Exam 5: Administrative Law

An important and fundamental part of administrative law is the limits imposed by judicial review upon the activities of administrative agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would like to adopt some new rules regarding environmental impact statements, but it is afraid that if too many people know about them ahead of time, the adverse publicity will force the agency to amend them. To avoid any public comment, the agency seeks to adopt the rules without publishing them. Which of the following statements is true regarding the agency's actions?

All ALJ decisions must include a statement of findings of fact and conclusions of law and the reasons or basis for them, as well as a statement of the appropriate relief.

A truth about administrative agencies is that they:

Under the informal rulemaking procedures of the APA, an agency must provide notice of a proposed rule only if there is potential conflict.

Legislative rules by an administrative agency do not have the force of law.

An administrative agency's discretion to compel the disclosure of information is subject to any legal privileges to withhold such information.

The __________ is the federal statute requiring most records in agency files to be accessible to the public.

Interpretative rules of administrative agencies are automatically binding on the private parties the agency regulates.

Interpretative rules are exempt from the APA's procedural requirements of notice and comment.

Agencies create more legal rules and adjudicate more controversies than all the nation's legislatures and courts combined.

If the decision of an ALJ is appealed to the governing body of the agency, the case may be decided de novo .

Under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), most legislative rules are issued in accordance with the informal rulemaking procedures.

Those interpretative rules of administrative agencies that are exempt from the APA's notice and comment requirements are not automatically binding on the courts.

Explain what is considered a "major rule" and the effect of an administrative rule's being in this category.

After an FOIA request has been made, an agency has __________ working days within which to indicate whether it intends to comply.

To be constitutionally permissible, an enabling statute must establish reasonable standards to guide an agency in implementing the statute. Using a broad phrase such as "fair and equitable" in an enabling statute meets this requirement.

The Freedom of Information Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act are different names for the same statute.

Federal agencies may not charge for providing records to a person requesting access to the agency's files.