CONNECTICUT LAW REVIEW

The Science of Administrative Change

- Barry Sullivan &

Christine Kexel Chabot

​“Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to reduce regulation during the 2016 presidential campaign. Indeed, one of his key advisors promised to “deconstruct” the administrative state. Since taking office, President Trump has attempted to make good on his promises, spurring federal agencies to brush aside countless regulations that previous administrations had promulgated based on scientific, technological, or economic evidence. Those efforts, which some have dubbed a “war on science,” implicate a long-contested question in administrative law: to what extent should a change in presidential administrations excuse agencies from any obligation to justify changes in policy with expert, reasoned analysis of relevant data? Perhaps surprisingly, the Trump Administration’s efforts align with views that have dominated administrative law scholarship in recent decades. By the time President Trump took office, many leading administrative law scholars had already championed enhanced presidential control over agency decisions, dismissed expert analysis as an anachronistic relic of the New Deal, and suggested that the considered judgments of previous administrations should be amenable to quick and easy change.”