Sharing administrative judges is prevalent, and it undermines the Constitution
There's an entire quasi-judicial system of administrative law judges (ALJs) within the federal bureaucracy who hear cases brought by agencies against defendants. Often these judges are employees of the very agencies bringing the cases before them, but sometimes they're on loan from other agencies. Very little is known about how this works or how pr ...
A database to track the administrative state like never before
As long as people have governed each other, leaders have passed the mantle of responsibility to others. As far back as 1689, John Locke wrote, "The legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands." In other words, legislatures—not bureaucrats—should make laws. But that's been much more of ...
The president’s removal authority is key to the separation of powers
On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed President Trump to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) while lower courts continue to review the firing's legality. This is the latest in a series of firings as the president tests whether he can remove members of independent boards and commissions until a case officially reaches the Court. Co ...
Regulatory oversight with the Congressional Review Act is not enough
If the goal was to restore the constitutional separation of powers, the Congressional Review Act (CRA) has not lived up to expectations. Pacific Legal Foundation research found that for the nearly three decades since it was passed, Congress has used it to overturn just 0.04% of the more than 91,000 rules it's received from federal agencies. Mean ...
Overzealous consumer product regulation is inviting new risks
"A zero-risk world doesn't exist," writes Bethany Mandel for the New York Post. This may seem obvious, but, to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), it often seems like the goal. The CPSC is an independent federal agency charged with protecting Americans against unreasonable risks from what it deems defective or dangerous consumer produ ...
Contrary to what one commissioner might think, the Constitution comes before any government official
"To the end it may be a government of laws and not of men." This ideal comes from the part of the Massachusetts Constitution establishing the state's separation of powers between its three branches of government. The separation of powers is indispensable to the rule of law. Whether at the state or federal level, the separation of powers keeps the ...
Sleeping with the fishes : It’s time to resurrect accountability in U.S. fishery regulation
If you're expected to comply with hundreds of federal rules and regulations that affect your livelihood, wouldn't you like to know that those rules come from people accountable to you in some way? That's how our laws are made, after all. They come from Congress, which is accountable to the people through the democratic process. Yet much of what ...
The real shadow government : How unelected bureaucrats have been calling the shots
Here's a scary prospect: an unelected shadow government operating beyond the limits of the Constitution and the separation of powers, and doing so with no accountability. Many are portraying President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, this way. Tasked with modernizing technology, increasing efficiency, and rooting out waste, ...
The CFR : A 190,000-page monument to executive overreach
We've heard a lot about draining the swamp over the past eight years, from President-elect Donald Trump when he first landed on the national stage and now, from the dual heads of his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. But what does that actually mean and entail? In short, draining the swamp should mean ...