SCOTUS to Congress: Legislate!

Know how to let the blame slip upon another ... .  Gracian #149

George Rebane

The overwhelming share of congress critters don’t like to make laws that spell out what we citizens can/should do in conducting our lives and businesses.  They know that if they put down what they really mean, then a good fraction of us would get pissed off at them and let it be known at the next ballot box.  So members of both parties have figured out how to avoid this pesky aspect of law-making.  They know the ideological and bureaucratic tenor of the various departments and agencies that will implement the laws, and they write the laws in a namby-pamby language that leaves a lot of leeway for interpretation by the unelected and anonymous bureaucrats who also regularly get sub-rosa offline directions from the camouflaged politicians.  Sleazy politics and corrupt governance.

Given that our federal and state bureaucracies are staffed overwhelmingly by incompetent leftwingers, it is the Democrats who are the architects of the most cynical, ambiguous, and amorphous legislation, while the Republicans stand by grumbling with their thumbs up their … well, you know.  In the 1jul22 WSJ Kim Strassel writes (here) -

Conservative Republican legislators report that this cynicism has now reached new heights. They note that their Democratic counterparts routinely write legislation that is deliberately vague, so as to give the administrative state maximum flexibility to impose programs Congress won’t take responsibility for passing. This also ensures that the federal bureaucracy—which largely shares the left’s political ideology—can continue its work even under Republican presidencies and Congresses.

America’s informed readers have known this for years, but they (we) too have yet to raise hew and cry about the matter that impacts the behavior of the bums they (we) send to state houses and Washington.  Perhaps this oversight is due to our having become too comfortable and ignoring our duties required to maintain the republic.  But the evidence of electoral ignorance and neglect are visible all over the land.  So finally, we get a SCOTUS with a majority that recognizes the problem and has the backbone to correct it.

SCOTUS realized that “it’s easy to bash the administrative state, but bureaucrats are simply filling a vacuum created by a legislature that these days can rouse itself to little more than naming a post office.”  The court’s response was to “declare the ‘major questions doctrine’ - a concept that has appeared in a handful of past court decisions - to be a living, breathing principle. (Starting with the EPA) the federal bureaucracy is no longer allowed to impose programs of major ‘economic and political significance’ on the country absent ‘clear congressional authorization.” 

Showing their hand, the Democrats went apoplectic and started screaming about the radical court attacking the environment – “Federal agencies must have the authority to regulate carbon!”  They spent the week telling their light thinking constituents that SCOTUS has now destroyed the government’s ability to manage environmental protections, and soon other federal bureaucracies will be equally circumscribed.  According to the Left, we’re on our way back to the dark ages before becoming enlightened about things like social justice, equity, common good, QoL, on and on.  Racism has yet to be included in the court’s iniquities, but give it another week.

The Left’s real concern is that the strictly constitutional ruling will put a major speed bump on their road to a socialist autocratic (centrally planned/controlled) America.  Making congress critters put their political balls on the line and be specific about what their laws say to do or not, ruins the whole reason for running for office – the perks, the adulation, the financial sinecure, …, and, of course, the power, always the power.  It’s always been much better to just pass some hernia pack of vacuous language and then tell the voters that it ‘improves education’, ‘succors the poor’, ‘provides equity in the workplace’, ‘provides clean drinking water’, ‘preserves indigenous people’s rights’, etc, etc.  And the beauty of it all is that they never have to tell you how any of these things will happen through the stuff they passed that once more fattens the US Code.

And now SCOTUS has said ‘No more!’, “which helps explain the left’s unhinged reaction to this week’s ruling. It blew up a basket that contained too many Democratic eggs. The merit of statutory law is that it is enduring, but that takes time and compromise. Democrats chose to instead rely on a bureaucracy to impose a purer—albeit lawless—version of its agenda. The court has just thrown a red flag on that entire project. Live by the administrative state, die by the administrative state.”

Don’t think that the Democrats will not do their damnest in the attempt to weasel around this ruling, “its agencies will continue to try to sneak through every opening, and the court will likely have to reinforce and fill out its ruling.  But if the judiciary sticks to its guns and enforces the separation of powers, this week’s decision could prove one of the more consequential in improving the health of the republic.”

Comments

[The Estonian Fox]

Another Independence Day is upon us. Here's a short review of why we broke away from England. It seems that Thomas Jefferson had a low opinion of King George III. The main problem was poor customer service. We oftentimes receive that same level of service now, but from our own members of Congress, whose job is to legislate. Go figure. George didn't listen and he had no competition. Tom understood that competition is the only cure for incompetence. We were forced to establish a competing governmental system.

Tom listed 18 examples of the poor service that soon-to-be American citizens had to put up with. He wrote them into our Declaration of Independence.

How fortuitous that it was Mr. Jefferson who wrote our Declaration. In the last two years, we've seen how easily a number of governor-kings put on their coronavirus crowns. In a matter of months, freedoms were taken from us. We experienced what it means to have just a Bill of Right. Yes, that’s a singular ‘right’. You get to choose which one of the 10 you want. The others are taken from you. With no apology.

“Why looky here Ma, I believe they just threw that pesky Constitution out the window. Ah well, it's just another piece of trash along the still pot-holed and unpaved highway to freedom.”

No government has rights. We, human beings, have rights. Governments have responsibilities to protect our rights, and the authority to carry out those responsibilities.

We should move our focus from today’s one-sided emphasis on redistributive justice. Instead, we should talk about CONTRIBUTIVE justice — that is, the individual’s right to build for the common good, based on their skills and abilities. Our Founders built what they wanted for America. How’s that remodeling going that we’ve been financing for the last 14 years or so? For example, in 2021, only 43% of taxpayers paid federal income taxes. Not very contributive. https://www.statista.com/statistics/242138/percentages-of-us-households-that-pay-no-income-tax-by-income-level/

This is still a great republic! Thank you God, for Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

[Bill Tozer]

The Administrative State Moves To Show Who's Boss On Energy Policy

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-7-8-the-administrative-state-moves-to-show-whos-boss-on-energy-policy