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The Case That Could Destroy the Government

theatlantic.com

21–30 of 85 posts

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#21

I first heard about this a few days ago in a WSJ editorial Their take? Well, the editorial was titled "The Supreme Court Considers the Right to Trial by Jury", so, yeah, they considered it a good thing. Then there's this, which is 20 paragraphs of scaremongering about fringe legal theories that will destroy the government. Wikipedia seems to agree that it's about the 7th amendment and administrative law judges. https…

The Atlantic seems to have a pronounced political bias.

I am occasionally pleasantly surprised by some of their reporting, but I've mostly found the quality (or lack thereof) to be roughly on par with this article.

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#23
post #3

The image heading this article shows traditional Greek-style marble columns toppling over as if they are rigid single objects. Greek columns can't topple like that because they aren't single objects. They are built of horizontal sections in a vertical stack. In Imperial Rome, the very most prestigious kind of column was a rather ugly type made of Egyptian granite. Columns like this were prestigious because they were…

I don't think visual metaphors have to be historically accurate.

No, but it's nice when they are, because it makes the audience feel clever and occasionally allows more meaning to be conveyed.

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#24
This Supreme Court is, and always has been, political. The idea of the "textualist" or "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution as a philosophy is just propaganda invented in the 1980s shortly after the Federalist Society was founded.

This court seems determined to overturn Chevron [1], which is the basis for deference given to administrative bodies empowered by Congress, the so-called "administrative state" (or "deep state" depending on how far down the rabbit hole you are).

It's the same politics behind the major questions doctrine [2]. This was an approach invented by this court that basically says in matters of statutory interpretation if the issue is sufficiently large, which is subjective, then Congress needs to be absolutely explicit in the powers granted. This was used to deny student loan forgiveness because even though the exeuctive was granted this power, the Court decided the amount was large enough that Congress had to be more explicit.

Put another way: the legislative branch is overruling both the legislative branch that drafted a law and the executive branch that signed it into law. It's quite literally legislating from the bench.

Chevron is another prong in the attack on executive authority. Instead of deferring to experts in the various departments, Congress would need to decide every matter. So if the law isn't explicit enough (according to SCOTUS) then Congress would need to decide every little thing with new laws.

This is untenable. Congress doesn't have the bandwidth to, say, decide fish quotas or hunting seasons or, more importantly, things like what constitutes "clean water" and the allowed actions to enforce that.

This is a very deliberate attack on government itself. It's a form of deregulation to transfer even more wealth to the hands of the very few. Why? Complying with regulations costs money. That's what this is about.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_U.S.A.,_Inc._v._Natura....

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_questions_doctrine

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#25

I first heard about this a few days ago in a WSJ editorial Their take? Well, the editorial was titled "The Supreme Court Considers the Right to Trial by Jury", so, yeah, they considered it a good thing. Then there's this, which is 20 paragraphs of scaremongering about fringe legal theories that will destroy the government. Wikipedia seems to agree that it's about the 7th amendment and administrative law judges. https…

The Atlantic seems to have a pronounced political bias. I am occasionally pleasantly surprised by some of their reporting, but I've mostly found the quality (or lack thereof) to be roughly on par with this article.

The "Ideas" section of the Atlantic is the least doctrinaire of all. They run all kinds of stuff in there. It's almost like a blog aggregator. You'll note this is the author's first contribution to the magazine.

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#27
It's so bizarre that this article considers forcing the Federal government to operate within legal limits to be terrifying. This is not an actual problem. If there is a legitimate need for more governmental authority then that can be addressed through the defined legislative process.

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels like a disingenuous interpretation rooted in some pretty strong biases.

The original article is just that. "Destroying the government" is emotional hyperbole, and beyond disingenuous.

At least it takes the time to expand on that idea rather than just tossing it out flippantly, eg GP.

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#29

I first heard about this a few days ago in a WSJ editorial Their take? Well, the editorial was titled "The Supreme Court Considers the Right to Trial by Jury", so, yeah, they considered it a good thing. Then there's this, which is 20 paragraphs of scaremongering about fringe legal theories that will destroy the government. Wikipedia seems to agree that it's about the 7th amendment and administrative law judges. https…

The Atlantic seems to have a pronounced political bias. I am occasionally pleasantly surprised by some of their reporting, but I've mostly found the quality (or lack thereof) to be roughly on par with this article.

[deleted]

Re: The Case That Could Destroy the Government

#30
post #27

It's so bizarre that this article considers forcing the Federal government to operate within legal limits to be terrifying. This is not an actual problem. If there is a legitimate need for more governmental authority then that can be addressed through the defined legislative process.

The laws and procedures the court is undoing here were all adopted through the defined legislative process, and could have been adjusted through the defined legislative process if voters’ representatives wanted that done. These court rulings will just limit Congress’s power to execute the will of the voters.
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