Call me quaint. Call me old fashioned. I like the US Constitution.
I like it – as it is written. No emanations – no penumbras. As the late Justice Antonin Scalia rightly observed:
“The Constitution says what it says – and doesn’t say what it doesn’t say.”
And even Scalia wasn’t originalist enough for me.
A longtime friend long ago observed that when Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas disagreed – Thomas was correct.
My longtime friend – was correct.
To wit: 1984’s Chevron decision.
In which the Court majority bizarrely ruled DC’s unelected bureaucrats – not the Congress that created them and their gigs – can set their own limits to their own power.
Guess how that’s gone?
Supreme Court Rules Bureaucrats Can Set Their Own Power Limits; No Bureaucrats Find Any
In that ruling, Scalia BIZARRELY sided with the majority. Thomas was in the dissent.
Four decades of utterly unsurprising, vast government expansion later?
Chevron: The Supreme Court Created the Swamp – And Now Must Help Drain It
Except: Last week’s Court ruling – did exactly the opposite of help.
Supreme Court Lets CFPB Funding Stand:
“The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the structure used to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency tasked with enforcing consumer finance laws.
“By a vote of 7-2, the justices reversed a decision by a federal appeals court in Louisiana, which had ruled that the agency’s funding violates the Constitution because it comes from the Federal Reserve rather than through the congressional appropriations process.”
Ummm…the Constitution is pretty clear that all funding must come from Congress – via its legislative process.
Behold Article I, Section 9, Clause 7:
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”
And the Constitution is pretty clear that the Congress – and only the Congress – can levy taxes.
Behold Article I, Section 8, Clause 1:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
No one else – nowhere else in government – is given by the Constitution the power to tax.
So quite obviously: A CFPB funded by “fees” levied by the Federal Reserve – has zero to do with adherence to the Constitution.
It’s even more obvious – when one remembers the “fees-taxes” judicial gymnastics in which allegedly conservative Chief Justice John Roberts engaged to save Obamacare.
The Obamacare ‘Tax’ That Chief Justice Roberts Invented Is Still Unconstitutional
Can the idiotic CFPB ruling get even worse? Of course. This is DC, after all:
“Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority….”
So: Our last, best hope to salvage any portion of the Constitution?
Just wrote for the majority that is burning it to the ground.
Think this is the only such egregious violation of our founding document? Heavens no.
Behold the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – and its Universal Service Fund (USF) tax:
“On wireless, there is the Universal Service Fund (USF) tax. Which…goes up automatically every three months.
“And can also be raised whenever – by three votes from unelected Federal Communications Commission (FCC) bureaucrats.”
Yet another blatant violation of the Constitution.
Which we are now even less likely to shed. Because our best Shedder – just sided with the Constitution’s Shredders.
Supreme Court Likely to Discard Chevron Decision
Four decades on – I really don’t think that’s the way to bet.