Free Republic

At the close of the Supreme Court’s last term, Justice Neil Gorsuch concurred in the court’s 6-3 decision discarding the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which required Article III judges to defer to federal agencies when Congress’s statutory language is ambiguous. Gorsuch noted while “sophisticated entities” can hire lawyers and lobbyists to “keep pace” with ever-changing regulatory provisions, “ordinary people” cannot. It is they, wrote the associate justice from Colorado, who are the beneficiaries of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, Gorsuch and his co-author, former Supreme Court clerk Janie Nitze, write expansively...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the United States has too many federal laws.Host Shannon Bream said, “I think it will be eye opening to the American people, the idea that so pretty much of our conduct is over regulated and over criminalized many cases. Apparently you and are committing felonies every day without possibly even knowing it.”Gorsuch said, “I think that might be true. Some professors say there are now so many federal laws on the books that every American over the age of 18 commits one felony a...

On July 31, I met with Justice Neil Gorsuch in his chambers at the Supreme Court for a wide-ranging interview about his new book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law.” His co-author, Janie Nitze, a former clerk of his, was present for the interview as well. I didn’t get to ask every question I wanted to, but our conversation covered a lot of ground, including Gorsuch’s indictment of the regulatory state, his approach to evaluating agency expertise, the problem of mass incarceration and coercive plea bargaining, his jurisprudence holding the United States accountable for its obligations to...

‘He wouldn’t have needed a license if it were an iguana,” Justice Neil Gorsuch says. That sounds like a punch line, but “he” in this story is Marty Hahne, a Missouri magician. “It,” the non-iguana, is Mr. Hahne’s live rabbit. As a magical prop, the bunny is a classic, and probably more easygoing than a big lizard would be about getting yanked out of a hat for shrieking children. Justice Gorsuch, seated at a coffee table in his Supreme Court chambers, is narrating an anecdote from his book that goes on sale Tuesday, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too...

President Joe Biden reportedly "overruled" top United States military commanders when he authorized the full withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.What did Biden do?The Wall Street Journal reiterated Sunday that in ordering the full withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, Biden was ignoring the advice of top military commanders, who suggested retaining a nominal force in Afghanistan to help maintain security. From the WSJ:In contrast to the numerous Trump policies he reversed, he opted to carry out Mr. Trump's deal with the Taliban instead of trying to renegotiate it. In so doing, he overruled his top military commanders: Gen....

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada ordered that a 14-year-old girl receive testosterone injections without parental consent. The court also declared that if either of her parents referred to her using female pronouns or addressed her by her birth name, they would be considered guilty of family violence. As previously reported, Maxine* was encouraged by her school counselor in BC’s Delta School District to identify as a boy while in seventh grade. When Maxine was 13 years old, Dr. Brenden Hursh and his colleagues at BC Children’s Hospital decided that Maxine should begin taking testosterone injections in...

Did Barack Obama want to assassinate Osama bin Laden? He may have at some point, because he gave the ultimate order, or allowed it to happen. But I suspect the president was deeply ambivalent. It’s not just his postmodern worldview that suggests this reluctance. It is the discombobulated aftermath of the killing, the weirdly botched reportage featuring such events as cabinet members in the situation room supposedly watching a (we learned) non-existent streaming video of the action and the statement that bin Laden — who had been under surveillance for months from a CIA safe house — was living in...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's political watchdog agency overstepped its authority by limiting donations to campaign committees controlled by elected officials and candidates, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday, a decision that could blow the amount of money spent in an upcoming special election wide open. Judge Shelleyanne Chang's preliminary ruling said a committee raising money for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed initiatives for an expected special election this fall may raise unlimited amount of money from individual donors. If Chang, who will hear oral arguments in the case Thursday, maintains her ruling, political committees controlled by the governor...