Social Justice and the Administrative State - food for thought

Now that we know a little bit about what agencies are and what they do, let’s think critically about how agencies relate to social justice work. Agencies make decisions that profoundly impact peoples’ lives. They can determine who gets unemployment support, who has to pay for environmental destruction, and even who is deported in immigration proceedings. 

In thinking about the assigned readings, and administrative law generally, consider the following questions for discussion: 

1. How do we feel about these decisions happening in agencies, instead of in Congressional or courtroom proceedings? (Note: Agencies are sometimes characterized as a “headless Fourth Branch of government” that aren’t directly accountable to the electorate.)
   
2. Who runs agencies? Should they be able to make decisions like these?
   
   
3. What about the argument that we need less bureaucratic “red tape” in our lives? Would less agency regulation be better?
   
   
4. Can we look to these existing legal structures to build social justice, or is administrative law a tool of oppression? (This is a big question with many facets!)

Feel free to explore anything that you think of as you consider the role of agencies in public interest work. I want this to be a moment where we step back and consider administrative law’s role within public interest law and what we envision when we imagine a more just system of governance. [Governance means “action or manner of governing.”]