Nonacquiescence

In law, nonacquiescence is the intentional failure by one branch of the government to comply with the decision of another to some degree. It tends to arise only in governments that feature a strong separation of powers, such as in the United States, and is much rarer in governments where such powers are partly or wholly fused. Nonacquiescence may lead to a constitutional crisis, given certain critical situations and decisions.

In the United States, federal agencies might practice nonacquiescence by refusing to accept the validity of unfavorable court decisions as binding precedent.[1][2][3] Exceptionally, the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service openly declare such conduct.[4] Executive nonacquiescence has been heavily criticized by the federal courts,[5] as well as the American Bar Association.[6]

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses the term nonacquiescence in its actions on decision to indicate that the IRS disagrees with a court ruling and will not follow its precedent nationwide.[7] In some cases of nonacquiescence, the IRS may follow the decision's precedent within the jurisdiction of the case in question, but not apply it in other jurisdictions.[7]

The issue of nonacquiescence first came to national prominence at the beginning of the American Civil War, in the famous case of Ex parte Merryman (1861). Merryman involved the executive branch's refusal to comply with a U.S. circuit court decision that President Abraham Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was invalid.[8]

  1. ^ Gregory Sisk, Litigation with the Federal Government (Philadelphia: American Law Institute, 2006), 418–425.
  2. ^ Robert J. Hume, How Courts Impact Federal Administrative Behavior (New York: Routledge, 2009), 92–106.
  3. ^ Canon, Bradley C. (2004). "Studying bureaucratic implementation of judicial policies in the United States: conceptual and methodological approaches". In Hertogh, Marc; Halliday, Simon (eds.). Judicial Review and Bureaucratic Impact. Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–100. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511493782.004. ISBN 978-0-511-49378-2.
  4. ^ The SSA publishes Acquiescence Rulings and the IRS publishes Actions on Decisions, in which they state whether they will regard a particular court decision as precedent or not.
  5. ^ See, e.g., Hutchison v. Chater, 99 F.3d 286, 287–88 (8th Cir. 1996); Johnson v. U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, 969 F.2d 1082 (D.C. Cir. 1992); Allegheny General Hospital v. NLRB, 608 F.2d 965 (3d Cir. 1979); and Lopez v. Heckler, 713 F.2d 1432 (9th Cir.), rev'd on other grounds sub nomine Heckler v. Lopez, 463 U.S. 1328 (1983).
  6. ^ Rhonda McMillion, "A Little Compliance Can't Hurt", ABA Journal, August 1997, 96.
  7. ^ a b "Internal Revenue Manual, 36.3.1.4". Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Dept of Treasury. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  8. ^ Paulsen, Michael (October 1993). "The Merryman Power and the Dilemma of Autonomous Executive Branch Interpretation". 15. Cardozo Law Review (1–2): 81–112. Retrieved February 24, 2024.