Day 1,662: berth, scare quote, abdication, plaintiff, bank on, rein in, administrative state

In a 2015 case involving the Environmental Protection Agency, Justice Thomas wrote that the wide berth Chevron afforded bureaucrats meant the court was “blithely giving the force of law” to “agency ‘interpretations’ of federal statutes” (note the scare quotes) and thereby straying “further and further from the constitution”. For Justice Gorsuch, who was railing against Chevron when he was still a judge on the 10th circuit court of appeals, agency deference is akin to “judicial abdication”.

The plaintiffs in Loper Bright and Relentless are banking on at least three more justices keen on reining in the administrative state.

The US Supreme Court is primed to recalibrate government power

Artwork of the day 
Berthe
James Tissot
Date: 1882
Style: Impressionism
Genre: portrait

Word of the day 
berth: a bed in a boat, train, etc., or a place for a ship or boat to stay in a port:
scare quote: quotation marks (= the symbols “ ” or ‘ ’ ) that are sometimes put around a word or phrase in a written sentence in order to show that the word is being used in a special way or in a way that may not be correct or true:
abdication: the fact of no longer controlling or managing something that you are in charge of:
plaintiff: someone who makes a legal complaint against someone else in court
bank on: to expect something or depend on something happening:
rein in: to make a horse go more slowly or stop by pulling on its reins
administrative state: a term used to describe the power that some government agencies have to write, judge, and enforce their own laws

Quote of the day
“Live steady. Don't fuck around. Give anything weird a wide berth--including people. It's not worth it. I learned this the hard way, through brutal overindulgence.”

― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72