Administrative Law

News Items

Posted on September 18, 2008
Giving New Meaning to "Magic Bus"Customs and Border Protection seized 484 pounds of marijuana from a privately owned bus entering from Mexico. I am hopeful that Ruben Kincaide will be able to get Danny and Keith out of jail before their next gig.If you don't get the hilarity in that post, you are under 40...

Lacey May Be Delayed

Posted on September 18, 2008
Reliable sources are telling us here at Customs Law Blog Central that enforcement of the Lacey Act Amendments will be delayed past the current December 15 schedule. Right now, we understand that the enforcement date will be April 1, 2009. Additionally, implementation may be phased in with the initial emphasis on "core" wood products such as lumber...

Follow Me!

Posted on September 12, 2008
Click the Followers link at the bottom to let me and the world know who you are.

Can You Say Chapter 20?

Posted on September 12, 2008
NAFTA Chapter 20 covers dispute resolution between the parties. Seems like Chapter 20 is going to get a workout.The NAFTA requires the U.S. to open its market to Mexico-based long-haul truckers. This was supposed to have happened years ago. There has already been a dispute panel finding that the U...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Lacey Act Article

Posted on September 12, 2008
I've been in the Pacific Time Zone this week. Although it would be nice to say that I was surfing, sunning, and sailing, I was actually working. Still, it is always refreshing to see a palm tree and an ocean.Speaking of palm trees, I did a piece on the Lacey Act amendments for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America...

Spore Creature

Posted on September 05, 2008
Yes, I am a geek at heart. No, I did not run out and buy Spore. But, I did work on a few creatures with my 7 year old. Here is Bluesox. Don't mess with him.Am I the only one who's noticed that this is essentially the same game as Sim Earth, which I played 15 years ago? Much better graphics, of course.

Always Aftfer Me Marbits

Posted on September 03, 2008
Once while wondering aimlessly in Whole Foods, I grabbed a sample "gourmet marshmallow." I was not expecting anything too different from the Campfire marshmallows we used toast as kids. I was wrong. They were great. They were much less sweet and closer in consistency to nougat than to what I had expected...

The Cool War on Qat

Posted on August 28, 2008
Here is an interesting story from Philadelphia, Customs and Border Protection has identified that city as a distribution hub for qat (A/K/A khat). Qat is a shrub from the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa the fresh leaves of which are chewed for their stimulant effect...

Followup: US v. Ressam

Posted on August 27, 2008
A commenter to this post asked what the Supreme Court decided. While I should be watching Bill Clinton make nice with the Obama camp, I'll work for you my loyal readers instead. You may recall that the issue was whether simply possessing explosives while making a false declaration to Customs was sufficient to constitute the crime of carrying an explosive "during the commission of a felony...

Bike Stuff

Posted on August 27, 2008
The season is rapidly coming to an end for me. It's mainly an issue of darkness and the fact that September and October will be full of travel. I figure I have a few more good weeks of riding to work, so I better take advantage of them.In the meantime, I totally want to figure out how to take a month off and do the Grand Illinois Trail...

Quick Items Tuesday

Posted on August 26, 2008
First Sale Dead for NowIn yesterday's Federal Register notice regarding the data reporting requirements for first sale valuation, Customs and Border Protection tossed in the following statement with little fanfare: "CBP is withdrawing the notice of proposed interpretation...

Admin Law Shout Out

Posted on August 20, 2008
My open thread on rules of origin got a nice hat tip from the Administrative Law Prof Blog, which I have added to my blog roll. I'll also tip you to Professor Nathan Cortez's blog for his Administrative Law class, which is just getting rolling. Maybe we can all follow along a pick up a few tidbits here and there...

Weirdest Customs News of the Weird Ever

Posted on August 15, 2008
In the past, customs news of the weird has usually focused on people smuggling live animals or dead humans into the country. This story has none of that exotica, but it is truly weird.It seems that a customs broker on the southern border has been going to banks--including the Federal Reserve Bank--and directly to the Bureau of Engraving with large amounts of dirty old cash to exchange for crisp new bills...

Open Thread: Uniform Rules of Origin

Posted on August 15, 2008
I know my open thread experiments never work. Nevertheless, I will soldier on once again.I have been having a lot of discussions about Customs and Border Protection's proposal to implement tariff-shift based rules of origin and do away with the old substantial transformation approach...

Survey Says . . .

Posted on August 14, 2008
Here are some of the results of my web poll about this blog.56% of you visit one to five times per month and 21% visit one to seven times per week.65% of you get here via a saved shortcut, favorite, or similar method.93% of you are customs compliance professionals...

Laptop Searches Update

Posted on August 11, 2008
On July 31, the Securing Our Borders and Our Data Act was introduced by Representative Eliot Engel with Representative Ron Paul on as a co-sponsor. Here is a press release on the bill, which is intended to limit Customs & Border Protection's authority to search digital data without reasonable suspicion that the data holds evidence of a crime...

Back at My Desk

Posted on August 07, 2008
Well, I should say "a" desk.Due to the dearth of comments, I gather nothing of particular importance happened while I was gone. I guess that is good.I started my week away with the move of our office to new space within the building. The sad part of that story is that even when you move within a building, you still need to pack...

News To Me

Posted on July 28, 2008
I'll be off line for a week or so. If anything of interest to readers of this blog happens, feel free to post it in the comments. I'll do my best to catch up on my return.In the meantime, here is a topic for discussion:SSAB v. United States: Another case of good law making for a bad result?One other note, as of tomorrow, my office is relocating to another floor of the same building...

Goodbye Substantial Transformation, Hello Tariff Shift

Posted on July 25, 2008
Customs and Border Protection has published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making today proposing to do away with the time-honored substantial transformation test for determining country of origin. I'm sad. I like this rule. I like it for precisely the reasons that CBP wants to do away with it...

Administratve Law and Super Bowl XXXVIII

Posted on July 21, 2008
Is 9/16th of a second enough to offend anyone?We'll come back to that.Whenever I talk to students (either as an adjunct professor or in so-called "informational interviews"), I talk up the value of a class in administrative law. Customs and trade law is administrative law...

9th Circuits Still Says CBP Can Search Your Laptop

Posted on July 21, 2008
In an expected result, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has denied a petition for rehearing in the case of U.S. v. Arnold. This case involved the issue of whether Customs and Border Protection can search laptops (or other digital devices) that passengers carry with them across the border...

More from the Courts

Posted on July 18, 2008
The Courts have been busy. On Wednesday, the Federal Circuit decided Volkswagen, in which another case was dismissed under Court of International Trade Rule 12(b)(5) for failure to state a claim.Volkswagen follows from Saab and similar cases involving efforts by importers to secure a value adjustment under 19 CFR 158...

Dispatches from Laredo

Posted on July 16, 2008
Here are a couple good articles on enforcement activity in Laredo. Both involve the use of in-bond procedures to defraud either the U.S. or Mexico. In one case, Chinese fabric moving in-bond to Mexico was improperly manipulated to change its origin labeling to indicate that it was of U...

The CIT and the Endangered Species Act

Posted on July 16, 2008
Federal Circuit has issued a decision in Salmon Spawning & Recovery Alliance.The issue here is whether the CIT can hear a claim that Customs and Border Protection and Fish & Wildlife have failed to enforce the Endangered Species Act with respect to certain salmon imports from Canada...

Breaking: Gender Discrimination Case Dismissed

Posted on July 07, 2008
On July 3, the CIT dismissed Totes-Isotoner, but not on the grounds many people expected. It is a very interesting read (link). This is the case asserting that tariff rates that distinguish between products for men and women or between adults and children are unconstitutionally discriminatory...

Let The Chips Fall

Posted on July 07, 2008
Here is a classification decision of another sort.In the UK, most food items are exempt from the value added tax. However, there is an exception for what Americans would call "potato chips." Recently, the UK tax court had to decide whether Pringles, those tube-packed stacks of potato-ie goodness, are actually potato chips for purposes of the tax exemption...

Costa Rica Inches Closer to CAFTA

Posted on July 02, 2008
To meet the U.S.-imposed October 1 deadline for implementing CAFTA, Costa Rica has dismantled its telecom monopoly and now its insurance monopoly. See the story here from the International Herald Tribune.You may now break into "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" and I don't mean California.

Touch My Survey Monkey

Posted on July 02, 2008
I've created a survey of to get some visitor feedback. It is not at all scientific; just humor me.Click here to take surveyI view this as kind of an experiment. If it works, I'll do future surveys on important issues like whether companies should join Customs and Border Protection's Importer Self Assessment program and what is the best harbor on Lake Michigan?

CBP on Laptop Searches

Posted on June 30, 2008
Customs and Border Protection has responded to the public and congressional attention it has attracted via searches of digital devices at the border. Customs' side of the issue is nicely presented here:Leadership Journal: CBP Laptop Searches

Can Lou Dobbs Define Sovereignty?

Posted on June 27, 2008
Yesterday, I dropped an angry comment on the blog www.yourrightsblog.com in response to a Lou Dobbs video they posted there. That blog labels itself as "Exposing true rights for Americans and Canadians." The comment appears not to be making it past the moderator approval process, so I will reproduce it here...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.