Vacatur
A court order setting aside an agency action so that it has no legal effect, ordinarily nationwide.
To vacate a rule is to nullify it. The Administrative Procedure Act directs a reviewing court to set aside agency action found unlawful, and the conventional remedy is vacatur of the rule itself rather than merely an order protecting the parties who sued. The requirement disappears for everyone.
This is what distinguishes vacatur from an injunction, and the distinction is regularly blurred in coverage. An injunction restrains a party from enforcing a rule; vacatur removes the rule from the books. A court may also vacate and remand, sending the matter back so the agency can address the defect, which frequently means the same policy returns later with a better record.
Whether a single district court should be able to vacate a rule nationwide is among the most contested questions in administrative law, and it is why the court in which a challenge is filed receives so much attention. For a reader the operative questions are whether the rule is currently in force, whether the order has been stayed pending appeal, and what the agency must now do.
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