Compliance with Ambiguous Regulations – State of the Law and Trends
Federal administrative law is largely about policing delegations of power from Congress to Executive Branch agencies, and the administrative law concept of “deference” is about delegation of interpretative power over ambiguous law. That is, courts need to decide what it means when lawmakers leave ambiguity in a statute or regulation. To illustrate, imagine a simple rule like “no vehicles in the park.” See H.L.A. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, 71 Harv. L. Rev. 593, 607 (1958) . A rule like this could appear in a statute passed by a legislature; it could also appear in an agency regulation. For now, imagine the rule appears in an organic statute that creates a Parks Department and authorizes it to implement the statute via rules and regulations. The Parks Department clearly could promulgate a rule specifically banning cars in the park. But what about baby strollers, which might or might not count as “vehicles?” Under the overturned Che...