: Michael S. Greve and Jeremy A. Rabkin of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, Christopher J. Walker of the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, and former ACUS Administrator, Paul R. Verkuil. The panel session was moderated by Adam White, Co-Executive Director of the Gray Center, who also gave welcoming remarks along with George Mason Law Review Symposium Editor, Carly Hviding.

Links to the papers by this panel’s authors are available below, and the videos from the entire event as well as all Symposium Issue papers are available at https://administrativestate.gmu.edu/events/the-75th-anniversary-of-the-apa-the-george-mason-law-reviews-3rd-annual-symposium-on-administrative-law/.

This episode features Michael Greve, Carly Hviding, Jeremy Rabkin, Paul Verkuil, Christopher Walker, and Adam White.

Papers discussed during this panel session include:

“Why We Need Federal Administrative Courts” by Michael Greve, available at: https://lawreview.gmu.edu/print__issues/why-we-need-federal-administrative-courts/

“The Origins of the APA: Misremembered and Forgotten Views” by Jeremy Rabkin, available at: https://lawreview.gmu.edu/print__issues/3948-2/

“The Administrative Procedure Act at 75: Observations and Reflections” by Paul Verkuil, available at: https://lawreview.gmu.edu/print__issues/the-administrative-procedure-act-at-75-observations-and-reflections/

“The Lost World of the Administrative Procedure Act: A Literature Review” by Christopher Walker, available at: https://lawreview.gmu.edu/print__issues/the-lost-world-of-the-administrative-procedure-act-a-literature-review-2/