That's the key problem with the US now. Elected representatives are allowed to delegate law making. It breaks the line of accountability. It makes contentious issues worse.
> the key problem with the US now. Elected representatives are allowed to delegate law making.
Congress does not delegate lawmaking, Congress delegates the execution of its powers to the Executive branch. This is how the country has functioned since the beginning, for it would be impractical for it to work otherwise.
Say more: delegation will happen at some level, by definition. In military matters, every step or shot a soldier takes is a decision that has been delegated through a chain of command from Congress. Since Congress is not ever going to be in a position to execute every decision for every individual over which Congress has power, Congress inevitably will delegate the execution of its powers. It has always been this way, and will be this way as long as we have a republic.
> Congress delegates the execution of its powers to the Executive branch
That's the Constitution, not Congress. Regulation, as well, is not execution. Thomas's concurrence on Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns signals where things might go.
This is an opinion that was not widely held for most of the last 100 years or so.
> Thomas's concurrence on Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns signals where things might go.
Definitely agree that our legal regime looks headed for major changes. I consider it likely that SCOTUS will reverse itself on a set of major principles, creating uncertainty for citizens and businesses until a new equilibrium is reached.
I'd say the key problem is that our electoral system and the structure of our government are broken in a few very serious ways, most of which are nearly impossible to fix, in no small part because fixing most of them would require at least one of our two major political parties to be OK with voting themselves into a weaker position (since some of the most important problems cause there to be only two viable parties at a time and fixing them would weaken the position of both those parties), or else they'd require a constitutional amendment, which is even less likely.
Most of our other problems are a consequence of that.
reply