Note To A Kindred Spirit In Australia

The Corporate Take Over of Supreme Court Has Been A Long Time Coming

Overruling Of Chevron Not The Final Nail In Coffin of New Deal “Administrative State”

Through the wonders of the internets, I’ve managed to cultivate a correspondence with a friend in Australia who had read a blog post and reached out to share his experience and ideas.

This morning, he sent me a kind note of support, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision repealing the Chevron Doctrine, urging me to write on that topic.

That prompted reflection and the realization that I had been reading, thinking and writing about these issues for over 40 years – beginning with a graduate school course in Administrative Law back in 1983.

I had finished my undergraduate degree in the fall term of 1982 and had the spring semester to hang around before entering graduate school at Cornell in the fall of ’83. So, I took a few graduate courses that spring semester, including the esoteric topic of administrative law. Not many people penetrate this field, and it is virtually invisible in public dialogue and even public policy circles. But it fit within my career interests in following a more left leaning New Deal legacy.

I loved it and managed to apply what I learned on a daily basis over the next 40 years in regulatory policy in and out of State government.

So, it is with extreme frustration and disgust that I’ve watched the Supreme Court captured by radical right wing corporate forces, under the guise of the Koch Brothers and corporate funded Heritage Foundation’s libertarian banner. That corporate project all really began with the Powell Memo (1971).

The Court’s recent rejection of the Chevron Doctrine – ironically the outcome of an environmental lawsuit against a pro-polluter regulation by the Reagan administration EPA – is not the final nail in the coffin of the New Deal “administrative state”.

The court will expand its use of the “major questions” doctrine and revive the 19th Century pre-New Deal non-delegation doctrine to further “dismantle the administrative state”.

And the Court will likely reject the flood of public interest litigation challenging the Trump administration’s implementation of Project 2025:

• The Right Wing’s New Long Game Plan – “Project 2025″

• Trump Is Now Marketing “Project 2025″ – Promises $110 Billion Deregulation & Tax Break Deal To Big Oil And Gas

So much for the concept of “history and tradition”.

At any rate, I sent my friend Jim this note summarizing some of my prescient and unheeded warnings:

Jim – I saw this coming over 7 years ago:

• Gorsuch Misled The Senate On His Radical “Chevron” Opinion

Warned again when Kavanaugh was nominated:

• Confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh Would Cement Corporate Capture Of The Supreme Court

Wrote about it many times since, even predicted it again last year:

• What The “Dismantling Of The Administrative State” Would Mean To Daily Life – Little Awareness Of The Looming Threats Of The Likely Confluence Of The US Supreme Court’s Rejection of the “Chevron” Doctrine

I even tried to reach out to the EJ activist to warn, see:

• Louisiana Federal Court That Struck Down EPA’s “Cancer Alley” Environmental Justice Program Relied On The “Major Questions” Doctrine

No one listens and very few care.

At this point, I’m looking into emigration options.

Wolfe