Administrative law at the state level states

- Administrative Law at the State Level”
- States frequently have agencies devoted to the regulation of parties within
the state’s borders for the sale of securities (selling a business entity’s stock
to the public), protection of the environment, regulation of banking and
insurance companies, workplace safety, consumer protection, labor and
employee antidiscrimination regulations.
- Federal: EEOC
- State: FCHR
Case Examples:
Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities v. Duncan and the U.S.
Department of Education:
Facts: Congress passed the Higher Education Act (HEA) that provides more than $150
billion in new fed¬eral aid. Students receiving this aid attend private for-profit
institutions, public institutions, and private nonprofit institutions. The U.S. Department of
Education (Department) is charged with the oversight and administration of the HEA.
After several investigations into for-profit universities (such as the University of Phoenix)
revealed systematic attempts to mislead and engage in fraud, the Department
promulgated a set of new rules because it determined that the existing regulations were
too lax. The proposed rules impacted institutions of higher education in several
operational ways and were intended to deter fraud and improve accountability. The
Department published the final rules as originally proposed, but it also included an
additional final rule with new regulatory requirements for colleges offering distance
learning. The final rules were challenged by the Association of Private Sector Colleges
and Universities (APSCU), which represents for-profit institutions of higher education.
APSCU alleged a violation of the APA on the basis that the Department had failed to
provide adequate notice of the distance learning rule to regulated parties. The trial court
ruled in favor of APSCU on the issue of the distance learning rule. The Department
appealed argu-ing that the new distance learning rule was simply a logical outgrowth of
the existing rule and that the other proposed regulations gave fair notice that the
Department was considering changing the rule related to distance education programs.
Ruling: The court ruled that the Department had not provided interested parties with a
sufficient opportunity to comment on the proposed rule and therefore violated the APA.
Consumer Federation of America v. Department of Agriculture:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published notice of a proposed
rule regulating exposure to Listeria, a dangerous, food-borne bacterium that can be found
in ready-to-eat meat and poultry. USDA later issued an interim final rule that Consumer

Federation of America (CFA) regarded as significantly weaker than the originally
proposed rule.
Seeking to learn whether USDA officials had met exclusively, or nearly exclusively, with
industry representatives who favored the weakening of the original proposed rule, CFA
filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to the “public calendars" of
five senior USDA officials and one USDA administrative assistant.