Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein In the Administrative State

In this book, Peter J. Wallison argues that the administrative agencies of the executive branch have gradually taken over the legislative role of Congress, resulting in what many call the administrative state. The judiciary bears the major responsibility for this development because it has failed to carry out its primary constitutional responsibility: to enforce the constitutional separation of powers by ensuring that the elected branches of government—the legislative and the executive—remain independent and separate from one another. Since 1937, and especially with the Chevron deference adopted by the Supreme Court in 1984, the judiciary has abandoned this role. It has allowed Congress to delegate lawmaking authorities to the administrative agencies of the executive branch and given these agencies great latitude in interpreting their statutory authorities. Unelected officials of the administrative state have thus been enabled to make decisions for the American people that, in a democracy, should only be made by Congress. The consequences have been grave: unnecessary regulation has imposed major costs on the U.S. economy, the constitutional separation of powers has been compromised, and unabated agency rulemaking has created a significant threat that Americans will one day question the legitimacy of their own government. To address these concerns, Wallison argues that the courts must return to the role the Framers expected them to fulfill.

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• Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the Twenty-First Century
• Unfreedom of the Press
• Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution
• The Case for Trump
• Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission
• Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court
• The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
• Our Lost Declaration: America's Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State
• Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again