Presidential control is the power to direct administrative capacity toward the President’s own policy objectives. Accordingly, presidential power vis-à-vis administrative policymaking has two necessary components: control and capacity. First, the President must have the ability to set the agency’s policymaking agenda and direct the day-to-day activities of its leadership and career employees. Second, the agency…
Most fair housing advocates maintain that integration is a core aim of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA). They contend that to achieve that integration, affordable housing must be sited in predominantly white, affluent areas. These advocates often cite legislative sponsors such as Senator Edmund Muskie, who declared that the aim of the…
One of the primary roles of judges is to interpret legal texts. These texts generally fall into three categories: statutes/constitutions (public law), contracts (private law), and judicial opinions (precedent/common law). For the first two of these textual buckets, judges have developed and often rely on interpretive canons in distilling legal meaning from the text. But…
Rooted in equitable principles, the writ of habeas corpus permits an incarcerated individual to collaterally attack their sentence or conviction. Every person who is incarcerated under a state or federal conviction is entitled to at least one full opportunity to obtain federal habeas review. However, amidst concerns of the abuse of the writ, Congress and…
