Our 26th President Theodore Roosevelt famously contributed to the American canon the following: “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.” The notion that no one, not even a powerful federal agency, is above the law is the heart of this case. In Altera, the Tax Court addressed the validity of Treasury regulations that required qualified cost-sharing agreements to share stock-based compensation costs. See Treas. Reg. § 1.482-7(d)(2) (August 25, 2003). Altera argued that Treasury ignored certain procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act in the issuance of the final regulations, and therefore the regulations were invalid. The government argued that it did satisfy the APA requirements, and even if it did not any failure was harmless error and the court should defer to the regulations. The Tax Court answered two questions: (1) did the Government observe applicable APA requirements in issuing the final regulations and (2) if not, did such a failure invalidate the regulations? In a reviewed Tax Court opinion, Judge Marvel gave a very clear answer to both questions and in the process exposed the agency’s penchant for governance by diktat in this arena.