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45 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. Online 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/fsuon45 and id is 1 raw text is: WHEN COURTS BOW TO BUREAUCRATS: HOW FLORIDA'S DEFERENCE DOCTRINE LETS AGENCIES SAY WHAT THE LAW IS JOHN G. VAN LANINGHAM* I. In trodu ction ..................................................................................................... 1 II. Judicial Deference to Agency Interpretations ................................................ 4 A. Basic Statem ent of the Doctrine .............................................................. 4 1. The Theory Behind the Doctrine ......................................................... 5 (a) Similar to, but Less Obedient Than, Federal Chevron D eferen ce .................................................................................... .. 7 (b) Similar to, But Less Rigorous Than, Federal Skidmore D eferen ce .................................................................................... .. 9 (c) Similar to Federal Seminole Rock (or Auer) Deference, But Equally Applicable to Statutes and Rules ............................. 10 2. Lim itations and Exceptions ............................................................... 11 (a) Decisions Not Requiring Agency Expertise ................................. 12 (b) Beyond the Agency's Power ......................................................... 13 (c) Scope of Agency Jurisdiction ....................................................... 13 (d) Special Interpretive Rules Requiring Strict Construction ........... 13 B. Inconsistency with the Florida APA ......................................................... 14 C . Constitutional Concerns ........................................................................... 26 III. ALJ Deference to Agency Interpretations ....................................................... 27 IV. Judicial Deference to Agency Fact-Findings ................................................... 31 V . C on clu sion ........................................................................................................ 4 3 I. INTRODUCTION As a longtime state administrative law judge (ALJ), I am accus- tomed to being questioned about what ALJs do. Many people, I've learned, are unfamiliar with-indeed, have never heard of- administrative law. In the summer of 2017, however, as I write this Article, that might be changing. Tensions between President Donald Trump and the federal bureaucracy have been vividly on display dur- ing the first months of the new administration, and with them, once obscure terms such as administrative state and regulatory state, not to mention the more sinister dark state, have crept into the public discourse. When, shortly after taking office, the President nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch for the position of Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, it was reported that Gorsuch might be will- ing to overturn Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,1 the seminal deference doctrine case. Administrative law was in the news, at last! * Administrative Law Judge, State of Florida, Division of Administrative Hearings. 1 467 U.S. 837 (1984).