| The Administrative Procedure Act identifies federal Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) as agency employees with expertise in the subject matter they adjudicate. Their decisional independence is protected by separating them from their agency's investigatory and prosecutorial functions, and they are accorded protections in hiring, salary, and tenure. Despite protections to ensure decisional independence, their impartiality has been questioned because they work for agencies. This debate has affected state ALJs as well. In response, most states moved the ALJ function to central panels. Similar efforts at the federal level through the "Administrative Law Judge Corps Act" have not been successful. Congress did not pass that Act due in part to agencies' concerns over loss of policymaking control and loss of agency expertise.;This paper is a case study of how Coast Guard Administrative Law Judges also adjudicate cases for additional agencies without those agencies losing control of policymaking and ALJ expertise. |
