As James Madison famously observed, “[t]he accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether one, a few or many, … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Federalist No. 47. Using that definition, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is a tyrant, due in part to the poorly crafted…

The Roberts Court has an appetite for taking decades-old, unworkable, judge-made doctrines and injecting the Constitution into the fold. The Justices no longer turn a blind eye to unconstitutional “tests” in the name of stare decisis, thereby becoming complicit in weakening the Constitution, but rather scrutinize the decisions of their brethren through the lens of…

The SEC’s Climate Rule—And Other “Whole of Government” Assaults on Democracy The Securities and Exchanges Commission’s new climate-disclosure rule is just one small part of the Biden Administration’s sweeping “whole of government” climate campaign.[1] But the rule provides us a timely reminder of why these campaigns are, by definition, hostile to our constitutional order. The…

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued the “Blueprint,” a complex regulatory response which tightened and loosened restrictions on activities depending on the severity of the pandemic in each county. The Governor took these actions pursuant to the Emergency Services Act (ESA), which authorized him to assume “all…

Before starting law school, I thought most law was established, even stagnant. I knew that certain politicized cases made headlines when overruling precedent. But I learned that many influential cases overturning precedent are not broadly publicized. For instance, the Supreme Court recently decided Loper Bright and Relentless (which were argued in tandem) and by overruling…

“Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.” These words written by Baron de Montesquieu were foundational to the Framers’ concept of separation of powers. In turn, they influenced the very fabric of our government as it exists today. The Framers firmly believed that the judiciary…