The End of Guidance Documents or Simply a Reminder of Well-Established Administrative Law Principles?

As discussed in several news outlets, the Trump Administration recently announced that it would begin to enforce long-standing administrative law principles and limit the weight guidance documents carry in government actions against private companies and individuals. While the ramifications of this decision are still months away from realization, this article outlines the principles and the possible effects we will see in the future from this decision.

Chaos and controversy seem to be synonymous with Trump Administration activities. This was certainly the case a few weeks ago when the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”), with the support of the White House, recently announced that it would begin limiting the use of “guidance documents” and that non-compliance with guidance documents did not constitute a punishable violation.

The announcement, quickly picked up by several news outlets, had the predictable effect of having the pundits take sides on whether this announcement was simply a reminder of the proper role of guidance documents, a domino effect that may have vast implications for the government’s ability to sue companies accused of violating those document or something more nefarious such as Trump was trying to dismantle Executive Branch agencies.