ST.

JOHN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

NEW YORK

FIRST SET OF PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Professor Chris Borgen October 2022

General Instructions

This practice set consists of three doctrinal short answer questions. As the final exam will be open
book, feel free to use your casebook and other resources. However, as you have access to such
resources, try to be detailed and specific with your answers.

Please note that these questions are to help you in reviewing the material. They are not meant
specifically to look like questions on the final exam. For example, the final exam will include at
least one fact pattern. (You will have fact patterns in other problem sets.)

Try not to spend more than about 15 minutes per question. Your answers for questions 1 and 2
should be about 2 to 4 paragraphs, each.

In about a week, I will post a video reviewing the answers to these questions.

If you have time, I suggest that before watching the video, you and a classmate review each other’s
answers and suggest to each other any corrections, additions, or deletions that could improve the
answers.

Question 1

Please explain what interpretive rules and what policy statements are. Why are both of these
categories exempt from notice and comment procedural requirements? How can we assess if a
given text is an interpretive rule or a legislative rule?

Question 2

Please explain what a “basis and purpose” statement is and the various reasons why it is
important.

Question 3

In a few sentences, each, please explain the importance of each of these opinions:

1
• U.S. v. Florida East Coast Railway
• Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC
• SEC v. Chenery Corp. [Chenery (II)]
• Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Ass’n of U.S. v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Insurance Co.