Everyone knows bureaucrats in the federal government create laws (they call them "regulations" or "rules") without the consent of the people.
But did you know they also act as interpreters of those laws?
David French published a fascinating piece last week in the National Review highlighting a little-known Supreme Court case that could have profound implications for how our regulatory system works.
In the midst of his analysis, he explains how these regulators act as all three branches of the federal government -- branches our Founders believed should always be separate.
Here’s how it works. As I’ve explained before, the core holding of Chevron is that when a court confronts an executive agency’s “construction of the statute which it administers,” then it will defer to the agency so long as Congress hasn’t “directly spoken” to the issue and the agency has engaged in a “permissible construction” of the statute. Auer builds on the Chevron framework by requiring courts to defer to the agency when even its own regulation is ambiguous. The result is a regime of deference upon deference that gives regulatory agencies enormous authority to craft and then interpret their own regulations.
This deference permits executive-branch agencies to expand their constitutional role and essentially combine all three constitutional functions under a single bureaucratic tent. It’s the lawmaker as it drafts regulations, the judge as it interprets its own laws, and the executive as it enforces the laws that it has drafted and interpreted. Deference supercharges the executive branch. It’s a cornerstone of the imperial presidency and the root of much modern presidential authoritarianism.
It's time to restore the principle on which our nation was founded: laws can only be passed by representatives of the people. If laws are passed by any other entity, we've returned to authoritarianism and tyranny.
That's why millions of Americans have joined the Article V Convention of States movement. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that eliminate the ability of federal bureaucrats to make, interpret, and enforce the laws. These amendments can force Congress to take their legislative responsibilities seriously, and transfer everything they can't handle back to the states.
We shouldn't have to rely on favorable Supreme Court rulings to check the power of the nanny state. We the People need to take matters into our own hands, and we can do it with an Article V Convention of States.
Sign the Petition below to show your support!
