1776: When Freedom From The State?

[grarpamp]

Supreme Court Targets The Real Enemy

https://www.theepochtimes.com/supreme-court-targets-the-real-enemy_4571651.html
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

https://brownstone.org/articles/the-mighty-gorsuch-vs-the-administrative-state-quotes-from-west-virginia-vs-epa/

The flurry of rulings from the Supreme Court has everyone’s head
spinning. The most significant among them, even if it doesn’t capture
all the headlines, is West Virginia vs EPA. The majority opinion is
impressive but the part I found truly wonderful is the concurring
opinion by Neil Gorsuch.

This is where we see things headed, toward a major and much-welcome
curbing of the power of the administrative state.

Just to review what this thing is, it is the unelected bureaucracy
that rules the country without oversight from voters or legislatures.
For well over 100 years, most courts have given it a pass, just
assuming that the “experts” in the bureaucracies are handling things
just fine, faithfully interpreting legislation, and merely creating
rules for easy compliance.

Generations have gone by as this 4th branch of government has grown in
size, scope, and strength. For the most part, its baneful impositions
have been felt by one business or one industry at a time. You have
heard the stories. The car dealer complains of how the Department of
Labor is making him crazy. The machine-parts manufacturer is going
bonkers about letters from the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. The energy company can never satisfy the Environmental
Protection Agency.

They are stories and we find them unfortunate but we’ve generally
avoided thinking of these as systematic, all pervasive, and truly
dangerous to the idea of freedom itself. However, there are some 432
of these agencies. The authors of the Declaration of Independence
noted their existence back in the day when they accused the English
king of having “erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither
Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.”
They fought a revolution to end the tyranny but now we have a
home-grown form, starting in 1883 with the Pendleton Act and
continuing throughout the 20th century as each new administration
creates its own bureaucracy.

The thing has taken on a power of its own. Strangely, the topic hardly
comes up at all during elections, and this is for a reason.
Politicians running for office like to advertise their power to make
change. They might even believe it. In reality, elected officials have
very little influence over the conduct of public life relative to the
administrative state. As Trump found it, not even the president is a
match for the deep state.

Here is what has happened since March 2020: the beast showed its face.
Seemingly out of nowhere, these strange agencies and people for whom
we never voted were ruling our lives. They restricted travel, forced
us to cover our faces, closed our churches and schools, and forbid our
businesses from operating unless they were big enough to afford a
powerful lobbying arm in Washington. The whole scene was appalling. It
caused many people—including some earnest judges—to take notice.

Once you see the problem, you cannot unsee it.

...

When you consider the implications of this one decision, they are
awesome. It doesn’t just apply to the EPA and its elaborate plans for
changing the global climate through command and control. It also
applies to every other agency, including the CDC and even the Federal
Reserve itself.

They all should be accountable to the people through their elected
representatives. If we cannot get back to that system, we will lose
everything.

Read more here...