As scholars have demonstrated, litigation changes agencies over time.6 To begin with, the more they are sued, the more legal staff they must invest in. But more importantly, courts tend to hold agencies accountable not for their outcomes but rather for their fidelity to procedures, compounding the accountability trap the bureaucracy is already stuck in. The more an agency is exposed to the courts, the more everyone there, not just the legal staff, must care about, pay attention to, and layer on procedures when they are required to make any decisions—in
