Kisor v. Wilkie - A Supreme Court Case Challenge to Auer and Seminole Rock Deference

The case, Kisor v. Wilkie (No. 18-15), arises from a veteran’s claim for disability benefits for service-related post-traumatic stress disorder, a claim that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs denied in part under its own regulations. The lower court deferred to the VA’s interpretation of its own regulation, under the doctrine of Seminole Rock and Auer,

Accordingly, this case squarely presents the question of whether the courts should defer to agencies’ interpretations of their own regulations - a question that Justice Scalia raised in his concurring opinion in Talk America v. Michigan Bell (2011). After nearly eight years of significant debate among judges, practitioners, and scholars, the Court’s decision could have major impacts on federal law and regulation.

To discuss the case, the Section has invited three prominent scholars to present their views in a public "teleforum," presented by the Judicial Review Committee's Supreme Court Series:

Aaron Nielson is an Associate Professor of Law at the BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School

Catherine Sharkey is the Crystal Eastman Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law

Amy Wildermuth is Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law

The discussion will be moderated by Adam White, an assistant professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and director of the school’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.

Open the the public.

NO CLE available for this program, but registration is required.

To Register, please send and email to Rebecca.Mobley@americanbar.org