The U.S. Supreme Court (Jer123 / Shutterstock.com).Replacing Chevron with a Sounder Interpretive Regime
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 (Olivier Douliery/Pool via CNP /MediaPunch/Alamy.com).Judicial Strategies to Contain the Administrative State
U.S. Courthouse for the Southern District of New York in New York City (mariakray / Shutterstock.com).Diverging Supreme Court Trends May Leave Some Conservatives Out In the Cold
Supreme Court poses for their official group portrait, November 30, 2018 in Washington, DC Seated from left: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. Standing behind from left: Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Credit: Kevin Dietsch/ Zuma / Alamy StockAgainst Skidmore Deference
Previewing the Jurisprudence of Empathy
Whatever may be said about Gavin Grimm’s legal case, the plaintiff in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G.—which the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear—should be credited with handling the lawsuit with the dignity and courage required for a teenager to assert a public position on an intimate matter. One only wishes Grimm and the advocates pursuing the case showed similar empathy for those who are, with equal sincerity, maintaining competing views—views that transgender advocates are using the courts to delegitimize.
Congress Derailed: A Conversation with Christopher DeMuth
Constraining the Adminstrative State in the 114th Congress
Today Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress, and the House of Representatives will have more Republicans than at any time since the New Deal. Given their party’s emphasis on limiting federal government, it is important for these lawmakers to consider transformations of administrative procedure that bring back some limits. In the long run structural reform can be more powerful than discrete policy changes.
Since the New Deal, administrative government has become a dominant force in political and social life. Executive branch agencies– not Congress– are responsible for most of the federal obligations imposed on individuals and companies. To be sure, executive agencies are operating under statutes Congress passed, but these delegations are often broad and, in some cases, almost unbounded. Moreover, the Supreme Court has permitted agencies to put their own gloss on the ambiguities in their statutes and even on the regulations that they write. This kind of executive power undermines democratic accountability and liberty, particularly because bureaucracy generally has inherent tendencies to expand government.
But Congress can cut back on the enormous discretion of the administrative state. Here are four measures that the new Republican Congress should consider:
