Inside the “Administrative State”: The Enigmatic Office for Civil Rights
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R. Shep Melnick
Abstract
Few federal agencies have generated more controversy than the small Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education. From desegregation and bilingual education to intercollegiate athletics, sexual harassment, and transgender rights, it has turned short civil rights statutes into lengthy administrative rules. It thus offers a useful window into what has become known as “the administrative state.” But this window is far from transparent: OCR rarely uses standard Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking, opting instead for unilateral “Dear Colleague Letters” written with little external participation; the bulk of its resources are devoted to investigation of individual complaints, with little public explanation of the outcomes. Innovation and expansion of the agency’s mission has not come from the permanent bureaucracy, but from the courts and from agency leaders appointed by the president. From the 1960s through the 1990s, the result was slow but steady accretion of power and responsibility. More recently political polarization and shifting Supreme Court jurisprudence has led to more rapid alteration of agency policy and enforcement practices.
Funding source: An earlier and shorter version of this paper was presented to a working group at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. The author wishes to thank Adam White, Samantha Harris, Jace Lington, Jeffrey Lubbers, Neal McCluskey, Ronald Pestritto, Aaron Saiger, Tevi Troy, and Kenneth Marcus for their comments on that version of the essay.
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Research funding: An earlier and shorter version of this paper was presented to a working group at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. The author wishes to thank Adam White, Samantha Harris, Jace Lington, Jeffrey Lubbers, Neal McCluskey, Ronald Pestritto, Aaron Saiger, Tevi Troy, and Kenneth Marcus for their comments on that version of the essay.
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Forum: Spring 2024 Issue
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- The Post-Brown Era in Judicial Policymaking
- Blame, Policy Feedback, and the Politics of Student Debt Relief Policy
- The Nationalized Politics of Police Reform
- Inside the “Administrative State”: The Enigmatic Office for Civil Rights
- How Ideological Diversity Moderates Republican Support for Voter Suppression Measures: The Cases of Georgia and Alabama
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- Book Review
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Forum: Spring 2024 Issue
- Articles
- Affluence and the Demand-side for Policy Improvements: Exploring Elite Beliefs About Vulnerability to Societal Problems
- The Post-Brown Era in Judicial Policymaking
- Blame, Policy Feedback, and the Politics of Student Debt Relief Policy
- The Nationalized Politics of Police Reform
- Inside the “Administrative State”: The Enigmatic Office for Civil Rights
- How Ideological Diversity Moderates Republican Support for Voter Suppression Measures: The Cases of Georgia and Alabama
- Ten Years Later: How Water Crises in Flint and Detroit Transformed the Politics of U.S. Water Policy
- Climate Change Policy Development: A Multiple Streams Analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
- Book Review
- Steven Rogers: Accountability in State Legislatures
