One state changes the rules

The General Assembly of North Carolina recently overrode the Governor's veto to pass the "Regulatory Reform Act of 2011". It changes rulemaking, contested cases, and agency declaratory rulings making them less like the federal APA.

The biggest change is that the decisions of administrative law judges in contested cases will be final, not subject to agency head review. If the agency doesn't like the ALJ's decision, it can appeal to the courts. This moves decision-making power from agency heads to ALJs who may not be accountable as a practical matter to the agencies and to judges who are directly elected in North Carolina. I would be interested in readers prospectives on some questions:

1. What is the urquell or underlying motivation for this change? Politics? Ideology? The confluence of multiple sources?
2. What are the policies behind it?
3. What impact can we expect at the practitioner level?
4. Does it raise any state or federal constitutional issues? Pre-emption problems?
5. Are similar changes likely to happen in other jurisdictions? Will this become the new "general rule"? Any hints of similar changes at the federal level?

I see lots of topics for law review articles. Fire up your brain cells and your computers and start writing! EMM