The Intelligible Principle: How It Briefly Lived, Why It Died, and Why It Desperately Needs Revival in Today's Administrative State

Authors

Meaghan Dunigan

Document Type

Note

Abstract

(Excerpt)

This Note addresses the flaws in the current intelligible principle standard and proposes a new three-part standard that would better revitalize the intelligible principle as it was first articulated almost a century ago. This Note concedes that while legislative delegation in any form is a violation of the original meaning of the nondelegation doctrine, our society and the growth of administrative agencies removed any chance of having our laws created solely by Congress. What can happen, and what this Note proposes, is for the Supreme Court to adopt a new intelligible principle standard that scales back the amount of authority being placed in the hands of those outside Capitol Hill.

Part I of this Note discusses the origins of congressional delegation and the constitutional principles that underlie the nondelegation doctrine. Part II discusses the creation of the intelligible principle, from its inception in J.W. Hampton to subsequent cases in the 1930’s that defined the standard’s limits. Part III discusses the breakdown of the intelligible principle, from the growth of administrative agencies to three significant mistakes made by the Supreme Court that have effectively rendered the standard meaningless. Finally, Part IV proposes a new three-part intelligible principle standard; a standard that recovers the original purpose of the nondelegation doctrine while also adapting to the immense changes that our government structure has undergone since the doctrine’s inception over 225 years ago.