The Need for an Ombudsman in State Government

Despite the vast powers which have been delegated to state administrative agencies, comparatively little attention has been paid to their organization or methods of operation. As a result, some state agencies in their day-to-day operations fail to meet desirable standards of fair procedure. Each year, thousands of American citizens emerge indignant from an encounter with some agency representative who they assert has treated them impolitely or denied them what they deem to be their rights. But often the case does not involve enough to justify the expense of taking it to court, and the outraged citizen fumes in frustration, concluding dejectedly that it\u27s not worthwhile trying to fight city hall. To cure this unhappy situation, a governmental mechanism which is new to America but which has worked well for more than one hundred years in some European countries (which have had a much longer experience with administrative law) is now being seriously considered by the legislatures of several states

Administrative Agencies and the Court

The limits which courts place on the powers of administrative tribunals have particular significance to practicing attorneys and law students. It is largely to the extent that such limits are imposed, that our government remains a government of laws and not a government of men. The following pages have been written to describe the standards which the courts impose upon administrative agencies, thereby controlling and limiting their powers. More particularly, the writer has sought: (1) to bring together the leading cases in which the courts have laid down the principles that govern frequently litigated questions in contests between the agencies and the parties with whom they deal; (2) to describe the criteria and techniques of administrative adjudication-what may be termed the jurisprudence of administrative tribunals-within these courtimposed standards. No attempt has been made to discuss the problems of administrative organization and agency management, which are of particular interest to the political scientist and specialist in government. The purpose of this volume is more modest. It is an examination of the relationship between administrative agencies and the courts, with particular reference to judicial doctrines concerning: (1) constitutional limitations on the delegation of powers to administrative agencies; (2) procedural requirements in cases where agencies exercise judicial powers; (3) procedural and substantive requirements imposed in connection with rule-making activities; (4) methods and scope of judicial review.https://repository.law.umich.edu/michigan_legal_studies/1000/thumbnail.jp

THE FICTION OF PEACEFUL PICKETING

Efforts of labor organizations during the past decade to secure the enactment of legislation guaranteeing strikers the privilege of peaceably picketing their employers\u27 places of business, appear to have gained for union members no more than a Pyrrhic victory. Although at least nineteen states now have statutes intended to prohibit judicial interference with peaceful picketing, a review of recent cases in this ever timely field indicates that in general such laws have been construed to limit the privileges of pickets to activities so pusillanimous as to be of little aid to the strikers and of little annoyance to employers. In fact, the opportunities enjoyed by strikers to engage with impunity in public demonstrations are little better in states permitting peaceful picketing than in the many jurisdictions where the prevailing judicial doctrine permits or compels the enjoining of all forms of picketing

Federal Agency Investigations: Requirements for the Production of Documents

The United States district courts are frequently called upon to decide whether an administrative agency is entitled to enforcement of a subpoena requesting production of documentary evidence which the person to whom the subpoena is addressed assails as an unnecessary and improper inquisitorial investigation. Neither the statute nor the decision-landmarks though they both are-offers a convenient rule of thumb to guide the district courts in the intensely difficult problems posed by requests for enforcement of administrative subpoenas. However, an examination of the decisions passing upon such requests does disclose the standards by which the courts apply the three classic tests, and suggests certain practical guides. This article reports the results of such an examination

The Executive Department of Government and the Rule of Law

For a long time, people have been talking about the executive department of government and the Rule of Law. Indeed, the suggestion of Aristotle that government should be by law, and not by men, represented a protest directed to the earlier Grecian systems of despotically controlled administrative law. It is my privilege this afternoon to carry forward the discussion of a problem that has been talked about for some two thousand years: how to apply the Rule of Law to the executive agencies of the government. They are commonly called independent agencies within the executive branch. I suggest that the name is well chosen, for they have assumed a degree of independence that puts them beyond the effective control of the legislatures and the courts. This, I make bold to suggest, should not be so, if we are to preserve the Rule of Law to which as lawyers we have all dedicated our lives; for the very concept of the Rule of Law means in the last resort the right of the judges to control the executive government .... These are the words of the venerable A. V. Dicey, barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple and Vinerian Professor at Oxford. He wrote them seventy-four years ago

EXTRA TIME FOR OVERTIME NOW LAW

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 presents a great many legal and practical problems of importance commensurate with the comprehensiveness of the act itself, which is probably the most far-reaching of the New Deal statutes since the N. R. A. The act is conceived on the theory that any physical handling of goods destined to be subsequently shipped to another state is an act so closely and substantially related to the flow of interstate commerce as to be subject to Congressional regulation, and thus depends for its validity upon an extension of the theories approved in the Wagner Act cases. The act seeks to increase labor\u27s share in the profits of industry, by compelling a fifty per cent. Wage increase for hours of employment in excess of a statutory maximum, and by compelling payment of certain minimum wages for all employment periods. In addition, the act contains a new attempt by Congress to outlaw child labor. The significance of the constitutional issues necessarily involved in so far-reaching a measure is only too obvious. Further, in filling the broad interstices of the rather loosely knit legislative fabric, there arise a multitude of problems of statutory construction and administrative interpolation. Many of these must be worked out by individual employers and their attorneys without the benefit of official regulations, since the effective date of the act follows its enactment too closely to permit the issuance of governmental rules of construction substantially in advance of the time when the provisions and penalties of the act become operative

Protecting the Public Interest in Labor Disputes

There exists general agreement that an effective means must be found, in the public interest, to curb strikes in basic industries that imperil the national health or safety. This principle, indeed, has been a part of our basic law for more than a decade. The trouble has been that the limited means provided to meet this need fail to give effective expression to the public interest. The only significant remedy is that which the steel strike has made so well known: an 80-day injunction followed by an election in which the employees may indicate for publicity purposes whether they wish to accept the employer\u27s last offer rather than continue the strike. How are we to bring the force of public opinion to bear, in the search for labor peace? This question is at the heart of the most impelling domestic problem facing the United States today

Administrative Agencies and the Court

The limits which courts place on the powers of administrative tribunals have particular significance to practicing attorneys and law students. It is largely to the extent that such limits are imposed, that our government remains a government of laws and not a government of men. The following pages have been written to describe the standards which the courts impose upon administrative agencies, thereby controlling and limiting their powers. More particularly, the writer has sought: (1) to bring together the leading cases in which the courts have laid down the principles that govern frequently litigated questions in contests between the agencies and the parties with whom they deal; (2) to describe the criteria and techniques of administrative adjudication-what may be termed the jurisprudence of administrative tribunals-within these courtimposed standards. No attempt has been made to discuss the problems of administrative organization and agency management, which are of particular interest to the political scientist and specialist in government. The purpose of this volume is more modest. It is an examination of the relationship between administrative agencies and the courts, with particular reference to judicial doctrines concerning: (1) constitutional limitations on the delegation of powers to administrative agencies; (2) procedural requirements in cases where agencies exercise judicial powers; (3) procedural and substantive requirements imposed in connection with rule-making activities; (4) methods and scope of judicial review.https://repository.law.umich.edu/michigan_legal_studies/1000/thumbnail.jp

THE EFFECT OF INFLATION ON PRIVATE CONTRACTS: UNITED STATES, 1861-1879

The Northern inflation coincided almost exactly in its early stages with the inflation in the South, and was produced by the same basic factor - a budgetary deficit due to war expenditure. The financial mobilization of the North was handicapped at the outset by a deficit inherited from the previous administration and by an impaired national credit. The prompt response of the Northern banks enabled the Treasury to overcome this initial handicap and to finance the greatly increased expenditure through the early months of the war. How long orthodox methods of borrowing would have sufficed has been ever since a matter of debate. Toward the end of 1861 the banking system had begun to show signs of serious strain which was greatly aggravated by the policies of Secretary Chase in concentrating at the Treasury a very large share of the supply of specie. The unfavorable state of national finances at the end of the year and the danger of war with England over the Trent affair were enough to produce a panic on December 16 and to force a suspension of specie payments on December 30, 1861