Abstract
“The law must be stable and yet it cannot stand still.”1
Compared to the Old Man and the Sea, the administrative state’s situation does not seem all that different.2 The idea of the administrative state has been around since the birth of civilization. There has always been a need for caretakers to protect the best interests of their people. While the administrative state is a testament of our society’s resilience and loyalty to the idea of one union providing for public good; it has become the Santiago.3 An administrative state is only as good as its output, and our current state cannot perform its’ desired function without the Manolin.4
1. Roscoe Pound, Interpretations of Legal History 1 (Cambridge Univ. Press 1923).
2. See generally Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952).
3. Id. (Santiago is the older fisherman character who is unable to bring in fish on his own, only bringing in the bones of a giant marlin he needs to catch to win his place back in society).
4. Id. (Manolin is the young fisherman character, who has been learning from Santiago to improve his own fishing abilities).
I. Introduction
II. The ‘Santiago’ Administrative State ... A. Ancient Administrative Ideals: The Idea of Accountability ... B. Founding Ideas and Concerns: Concentrations of Power ... C. The New Deal Explosion and Progressive Era Problems: Judicial Activism ... D. The Modern Reality Check
III. The Loper Bright Future and the Chevron Past ... A. The Big Fish Called Chevron ... B. The Catch: Here Comes Loper Bright ... C. Suddenly Skidmore Is the Big Fish
IV. The ‘Manolin’ Solutions: Reconstruction, Reform, or Just a Drop in the Ocean ... A. Reconstruction & Reform: The Law Is Meant to Evolve ... B. Chevron and Loper Bright Are Red Herrings
V. Conclusion
Recommended Citation
Heather Haratsis,
Uncle Sam and the Sea: An Administrative Red Herring,
103 Neb. L. Rev. 687
(2025).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol103/iss4/5