ABSTRACT
I have quoted from The Hunting of the Snark (1876) not out of a special fondness for Lewis Carroll but because the passage was used by the D.C. Circuit to defend its judgment in an otherwise unremarkable administrative case involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In Laclede Gas Company v. FERC (1989), Judge Douglas Ginsburg wanted to express his disapproval with FERC for consistently refusing to explain one of its policy choices. The issue centered on a mundane question of administrative law, whether FERC could require refunds under a settlement agreement that had been reached among a group of parties before approving the settlement itself. FERC assumed that it could, but refused to state why, even though rules of administrative procedure require agencies to provide reasons for their behavior, usually based on the administrative record.
