ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interactions between the courts and executive branch agencies and explains agency rule making and adjudication and how American courts supervise many aspects of both these processes. Agency decisions have the force of law, and agency rules and adjudication rulings are clearly one of the multiple sources of law in American society. In fact, many refer to the permanent governmental bureaucracy as the fourth branch of government. The chapter discusses the various types of federal agencies and some of the trends in judicial oversight of their decisions and explores the ways that Congress and the president oversee executive agencies. It argues various United States Supreme Court decisions regarding the decision-making processes in administrative agencies, including the question of how much deference the courts should give to an agency's interpretation of its authorizing statutes. The chapter then explains the role of the federal courts in supervising state and local institutions, including schools and prisons.
