solutions
example 19.1 administrative agencies/independent regulatory agencies - correct answer
✔✔When Congress enacted the Clean Air Act, it provided only general directions for the
prevention of air pollution. The specific pollution-control requirements imposed on business are
almost entirely the product of decisions made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
which was created seven years later. Moreover, the EPA works with parallel environmental
agencies at the state level to analyze existing data and determine the appropriate pollution-
control standards.
arbitrary and capricious considerations - correct answer ✔✔1. failed to provide rational
explanation
2. changed it prior policy w/o justification
3. considered legally inappropriate factors
4. failed to consider a relevant factor
5. rendered a decision contrary to the evidence
slander per se types - correct answer ✔✔1.) statement that another has a loathsome disease
2.) A statement that another has committed improprieties while engaging in a business,
profession, or trade.
,3. statement that another has committed or has been imprisoned for a serious crime.
4. A statement that a person is unchaste or has engaged in serious sexual misconduct.
*DOESNT REQUIRE SPECIAL DAMAGES*
To establish defamation, a plaintiff normally must prove the following: - correct answer ✔✔1.)
The defendant made a false statement of fact.
2.) The statement was understood as being about the plaintiff and tended to harm the plaintiff's
reputation.
3.) The statement was published to at least one person other than the plaintiff.
4.)If the plaintiff is a public figure, she or he must prove actual malice (discussed shortly).
How are federal administrative agencies created? - correct answer ✔✔- congress creates
federal admin agencies
- To create an administrative agency, Congress passes enabling legislation, which specifies the
name, purposes, functions, and powers of the agency being created. F
example 19.2 Interpretive Rules - correct answer ✔✔The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission periodically issues interpretive rules indicating how it plans to interpret the
provisions of certain statutes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. These informal rules
provide enforcement guidelines for agency officials.
Case Brief Loving v. Internal Revenue Service - correct answer ✔✔Facts:
,- Responding to concerns about the performance of some paid tax-return preparers the IRS
issued a new rule that required paid preparers to pass an initial certification exam, pay annual
fees, and complete at least fifteen hours of continuing education courses each year.
- IRS relied on a statute enacted in 1884 and recodified in 1982 that authorizes the agency to
"regulate the practice of representatives of persons before the Department of the Treasury."
- Three independent preparers filed a suit in a federal district court against the IRS, contending
that the rule exceeded the agency's authority.
- Court ruled in Plantiffs favor, IRS appealed
Issue:
- Does the IRS have the authority to enact requirements upon independent paid tax preparers?
Rules:
- Statue Enacted in 1884 and recodified in 1982
Application:
- Statue says IRS can regulate "representatives" representative is defined as an agent with the
authority to bind others which does not fit tax return preparers
- "practice" refers to an investigations, hearing , or preeceding which is different from filling a
tax return
- the history and orginial language of the statue would not include tax return preparers
- this would give the IRS authority to regulate hundreds or thousands in the tax preparation
industry which the IRS has been given no legislative authority to do so
- IRS has never interpreted this statue in the past to give it authroity to regulate tax return
preparers
- too broad
Conclusion:
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling.
, - Under the IRS's interpretation of the statute, the agency "would be empowered for the first
time to regulate hundreds of thousands of individuals in the tax-preparation industry." Nothing
in the statute's text, history, structure, or context "contemplates th
Case Brief Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. - correct answer
✔✔Facts:
- The 1934 Communications Act established a system of limited-term broadcast licenses subject
to various conditions. One condition was the indecency ban, which prohibits the uttering of
"any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication.
Issue:
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) first invoked this ban on indecent broadcasts
in
1975.
- Before 2004, one of the factors used by the FCC in determining whether a broadcaster had
violated the ban was whether the offensive language had been repeated, or "dwelled on," in
the broadcast.
If an offensive term was used just once in a broadcast, the FCC probably would not take any
action.
- In 2004, however, the FCC changed this policy, declaring that an offensive term, such as the F-
word, was actionably indecent even if it was used only once. And that the previous ruling were
no longer good law
- " In 2006, the FCC applied this new rule to two Fox Television broadcasts, each of which
contained a single use of the F-word, which had aired before the FCC's change in policy.
- Fox appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for review. The appellate
court reversed the agency's order. The FCC appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
Issue:
- DId the FCC provide enough notice to enforce a violation of an indencency ban?