Mitchell Hamline School of Law
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DOGE\u27s Matrix Structure and Presidential Power
No full textAt the start of his second term, President Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a novel White House entity tasked with reshaping the federal bureaucracy. Far more than a traditional advisory commission, DOGE employed a matrix structure that embedded staff across executive agencies, establishing dual reporting lines to both agency heads and the White House. This essay argues that DOGE’s organizational design represents a structural innovation in presidential control and an evolution of the longstanding “czar” model. Drawing on organizational and principal-agent theories, the essay explores how the matrix structure enhanced the President’s capacity to monitor agency behavior, while simultaneously undermining the autonomy of cabinet officials
Mediation: Request for Mediator to “Reiterate the Negotiations” (Florida Mediator Ethics Advisory Opinion 2024-001)
No full textTrust, But Verify: The Case for Abolishing the Outlier Authentication Provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence
No full textMedical Review Officers and the Limits of Judicial Review
No full textIn the public imagination, defenders of our national security wear military garb. But the individuals who determine their fitness-for-duty wear white coats. The unenviable task of assessing those who make up our national security workforce is carried out by a group of independent physicians who must make nuanced determinations about illicit drug and alcohol use by government employees. In addition to testing roles that may seem unexciting, like accountants and auditors, medical review officers (MROs) are tasked with ensuring employees of nuclear power plants and commercial drivers are fit for duty. In doing so, they rely on their experience, expertise, and medical proficiency to distinguish the illicit and legitimate use of offending substances. These sensitive decisions create substantial risk of liability. Because fitness-for-duty determinations are often intimately tied to decisions to terminate an employee, MROs’ decision making—and reliance on their decisions—warrants significant deference. The Supreme Court has long held that most executive branch employment decisions related to national security are unreviewable. But federal courts have been reluctant to extend a jurisdictional bar to non-government actors. Unfortunately, MROs occupy a unique space as private, independent physicians: they do not answer directly to the president, and their expertise is only informed by their limited area of specialty. This Article contends that as non-executive branch officials, MROs—and those who rely on their decision making—should be entitled to some constitutional deference, but should not receive the same unreviewable privileges that executive branch officials receive
Balancing Speech and Reputation: The Impact of the First Amendment on Minnesota Defamation Law
Full text linkRole-Playing for Learning: Enhancing Skills in Doctrinal Courses
No full textThis book addresses the need that educators have to make theoretical concepts tangible. Teachers across various subjects and educational settings grapple with the challenge of communicating abstract ideas to diverse audiences while aiming to ignite curiosity and sustain engagement. The authors offer their insight into the method of role-playing in various law courses in a highly diverse class. The book contains thirteen simulations with teaching notes, along with the theoretical background for this method of teaching.
This is the first in a series of skills books published as part of Mitchell Hamline School of Law’s Laboratory for Advancing Dispute Resolution Skills Teaching (DRI Skills Lab).https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/dri_press/1012/thumbnail.jp
