Requiring the giving of reasons helps ensure that decisions are carefully thought through, which in turn aids in the control of administrative discretion.
The courts' control over the exercise of administrative discretion is not new.
Mr. Lewis's column may leave the impression that I think administrative discretion is enough to solve the problems created in 1996.
The Reagan forces were also alert to the possibilities of using administrative discretion as a means of policy change.
"We need a certain administrative discretion," he said.
The latitude for administrative discretion in individual cases surely encouraged rather than checked official corruption.
And even then, the content and boundaries of the offensive behaviour are matters of administrative discretion.
The judgments in notorious cases which had decided that there could be unfettered administrative discretion were repudiated.
He might order the release of detainees, but the disposition of those cases as a policy issue was not within his administrative discretion.
Much was left to administrative discretion and unpublished internal directives, with the odds against eventually receiving after years of the process being extremely high.