Wednesday, October 11, 2023

News chunk & bits: Chevron defense is at risk; Lighter news

The Chevron defense is one of the targets America's ARR (authoritarian radical right) has hated for decades. The Supreme Court created this doctrine in a 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. In a nutshell, the Chevron deference doctrine holds that when a legislative delegation to an administrative agency on a particular issue or question is not explicit but rather implicit, a court may not substitute its own interpretation of the statute for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrative agency.

The reasoning is that an administrative agency is staffed with experts and has information gathering and analysis expertise the courts do not have. Sine most laws that congress writes and passes are loaded with implicit intent, usually referred to as the spirit of the law. Administrative agencies therefore have great power to implement explicit regulations that are supposed to reflect the spirit of the law. That is essence of the administrative deep state that the ARR movement and businesses hate and want to obliterate. If that deep state is dismantled, power will flow from government and citizens to special interests and businesses. That will constitute a form of kleptocratic plutocracy.

Bloomberg Law writes about a now-pending court case, which is a huge deal not a little deal, that the ARR USSC could use to overturn Chevron or narrow it into near-oblivion:
A panel of administrative law scholars and US Supreme Court watchers says the nation’s highest court is likely to narrow—if not overturn— its decades-old precedent in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a move that would significantly weaken the modern administrative state.

The prediction came as Bertrall Ross, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court also appears likely to use the major questions and non-delegation doctrines to put additional limits on agency power in the future.

The panelists said that a ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that diminishes or does away with Chevron deference completely would empower the federal judiciary by requiring courts to interpret statutes more often. They said such a ruling could also create more work for Congress, which might have to pass more specific legislation in a world where lawmakers couldn’t rely on agencies to fill in the gaps in statutes and regulatory regimes.
  • Professor Allison Orr Larsen, of William and Mary Law School, suggested that, as in Kisor v. Wilkie, the Supreme Court could limit Chevron deference to “genuine ambiguities” in statutory text
  • Larsen suggested that some statutory ambiguities facilitate legislative compromise, and in a world where agencies can’t resolve those ambiguities with their own interpretations, Ross said Congress might be forced to revisit the same statute on a regular basis
  • Ross said recent decisions invoking the major questions doctrine indicate that the high court wants to make sure major political issues of national significance are handled by Congress, not agencies
  • Certain policy solutions clearly chosen by Congress might also be impermissible under an approach to non-delegation principles set out in Justice Neil Gorsuch’s dissent in Gundy v. United States, Ross also said
  • After the Supreme Court concluded in Lucia v. SEC that SEC administrative law judges are officers of the United States subject to the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, Meaghan VerGow, a partner at O’Melveny and Myers LLP, said SEC v. Jarkesy now presents the question whether ALJs at the SEC must be subject to immediate removal by the president instead of removal for cause
  • If the president’s ability to remove administrative law judges is absolute, VerGow said it was an open question whether the lack of political independence on the part of these judicial officers at federal agencies could give rise to due process problems
I cannot understate how important this case is. This is a huge step in the direction of kleptocratic plutocracy-autocracy. 

This video adds context about why this is so incredibly important:


“. . . . . the people don’t have a way to fire the bureaucrats. What we mostly do around this body is not pass laws. What we mostly decide to do is to give permission to the secretary or the administrator of bureaucracy X, Y or Z to make law-like regulations. That’s mostly what we do here. We go home and we pretend we make laws. No we don’t. We write giant pieces of legislation, 1200 pages, 1500 pages long, that people haven’t read, filled with all these terms that are undefined, and say to secretary of such and such that he shall promulgate rules that do the rest of our dang jobs. That’s why there are so many fights about the executive branch and the judiciary, because this body rarely finishes its work. [joking] And, the House is even worse.”


Context for the context: The speaker, Ben Sasse (himself an ARR Republican) explains why congress is so sloppy, and that slop in the laws explains why the Chrvron Defense is so critically important. The context here is the Senate confirmation hearings for the ARR sex predator and professional beer boofer, Brett Kavanaugh. Sasse is an Ivy League trained, soft spoken guy who sounds reasonable. But he is a flaming government-hating, authoritarian far right radical. He wants to obliterate federal agencies and the evil communist deep state. Nebraska voters RINO hunted him out of the US Senate for criticizing Trump including the crime of publicly saying this: “Politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude. The party can purge Trump skeptics. But I’d like to convince you that not only is that civic cancer for the nation, it’s just terrible for our party.” 
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From the lighter news desk:

U.S. Representative George Santos was hit with more criminal charges on Tuesday, with prosecutors accusing him of inflating his campaign's fundraising numbers and charging campaign contributors' credit cards without their consent.

The DoJ commented: Congressman George Santos Charged With Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, False Statements, Falsification of Records, Aggravated Identity Theft, and Credit Card Fraud. CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – A 23-count superseding indictment charging .... “George Santos” .... with one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud, in addition to the seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the United States House of Representatives that were charged in the original indictment. Santos is due back in federal court in Central Islip on October 27, 2023.

My goodness. What a naughty boy. Twice!

HEY! I'm innocent, innocent I tell you!
(no, he's not)
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From the Bad Weather Files: Researchers have found that about 14,300 years ago a big solar burp (geomagnetic storm) hit Earth. Before this new discovery, the 1859 event known as the Carrington Event was the benchmark for the most intense solar belch observed on Earth. The Carrington event sent northern lights as far south as Florida and Central America and knocked out communication systems. The WaPo writes:
In a study released Monday, researchers identified what appears to be the largest solar storm to hit Earth, estimated to be larger than the Carrington Event by an order of magnitude [that's 10-fold, folks!]. The storm occurred 14,300 years ago, but is evidence of a yet unknown dimension of the sun’s extreme behavior and hazards to Earth. 
“It’s clear that if one of these events [occurred] today … this would be quite destructive on our energy network and also internet network,” said Edouard Bard, lead author of the study. “This would really freeze, in fact, all communications and [travel] would be totally disrupted.”
Brrrrap! Oops, pardon me

Fortunately, the US government is on the job. The House has it's knickers in a twist, peacefully touring fascists are roaming the halls of congress with patriotic insignia

Guy on the left: 'Where's the bathroom, 
I have to pee?'

Cop pointing to the bathroom:
'Have a nice day!
And remember, you're a people, urination!'

Thing with horns in the middle:
'Aaawwwhhh hooo doooo! Arf, arf, arf! Ahhoogah!
Baddaboom Tischhh'

Guy on the right: 'Why am I here?'

and, even better, Mitch McConnell signals that he completed the Republican Party response preparations for the next big burp (the secret GOP plan: blame Bill, Hillary, Barak, Joe and Benghazi!!)


I feel safe now that plans have been made and everything is under control.
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A comment to an article about Trump's recent portraying himself as martyred Jesus: Just because a lot of people moan 'Christ almighty' whenever they see or hear Trump doesn't make him the second coming of Christ.

Paintings and prints depicting former president Donald Trump and Jesus are seen for sale on the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 2 in Fort Washington, Md. 
(He's selling this art to raise some cash)
(Note that Jesus has the same skin color as Trump)

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Trump's niece, Mary Trump asks why her ‘fucking maniac’ uncle is allowed to ‘roam free.’ “This f‑‑‑ing maniac likely gave Putin (who gave Iran, who gave Hamas) Israel’s national security secrets. ....  He divulged highly classified information about our nuclear subs to an Australian cardboard guy. Why is he still allowed to roam free?”

Good question Mary. I'll get my minions right on that.

Feng-shui is restored and peace is once again upon the happy people in the happy valley . . . . . they are happy to be happy . . . . . 

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Crackpot fight! Trump is worried about RFK Jr. running for president — and he should be scared | Trump depends on the crank vote that the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist could siphon off

He may not have bolts sticking out of his neck, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is morphing into the MAGA version of Frankenstein's monster.  
It's not because Republican power players like or even respect Kennedy. On the contrary, they see him for what he is: An unhinged conspiracy theorist with a massive ego that makes him easy to manipulate. They just thought they could use him [like they used Trump? Not!], and his famous name, to make life hard for Biden in the Democratic primary, thereby weakening the president's general election campaign.

Crackpot fight? He may not have bolts sticking out of his neck? OMG! 🤪☠️

Politics just gets funner 'n funner!

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