Supreme Court Delivers Another Important Win Against Administrative State
BY TIMOTHY H. LEE
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 2023
Following this ruling, overzealous federal agencies may begin to get a taste of their own medicine.
"The Commission knows a good deal about competition policy, but nothing special about the separation of powers."
Believe it or not, that sarcastic rebuke came from none other than Justice Elena Kagan, writing last week for a unanimous United States Supreme Court striking the latest blow against the federal administrative state.
When even Justices Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson agree that agencies merit rebuke, it sends a welcome and unmistakable signal to a bureaucratic state that poses perhaps the greatest menace to individual freedom in America today.
At issue in the combined cases of Axon Enterprise v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran was whether parties targeted by federal agencies must wait until they’ve litigated and lost in the agencies’ own tribunals before they can raise threshold constitutional questions in a federal court.
To understand the importance of last week’s latest ruling in everyday terms, picture the following scenario.
https://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/42-constitution-and-legal/6300-supreme-court-delivers-another-important-win-against-administrative-state
