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Thousand Oaks

A Death Blow to Deep State Bureaucratic Power

The U.S. Supreme Court finally had enough of government agencies delegating enforcement of what should be judicial issues to unelected government officials. In a monumental win for freedom and a mortal blow to the “Deep State,” the 38-year-old “Chevron doctrine” was reversed in the June 28, 2024, cases Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

The pendulum has swung, and many Deep State actions are being defeated or withdrawn.

At issue was the extent of authority the Department of Commerce could exercise over a fishery. Under the long-standing precedent of the 1984 Chevron case, agencies had wide latitude to make and enforce regulations. For instance, it fined fishermen and forced duties upon them, even making them pay to bring bureaucrats on their boats to count fish in the name of “environmental” goals. Ma and Pa fisheries suffered greatly from this added expense and intervention in their businesses. Yet for 38 years, this clear form of totalitarianism allowed unelected bureaucrats to target private businesses with essentially no check on their power.

Every community in the United States suffered because of the noxious “Chevron doctrine,” including schools, businesses and churches throughout Ventura County. Think of 2020-22, when our public health agency and its unelected employees took jurisdiction over all businesses in the County, forcing them to close their doors or to require their patrons to wear masks. The rules, it turned out, were arbitrary, based on bad science or no science, and yet public health “czars” like Robert Levin were allowed to run roughshod over the basic constitutional rights of Ventura County citizens. Many businesses were destroyed, and many people fled the County, as evidenced by our shrinking economy and dwindling population. Local police were powerless to step in the way of an OSHA representative or County health inspector who targeted stores for closure if they were, in their opinion, “non-compliant.” Those businesses, churches and individuals that stood against these mandates were made out to be violators of public health.

Those restrictions, we now know, were wrongly imposed and had little effect on public health. The certainly billions of dollars in damage to every sector of society was at the hands of people protected at the time by the Chevron doctrine. The good news is that the next time public health or any other agency tries to seize authority not their own, people have recourse. Courts once again control the interpretation of laws and not a deep state agency bureaucrat or an unelected local government “czar.”

Chief Justice Roberts conceded that reversals of precedent of this magnitude are rare and for good cause, but the Court simply could not allow the bureaucracies of the people to trample on their God-given and constitutionally protected rights of liberty any longer. The next time citizens are stripped of their businesses, churches, schools and basic rights, they can challenge based on this all-important case. Judicial oversight will topple administrative overreach.

The pendulum has swung, and many Deep State actions are being defeated or withdrawn as this article is being written. I just hope it is not too late. Our free country has succumbed to government overreach for too long. As lawsuits for damages begin to mount against out-of-control government agencies, we can rightly claim this case as a victory for freedom in a still-free nation.

Retired attorney George Nicoletti was admitted to the California State Bar and Federal Bar for the Central District of California in 1969. He served as Constitutional Law Professor at Glendale College of Law for 6 years and practiced law in Thousand Oaks starting in 1972. He was admitted to the U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona, in 1994.

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