Posted on 11/12/2018 11:44:50 PM PST by Revel
Federal regulations are laws in all but name. The walk like laws. They take like laws. They smell like laws. They taste like laws. They can impose fines like laws. And they can imprison people, just like laws.
The Constitution grants absolutely zero lawmaking authority to the Executive Branch. That authority is granted solely to the Congress. Not to the IRS. Not to the FTC. Not to the FDA. Etc.
A great example of a law that would fall, unless Congress can Constitutionally delegate it's authority to the Executive Branch, is the War Powers Act. There are so many others. More: From Administrative State to Constitutional Government (Heritage Foundation)
What?
HOLY COW...I didn’t know any of that.
Here's a perfect case in point that relates to the work I do:
The USDOT sets rules and standards for geometric design, highway signs, and pavement markings on the National Highway System. They do this under authority that has been vested in the agency by Congress. Do we really want 535 elected officials -- most of whom don't know the first thing about roadway design, motor vehicle safety, etc. -- dealing with this kind of minutiae through legislation? I can see this argument from both sides.
I have long advocated a kind of "compromise" approach that lets competent professionals work in areas where their expertise is needed while at the same having Congress meet its constitutional duties to legislate these matters: Simply have Congress assign the responsibilities for developing policies and guidelines to an Executive Branch agency (like the example I cited above), but make sure Congress actually passes a statute that makes the policies and guidelines a matter of Federal law, not an Executive Branch regulation.
A good additional consideration here would be for Congress to include a sunset provision in every such law that forces it to revisit every one of them periodically. In the case of highway signs, for example, Congress can pass a statute that says: "The USDOT's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices will serve as the design standard for signs and pavement markings on the National Highway System for a five-year period that begins on January 1, 2019 and ends on December 31, 2023."
Does this sound reasonable?
I moved to this freak state about nine years ago. I knew it was bad but I couldn’t have imagined how lefty freakazoid this place was.
It’s so bad, the State Senate meets in the Mike V. Miller State Senate Office Building.
Want to hazard a wild guess who the sitting President of the State Senate is?
Ding ding ding, we have a winner. It’s none other than Mike V. Miller.
Ye gods and little fishes...I knew that Maryland was a disaster, but obviously, it is far worse than I had imagined.
Sadly, it’s really just that way in two counties and Baltimore City. Most of the rest of the state is pretty darn normal.
Just about everyone I know leans to the right and owns guns. Sometimes lots of guns.
The area south of Baltimore to DC is total swamp, literally and figuratively and is infested with complete liberal pond scum.
After action report. Spellchecker did the rest.
Well at least I know THAT about the state. Thanks for confirming what I suspected/knew.
Yes. That makes the elected representatives fully responsible for whatever they approve, in a way they can’t evade.
So what? Screw that insane rathole.
If the Supremes decide to declare the law unconstitutional, so be it. Short of that, it’s Trump’s call to make.
Brian Fr0sh strikes again! Thanks, you dumb Maryland sheep, for re-electing him.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
A little late with response.
I don’t recall Bobby Kennedy having to step down.
That’s what I mean about nothing was said.
Furthermore, I don’t care about legislation passed after the fact.
Sorry you took such an offense to my post.
I suspect voting fraud is what got Frosh re-elected.
Mark
Believe me, I took no offense to the content of your post. Thanks for clarifying your criterion is making the AG step down and Whitaker has not been made to step down, any more than RFK was. Legislation after the fact is simply because it is always reactive and there is a constitutional prohibition about ex post facto laws.
It does when you run up against federally hallowed wolf and grizzly populations.
You're saying politics will change this? :-)
Not in this state (2/3 registered Democrats).
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