Court Deals Body Blow to Administrative State
It will not receive unvarnished coverage from corporate media, but there are ample reasons to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 30 landmark decision on “West Virginia v. EPA.”
In rendering its decision, the high court denied the Environmental Protection Agency’s assumed authority to issue sweeping greenhouse gas regulations and direct American energy policy under the Clean Air Act.
The majority opinion was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. In it, the court ruled: “Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day.’ New York v. United States, 505 U. S. 144, 187 (1992). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.”
The court’s decision gutted the American left’s scheme to use the federal bureaucracy to wage their radical war on fossil fuels, as well as the EPA’s attempts to implement Democrats and climate alarmists’ “transition” away from the cheap, reliable, conventional energy sources that built and sustain national prosperity.
But, the decision is far more significant than its having curbed a single example of EPA overreach. It has implications for every anonymous bureaucrat in every federal alphabet agency who justifies their sinecures by issuing often-frivolous, unauthorized regulations.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Neal Gorsuch signaled its importance by noting that, unrestrained, unelected bureaucrats’ abuse of undelegated power can get out of control: “When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the Executive Branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives. In our Republic, ‘[i]t is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society.’ Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch 87, 136 (1810). Because today’s decision helps safeguard that foundational constitutional promise, I am pleased to concur.”
Government costs Americans far more than the taxes we pay, because direct taxes don’t include the regulatory compliance costs that are built into the prices of goods and services purchased by American consumers – including by those who pay no income taxes.
Regulatory costs are hidden “taxes” that cost consumers as much as or more than the record Bidenflation that has more than half of all U.S. consumers living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Annually, regulations can consume roughly a fourth of household incomes. Regulatory taxes exceed every item in most household budgets other than housing – more than food, transportation, entertainment and savings. Most are imposed by unelected, faceless, largely-unaccountable federal bureaucrats who lack constitutional authority or formal congressional authorization.
The Pacific Legal Foundation estimated that nearly three-quarters of the rules it reviewed never received constitutionally-required authorizations. Career bureaucrats who issue and enforce regulations have become a functionally-independent, extra-constitutional fourth branch of government – an “administrative state.”
For years, Democrats have used regulatory agencies to mollify their liberal base by imposing hard left policies that they cannot pass in Congress.
The decision in West Virginia v. EPA has the chance to put an end to all of that by restraining administrative agencies. In it, the court holds that agency rules that address “major questions” must have clear authorization from Congress.
Unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court ruling was split along ideological lines. Its conservative justices chose to restrict the EPA’s power, while the liberal justices disagreed.
The Biden administration EPA has indicated that it will not reinstate the Obama-era Clean Power Plan from which the agency invented its “authority,” and, instead, is drafting new rules on greenhouse gas emissions.
Let the lawsuits commence.
The Biden administration’s well-known disregard for constitutional niceties virtually guarantees that its actions, too, will be eviscerated by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, with the prospect of a red wave in November, a conservative majority in the next session is likely to be skeptical of any agency’s overly broad interpretations of regulatory authority not specifically delegated by Congress.
The court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA is a body blow to the administrative state.
https://www.pottsmerc.com/2022/07/04/jerry-shenk-court-deals-body-blow-to-the-administrative-state/
