"IF IT WALKS, TALKS AND SQUAWKS...". THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT OF ACCESS TO ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUDICATIONS: A POSITION PAPER.

This article explores the nature of the public's constitutional right of access to a class of administrative proceedings where important liberty and property interests are at stake, specifically those executive branch and agency proceedings conducted as adjudicatory hearings before a neutral decision-maker. Since no statute currently mandates public access to immigration proceedings or most administrative proceedings, an absence of any constitutional constraint against closed administrative hearings would mean that administrative law judges can conduct proceedings behind closed doors at any time, for any reason, or for no reason, which is precisely the power the Department of Justice claimed. Properly defining the scope of the public's right of access to administrative adjudicatory proceedings is particularly important given the vast power exercised by the ever-expanding "administrative state," where administrative law judges "probably" decide more cases each year than the federal courts.