December 12, 2025
Shutting Down the 'Fourth Branch'
By Ted Noel
During the oral argument over Trump v. Slaughter at the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan got seriously exercised. “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government!” Trump’s solicitor general, John Sauer, wisely declined to respond. She went on. “Where else have we so fundamentally altered the structure of government?” Indeed. The 1934 Humphrey’s Executor case did exactly that as the New Deal got into high gear during FDR’s reign.
The Constitution defines three, not four, branches of government. Article I defines all the bits and pieces about the legislative branch. In particular, Section 8 lists the things that Congress is allowed to do. Section 9 lists a potful of things Congress isn’t allowed to do. All these serve the purpose clause in Section 8, which declares that the list of enumerated powers are to provide for the common defense (for all the U.S.) and general welfare (for all citizens). Nowhere does it create a carve-out for people below a given income level, in a particular industry, or above a particular age.
Article II defines the Presidency and Article III creates the Supreme Court. Ultimately all the Inferior Courts are defined by Congress, and Congress even gets to tell the Court that it can’t rule on this or that. Articles IV-VII deal with other subjects, and don’t create any more branches of government.
The Necessary and Proper Clause (last clause of Article I, Section 8) gives Congress the power to do things that aren’t specifically listed in order to get the other stuff done. But the leftist Justices seem to want that language to allow Congress to do things that aren’t in the list of enumerated powers, ignoring the elephant in the room.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/shutting_down_the_fourth_branch.html
