9 Comments

In his book Three Felonies a Day, civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average person unknowingly breaks at least three federal criminal laws every day. Clear brush on your property and you're likely breaking a law. Collect rainwater from your gutters, same thing. Use a "modified" gas can to fill your mower - don't get caught! And on and on it goes, literally infinitely. The agencies even have their own "administrative courts" to decide whether you broke "their laws" through your action, and it shouldn't surprise they near unanimously find against us.

It's much worse for businesses, like Loper Bright, who are desperately trying to stay competitive and producing goods at the lowest price possible - against a regulatory regime that quite literally "doesn't care" if they survive or not. Imagine having a government inspector living in your home every day, watching over your daily activities to make sure you don't break their laws - and having to PAY to have that person in your home!

It was inevitable that agencies would abuse the Chevron deference and unleash this monstrous regulatory burden on us. Thank goodness for the Court in finally ending this nightmare.

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I expect that the courts will be overwhelmed with challenges to regulations.

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If so, so be it. Long past time for the leviathan to get unratcheted a bit.

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Just like the inability to get things done worked so well in the later Roman Republic. You don't realize that you are setting the stage for that which you least desire.

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You have it backward, I'd say. Excessive/amok regulation is a far bigger drag on the nation than litigating some of that regulation away.

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Clogging the courts doesn't necessarily mean that regulation will be lightened. It does mean that the court system will break down in the same way Congress has thus opening the door for a "man on horseback". Cato never realized for all his principles and obstructionism that he was killing his beloved republic and opening the door for a Caesar.

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Are you arguing that allowing the regulatory agencies virtually unlimited power is better for the country than having them checked by the courts?

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It's not virtually unlimited. Congress can always rein them in.

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