Tracking the Trump Administration’s “Midnight Regulations” | ProPublica

In our last class, we explored the racial roots of administrative law. In exploring the history of the administrative state, we can better critique and analyze the why - and how - administrative law is applied in modern day. From the Freedman's Bureau to the Tuskegee Experiment to the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the treatment of Native Americans, public institutions have a sordid and deeply-rooted history of discrimination and marginalization based on race, class, ethnicity and other intersecting identities. 

In this class, we will read about the mercurial nature of the modern administrative state. With each presidential election, administrative rules are proposed, overruled, delayed; Executive Orders come and go. With the ping pong nature of administrative rules, guidance and Executive Orders depending on who is in power, real lives are impacted. 

In today’s class, we will read about Trump’s midnight regulation, which were intended to push through major policy changes in the last weeks of his presidency. These proposed regulations would detrimentally impact immigrant, housing, environmental, disability, and other human rights. As you will read, only a handful of these proposed rules were overturned or delayed by the Biden Administration. We will aso learn about other actions by administartive agencies under his leadership

• Consider the following for an open class discussion:  
  
  
  • Skim through Trump’s midnight regulations and the Tracking regulatory changes that Biden has made, identify a rule/regulation that has been delayed or overturned, or a rule that was passed during the Trump presidency. You may also discuss the Remain in Mexico program. 
  • Who was most impact by this rule/regulation/program?
  • How do you feel about this rule/regulation/program being delayed/overturned/passed/enforced?

In what seems an effort to directly confront racist policies of the Trump Administration, President Biden issued an Executive Order “On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” As the Biden term continues, and throughout this semester, we will revisit whether his administration is following through on this promise.