"Chevron And The Fall Of The Deep State"
by John Wilder
"I know that the event of last week in the media was the debate. I’ll agree, it was pretty significant, significant enough that I stayed up even later to chat about it with The Mrs., who gets up really early. How early?
JW: Tonight’s debate was thermonuclear.
The Mrs.: You mean yesterday’s debate. Oh, wait, you haven’t slept, so for you it’s still yesterday.
Whatever timeframe you’re using, a really, really big thing happened on Friday. Let me explain, I’m a trained professional. Let’s go back in time a bit. Back in 1938, the Congress passed a law establishing a thing called the “Code of Federal Regulations” act. That act required all federal regulations to be put in a single source, which is now called the CFR. Note that I didn’t say a single book, since the CFR pages totaled 188,343 in 2021.
That’s not a typographical error. There are nearly 200,000 pages of federal regulations. They say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but I’m pretty sure that there is no sane human that could read and retain that insane level of regulation, except for Alex Trebek, and he is, alas, no more.
Now, there are several groups that really love that level of regulation:Lawyers, who build careers on understanding them,
ͦ Big Business, to keep out small-fry competition that can’t afford lawyers to interpret the rules to keep them out of trouble,
ͦ the Antifa® fascists, who are the people who really get bent out of shape if your lawn is 0.05” higher than the regulations say, and
ͦ They exist to write regulations, so they just want to write more.
This is an unholy combination. Regulations are based on law. The Congress of the United States passes a bill, and the President of the United States signs it, and, a law is created. I learned that on Schoolhouse Rock™ when that damn bill just wanted to be a law.
Laws, however, almost always constrain human activities. In some cases, like murder, a law can be a net social benefit, at least when the courts actually enforce the law equally and without favor. But murder is simple when compared to some of the federal laws on the books. I could get into the details, but it’s a federal crime:
ͦ to wash your fish at a faucet if it’s not a fish-washing faucet,
ͦ to let your pet make a noise that scares wildlife in a national park,
ͦ to sell onion rings that resemble onion rings, but made with diced onion,
ͦ to skydive drunk, and,
ͦ sell wine with a brand name including the word “zombie”.
Yes. This was made the force of law, that unelected regulators could make up whatever they wanted and put you in jail if you didn’t do what they made up last week. This was based on the “Chevron Deference” – a court decision that effectively let the Executive Branch make regulations, enforce them, and courts had to bow to their interpretation. It’s been the rule for 40 years.
But the most pernicious part of this is that it feeds into the same mindset that the GloboLeftElite has relied on for years. They want to take an existing law and pound and beat it to meet whatever they believe this Tuesday. For example, there was a requirement that industries stop pollutants from going into the air.
That makes sense. I could argue that it doesn’t need to occur at a national level and that states could regulate it and that might make it un-Constitutional, but, whatever. The law is there. It’s been there forever. The regulations meant to enforce the law when it came out made sense – spewing methyl-ethyl-death across the elementary playground might not be a great idea. On the other hand, maybe it would have made our children strong enough to work in the mines.
But that same law, written decades ago, was interpreted to mean that sweet, sweet carbon dioxide, you know, plant food, is now a pollutant. Why? Because the GloboLeftElite knows that gives them more control, and because it now fits with the Narrative of the Moment despite the original law being signed into law in 1963 and last amended in 1990.
Since CO2 wasn’t on the list of evil things in 1963 or in 1990, having the EPA to suddenly decide it was evil is just regulators making things up. The Supreme Court said, “No, you can’t do this. You have to pass a law. And no, the President can’t just say so.” The Chevron™ Deferral effectively allowed the Executive branch of government be also the Legislative and Judicial. This is extremely dangerous.
92% plus of people in Washington D.C. voted Biden. If regulations can be made willie-nillie without congress even having to pass a law, well, it will be members of the GloboLeftistElite that will write them. And, remember, these folks live to do one thing: write regulations.
One of the worst regulators at fault is the ATF®, who can’t even decide what a gun is. They’re in trouble on the rules they made up on “ghost guns” and pistol braces, and even the definition of who can sell guns without needing an ATF license. Make no mistake, this is a shattering blow for the Deep State, who wants to make regulations with the force of federal law, without there even having to be a federal law change in the first place.
Why does the GloboLeftElite and the GloboLeft hate this? Because all of their termites that have burrowed into the Fed.Gov are now less useful, and they actually have to follow the rules to make their changes. And that’s the sand the GloboLeftElite will have in their panties. They have to pass a law. They can’t make their regulatory changes in the dark of the night by unelected bureaucrats who reliably only vote for more government.
And, no, I won’t be waiting up for The Mrs. to get up so we can discuss this post. I’ll probably just sneak into bed while she gently snores beside me. Hey, wait, is there a federal regulation about snoring? I’ll bet there is... Also – this is what winning looks like. Enjoy this one."
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