Happy New Year. May the best of it find you and yours, and the rest of it get lost before it finds you.
During my personal Christmas-New Year hiatus, this happened: "Supreme Court Seems Likely to Let Trump Fire Independent Agency Heads."
Politico reported in early December that "The Supreme Court signaled Monday that it's prepared to hand President Donald Trump another win in his drive to consolidate his power over federal agencies." Adding, "(T)he high court's conservative majority appeared intent on overturning or effectively gutting a 90-year-old precedent that upheld restrictions on the president's ability to fire leaders of independent agencies across the executive branch."
Can you imagine? The Chief Executive wanting to have power over the Executive Branch agencies? The nerve.
As is often the case with these cases, the 90-year-old precedent here is totally and completely incorrect. At least if you're seeking to remain in compliance with the Constitution:
"The Constitution stipulates the federal government is a game of three players – and only three players: The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches – Articles I, II, and III. That's it – that's the list.
"Except over many decades of accrued sclerosis, D.C. has affixed an ever-growing gaggle of unconstitutional barnacles upon the Ship of State: The 'independent agencies.'"
"Except per the Constitution – there is no such thing as an 'independent agency.' Every federal entity has to exist within one of the three aforementioned branches."
"This is D.C. – illegally outsourcing responsibility and accountability…."
"Independent agencies" are an unconstitutional figment of D.C.'s fevered imagination. There's only one of three constitutional places for regulatory agencies to exist: Legislative, Judicial, or Executive.
And there's really only one: Executive.
The agencies execute the laws that the legislature passes. It stands to reason they belong in the Executive Branch.
And speaking of precedent, if SOME of the regulatory agencies exist under the purview of the Executive, ALL of the regulatory agencies exist under the purview of the Executive. Because duh.
And that means the Chief Executive, the president, can hire and fire any and every agency employee he wishes and can dictate any and all policy terms to any and all of them.
ALL of this – per the Constitution.
Also, during the holiday hiatus, there transpired a good old-fashioned D.C. FREAKOUT over comments made by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr.
As reported by the Associated Press, "The FCC chairman refused to disown his comments about [Jimmy] Kimmel, and when questioned by Democrats about an agency long considered autonomous, suggested it was not insulated from Trump's pressure.
"'The FCC is not an independent agency,' Carr said."
TechDirt published, "FCC Boss Brendan Carr Showcases How He's A Shameless Liar And Opportunist In Testimony Before Congress," stating, "(M)ost of the day got hung up on a very simple question: is the FCC an independent agency, or is it dutifully bound to obediently do whatever the president wants without question? If you're new to this, the answer is supposed to be the former…."
A PCMag headline stated, "FCC Scrambles to Edit Website After Chair Refuses to Say Agency Is Independent."
"A Thursday Senate hearing seems to have forced a Federal Communications Commission staffer to lurch for their keyboard and edit the commission's site to delete a word now out of favor with FCC Chair Brendan Carr: Independent."
As my friend Chris Plante says, nothing gets you in greater trouble in D.C. than telling the truth.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr did nothing more than speak the constitutional truth.
And D.C. absolutely will not stand for that because D.C. wants to perpetually expand itself.
Unelected bureaucrats, unaccountable to the president and thus anyone, can grow and grow and grow government completely unrestrained by anyone, which is antithetical to the Constitution.
But it is totally conducive to authoritarianism, which is exactly what D.C. wants.
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