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What Do Agencies Do?
By far the longest portion of this casebook, this subsection focuses on what agencies do and how they do it. As you read the materials in this subsection, keep two big questions in mind. First, what are the categories of agency action? As we will see, categorization of agency action is like the North Star of administrative law. Knowing what kind of agency action is being undertaken can often lead you directly to a result, as the APA's requirements are often fairly clear once we know what an agency action is--it's whether an agency action is X rather than Y that presents many difficult questions. Second, what steps are required for an agency to take a particular type of action. Don't forget about the materials in the introductory section: in many cases the procedures are clear, but in some cases they are not. What should courts do when agencies operate in this netherworld?
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