U.S. Supreme Court Deals Another Blow to the Unelected Agency Rulers Making Law w/o Public Participation, Input and Review On Behalf of Themselves as They Rule Over the Federal Administrative State

From [HERE] The U.S. Supreme Court last week decisively blocked yet another unconstitutional action by a federal agency.  

The cases at issue are Axon Enterprise v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran.  The private parties in these suits challenged both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the broad grounds that they operate in an unconstitutional manner and in violation of our Separation of Powers doctrine.

In these cases, the Supreme Court answered a simple question: do private parties have to go through the lengthy and costly administrative process before they can seek review of their constitutional challenge in a federal court?  The Court—all nine justices in a rare display of unanimity— said “no” holding that private parties can take a constitutional challenge to the federal agency itself directly to federal court without first ‘exhausting the administrative process and remedies’ as required by the agency’s own regulation.

This is a very important decision that holds great promise for individual liberty.

Why do I say that?

Because the U.S. Supreme Court is pushing back on the decisions of federal agencies that were never really second-guessed with federal courts simply holding that, as long as the agency interpretation of the statute at issue was “reasonable,” a federal court would not reverse the agency’s ruling. 

Well, this allows federal agencies to exercise an interpretive power that produces the functional equivalent of legislation that overrules even state law, as well as the judicial power the agency often uses to pronounce ‘legislation’ as constitutional—powers not intended by Congress in the legislation that created the federal law.

There is no place in our constitutional scheme for powerful federal agencies to decide what the laws applicable to their agencies mean, but for many years the federal courts and Congress gave up their most important role—interpreting statutes and adjudicating agency disputes—instead choosing to defer to “agency expertise.”

This is quite dangerous because federal agencies have often abused their authority while being largely unaccountable to Congress and the courts. [MORE]