The Supreme Court struck down the EPA’s Clean Power Plan rule in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, one of the Supreme Court’s final rulings for the 2022 term. The decision wasn’t one of whether the EPA’s rule made good sense or was even achievable.
The Supreme Court found that the EPA, as an administrative agency, doesn’t have the legal authority to make their own rules. That’s the responsibility of Congress – the duly elected representatives of the people. It is a matter of the separation of powers principle and legislative intent.
Major Questions
The question at stake, according to the majority decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, was the “major questions doctrine.” Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, found that the EPA couldn’t point to “‘clear congressional authorization’ for the authority it claims.”
The EPA, in writing the rules for the Clean Power Plan rule under the Clean Air Act, “claimed to discover an unheralded power representing a transformative expansion of its regulatory authority in the vague language of a long-extant, but rarely used, statute designed as a gap filler. That discovery allowed it to create a regulatory program that Congress had conspicuously declined to enact itself.”
The 6-3 Supreme Court ruling told the EPA it can’t make its own rules under the major questions doctrine. “Agencies have only those powers given to them by Congress, and ‘enabling legislation’ is generally not an ‘open book to which the agency [may] add pages and change the plot line,’” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “The agency instead must point to ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the power it claims.”
He later added, “A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.”
Congress Alone
Justices Gorsuch and Alito carefully explained that Congress – and Congress alone – has the authority to pass laws representing the will of the people. Lawmaking that is delegated to unaccountable bureaucracies belies the intent of ensuring rule by executive fiat and prevents whipsaw rule-making that gets overturned by each presidential administration.
“Admittedly, lawmaking under our Constitution can be difficult. But that is nothing particular to our time nor any accident,” wrote Justices Gorsuch and Alito in their concurring opinion. “The framers believed that the power to make new laws regulating private conduct was a grave one that could, if not properly checked, pose a serious threat to individual liberty.”
“In a world like that, agencies could churn out new laws more or less at whim. Intrusions on liberty would not be difficult and rare, but easy and profuse,” they added. “Stability would be lost, with vast numbers of laws changing with every new presidential administration. Rather than embody a wide social consensus and input from minority voices, laws would more often bear the support only of the party currently in power. Powerful special interests, which are sometimes ‘uniquely’ able to influence the agendas of administrative agencies, would flourish while others would be left to ever-shifting winds. Finally, little would remain to stop agencies from moving into areas where state authority has traditionally predominated.”
In other words, it creeps toward a tyrannical administrative state.
“When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the Executive Branch might seek to take matters into their own hands,” Justices Gorsuch and Alito added. “But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives. In our Republic, ‘[i]t is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society.’”
Unilaterally Redefining
The decision to limit the EPA’s authority to promulgate rules over “cap-and-trade” schemes doesn’t seem like a direct translation to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and ATF…until it’s looked at through the lens of executive agencies claiming legislative authority where it does not exist.
The DOJ and ATF claimed authority to rewrite the rules defining what is a frame and receiver and define AR-pistols as short-barreled rifles under the 1968 Gun Control Act and the 1934 National Firearms Act. In both laws, however, the authority for ATF to do so doesn’t exist. In fact, defining firearms is explicitly the authority of Congress.
Congress set the definition of what constitutes a firearm in the 1968 Gun Control Act. In the case of reclassifying AR-pistols as short-barreled rifles, these definitions were created by Congress. Congress alone has the authority to rewrite them. Neither of the laws include provisions allowing agencies, including the ATF or the Attorney General, to rewrite definitions of what constitutes a firearm on their own.
The DOJ, through the ATF, appears to be overstepping their congressional authority to redefine frames and receivers differently from how Congress defined the terms in statute. Similarly, the agencies are attempting to redefine what is classified as short-barreled rifles and subject them to the NFA regulations, including taxes, photo and fingerprint submission and onerous background checks.
The role of the ATF and DOJ is to enforce the 1934 NFA and 1968 Gun Control Act. DOJ and ATF have the congressionally delegated authority to faithfully implement those laws through rulemaking. But that delegated authority doesn’t authorize them to change the law on their own to match advancements in technology or their view of good public policy.
The major question with the DOJ’s proposed rules is, where do they derive Congressional authority to assert this power? The rules, in light of the W.V. v. EPA ruling, appear to be out of bounds. The Supreme Court’s decision is a welcome – and necessary – check on the growth of the undemocratic “administrative state.”
We will be thanking Trump long past the end of his second term.
Yessir. And I can only hope our more northerly and oftentimes less than well informed black robed Jedi and Sith are taking notes. Are we still allowed to dream?
You mean for banning bump stocks without authority and without compensation??
No that isn’t what he meant you bitch…
But then your duh mass knew that.
That’s EXACTLY what was meant by this article, that the ATF also must do only what Congress authorized it to do. The fact that Trump pushed the ATF into that ban apparently also bypassed your brain.
Your not the smartest tool in the shed. Trump will get all semiautomatic guns ban, this has been covered numerous times. Not surprising though, sure you praise Reagan and the NRA too, despite the fact they got machine guns ban and Reagan in particular hates non whites, assault weapons and I’m sure a host of other things.
“Trump will get all semiautomatic guns ban, this has been covered numerous times.”
Wrong, dumb-ass, as usual.
The ‘Phrase that pays’ is “In common use”. Those guns are expressly protected by the 2A.
I suppose you would have been happier with the HildaBeast putting 3 Leftist Scum ™ on the High Court? 🙁
Maybe it was Trump expanding Russian rifle import ban to include VEPRs. People tend to forget that little back stab. Absolutely no reason that he had to do that. It was such an arcane detail that it never would have risen to national discussion. I don’t know what voter niche would change their vote for him by doing that.
But I’ll still vote for him if he’s the candidate just like the first 2 times.
Much prefer Desantis.
He hasn’t mis-stepped once as far as I can tell.
Not impressed at all with Trump record of cabinet appointments.
Say what you will about Trump, but his 3 SCOTUS picks landed the US it’s biggest constitutional victories in decades.
Damn straight, but you’ll never get a ‘never trumper’ to admit that… 🙁
Still waiting to see what happens to bump stocks, that’s when we find out how screwed we are. If they uphold every semiautomatic can easily be converted into a machine gun, then we have some serious problems.
Our Constitution is written in plain 6th-grade English. The real mystery of our times is that there can be such a discrepancy in how a Liberal or a conservative Supreme Court Judge interprets it. The problem as I see it is that the Liberal Justices don’t use their intellect, only their feelings regarding interpretation. That is why you see only Liberal Justices Legislating from the Bench and not the Conservative Justices. If we keep electing these far-left and RINO politicians, Our Constitution will become meaningless. Too bad that the average voter is not intelligent enough to realize that. God Save Us!
Yes, isn’t it amazing, the disconnect is breathtaking.
It was trumps appointee at the ATF who instituted the ban under his direction, as jwn says it happened on trump’s watch so it’s his responsibility.
And they’ll be no second Trump term, his fraudulent elector scheme will ensure his indictment. Turns out, it is a felony to forge official documents in an attempt to defraud the United States of America.
Cool story ShareBlue.
Trump wasn’t the one who committed election fraud, Miner. How much did you get paid for the fraudulent ballots you keister bunnied to the drop boxes during the kung flu plandemic?
Serious question, MajorStupidity,
When you make comments like the above, how do you manage to type while concurrently committing onanism to your Leftist/fascist fantasy about Trump being “indicted”???
Trump was/is more of less of a clown. Trump was neither the incipient dictator you fantasize about, nor the authoritarian you sometimes try to paint him as. Trump was . . . a politician. On his WORST DAY, Trump was neither as useless, NOR as authoritarian, than Senile Joe the Serial Child Groper (or, more accurately, his handlers) would be.
More importantly, if you are so gung-ho for authoritarian, Leftist/fascist “gun control”, why does Trump outlawing bump stocks bother you so much????? Now, I don’t own a bump stock, and would never bother (a stupid device, attractive mostly to inexperienced airheads such as yourself), but I believe any halfwit (yes, even including you) that wants one has the right to buy/make one (they are, BTW, absurdly easy to make – but y’all are too stupid to know that).
There are relatively few on this forum that think Trump is some Reagan-esque figure (and most of those don’t think Reagan was ‘all that and a bag of chips’). OTOH, only yourself and dacian the stupid seem to even try to argue that Senile Joe is anything other than a rapidly-declining, bumbling nincompoop (who was a halfwit BEFORE he became senile). Not a Trump fan; would happilly take Trump a thousand times over “Bad-touch” Biden.
Your partisanship, obsessive lying, and general witlessness and fascist tendencies are all duly noted. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your pubic hair – no, you’d actually probably enjoy that, wouldn’t you?
Yeah too bad right? Now you can embrace sòĉialĩsm because you are an abject loser and useless at surviving so you vote for everyone else to subsidize your ass by throwing a harness on them to pull your wagon, all while you complain about not having enough while grooming children, dyeing your hair blue, and intimidating others into adjusting their language to suit your insane pronoun usage.
Dead weight. That is what you are. Worse than dead weight even.
“Serious question, MajorStupidity,
When you make comments like the above, how do you manage to type while concurrently committing onanism to your Leftist/fascist fantasy about Trump being “indicted”???”
Serious answer, Lampery
I was going through severe withdrawal when President Trump was censored by Big Tech. This Soviet/Banana Republic Style Jan 6th “commission” has restored much of my unhealthy Trump derangement I suffer under.
Little known fact, I can no longer eat oranges… To many memories.
Trump didn’t get to appoint anyone to the ATF. He had to withdraw his Appointee, Chuck Canterbury due to pushback from the Senate.
The “Bump Stock” Ban was done by an Acting Head.
Dettelbach will be only the second Appointee to receive confirmation since the ATF Director became a position requiring Senate confirmation in 2006. The last confirmed Director was B. Todd Jones.
Yup. The bump stock ban was a tactical blunder. He thought it would be an easy win to try and get the moderates on board with more substances parts of his policies.
But that was NEVER going to happen given that the entirety of the neo-con/neo-lib establishment and the MSM was never going to forgive him for ‘stealing’ the election from ‘Madame President’.
Ultimately, the act of President Trump replacing three SCOTUS judges with pro-2A activist will have more affect than pissing and moaning over a range toy getting banned.
Dog, I’m curious, what’s the ShareBlue thing denote ?(must be something awful… ).
Rider/Shooter:
Shareblue media is a front for the DNC’s propaganda and online disruption arms. Among many other things they show up onto pro right-wing websites specially to try and rile up trouble and disrupt conversions. Ironically there’s always been questionable utility for them to do this, but it’s still something the DNC dumps tens of millions of dollars into every year.
The the really crazy thing is the DNC is not even the only group that does this. Multiple nations states have been caught doing this sort of thing. One of the things that came out of the ‘russian collusion’ non-sense during the first Trump administration was it was discovered that the Russian government was dropping a few tens of thousands of dollars to run some of the biggest pro-BLM sites on the internet.
Indeed. “Active measures”. The DNC even hired an ex general, McCrystal, who was head of US cyber propaganda used against radical Muslim terrorist groups online. McCrystal was even quoted comparing the US right to extremist Islam. For anyone wondering all this info is out there in the open to research this.
Wasn’t Share blue previously Correct the Record and 2016 election (mis)information focused?
Trump had DOJ & ATF write unconstitutional regulations knowing full well they would be eventually overturned by the courts for just the reason stated in the opinion in West Virginia v. EPA.
He did this because Congress was actually going to ban bump stocks at the time.
As a gun owner who voted for Donald Trump. And a Bump Stop owner who lost my bump stock in a boating accident. If Donald Trump runs again I will vote for him.
The gun owners who suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome” are incapable of understanding this and don’t use reason or logic at all in their thinking process.
“If Donald Trump runs again I will vote for him.”
Hoping he doesn’t run; the same cabal that stopped his agenda remains in DC. A one-term president is lame duck from the moment of inauguration. He wasn’t allowed to succeed when there was a prospect of a second term. Trump’s power will be even more circumscribed in a second 4yr term.
OTOH, Republicrats need to be very careful who they run. Taking a popular candidate from House, Senate, Governorship could risk a majority; no guarantee the replacement will be equal to the incumbent chosen, or that the replacement will not be from the opposition.
I could not agree more. The ATF does not have the authority to rewrite a definition of “firearm” contained in a specific federal statute so as to broaden the scope of its regulatory authority. Yes this is a problem for the ATF because technically the definition of firearm does not include the two separate parts of an AR style receiver.
When explaining this situation to friends and family, I liken it to parents who originally had dominion over their household when they first married, but slowly shifted more and more tasks to their growing children. Unlike a farm in which the parents are always in charge, this household has parents who have shied away from disciplining their teenagers, and now that the offspring are running amok under the color of their household’s reputation (my parents said I can drive the car wherever I want…my parents let me order anything I want off their Amazon account…) there is no respect anymore.
“The ATF does not have the authority to rewrite a definition of “firearm” contained in a specific federal statute“
You are correct, sadly this is the way business has been done in Washington for decades. Congress just hasn’t wanted to be troubled with the details and has neglected their legislative responsibilities.
This HAS to be “Fake Miner” – it is almost sensible and coherent. CANNOT be our own, dear MajorStupidity!!
Kindly take note;
There is no ” “Fake Miner” “.
There is a “Foe” Miner though.
But, then again, I have many personalities…
“legislative responsibilities”
LOL. No. They just don’t have the votes. Trust me, a fully leftwing congress would have no problem legislating their opinion all over you, should they take over. All your sons will have vaginoplasty’s in no time, and you will say what they want to be called or felony. Also, the words “all lives matter” will be banned, as well as all guns. Get out the breadlines, we are going to help the people! the democrats will say.
“legislative responsibilities”
Phhhhhhhhhhhht!
This ruling does mean that so called Agencies cannot make laws but we will have to sue everyone of them every time they do it because they will not stop. It’s time to downsize the communist government in D C back down to it’s original intent and to have congress on a 3 month session per year. Cut their pay accordingly.
This ruling does mean that so called Agencies cannot make laws at their whim. I imagine we will have to sue each and everyone of them , over and over until we can abolish all of them and re-establish the small government that our founding fathers envisioned. All of the agency folks then could be relocated to Cuba where their favorite form of governance is already established. Let’s see if this winds up in “moderation’.
Cut their pay? How about we just dock their pay for every day over a hundred and twenty that they’re in session — incentivize being efficient.
+5
What would help is making the losing party pay all expenses in pursuing 2A lawsuits…
You’d have to reform other parts of the system, otherwise at the end of the day you’re just suing the taxpayer.
Even in cases where the payout is covered by insurance the premiums are picked up by the taxpayers and when the premium goes up so do the taxes.
I totally support decentralizing the government. By sending all powers back to the individual states. Which is how our system was originally designed and supposed to be run by, well over two hundred years ago. And I’m sure that there will be States who will defy the Supreme Court. As some states have done so historically. So you can move to a slave state like California, Colorado, or Illinois, if you don’t want to have to worry about other people having guns.
Or you can move to a free state like Alabama. Mississippi. Tennessee. Kentucky. All the free states in the 21st century.
Freedom is very dangerous, and those who are willing to give up freedom for safety will end up with neither and deserve neither.
We’ll see, but I’m not as sanguine that WV v. EPA is going to help on much of the BATFE’s regulatory overreach. At least not yet.
If Biden and/or BATFE issued an order decreeing that all Glocks and AR’s are “machine guns” because they can “readily” be converted to full auto via 3d printed parts, or if the EPA or DoI purported to ban all lead-containing ammo, the “major questions” doctrine could well come into play. But something like the bump stock ban, or whether or not an arm brace makes an 8″ barreled AR an SBR or not, probably doesn’t rise to the level of a “major question.” (NB: I still bet that the bump stock ban goes down, because applying Chevron deference to a *criminal* statute is a no-no. Watch and see if the Fifth Circuit agrees as they consider that issue en banc.)
WV v. EPA is indeed a big deal, perhaps the most important decision of the last term (and that’s saying a lot). But it’s important to be realistic as to what the actual holding was, and not let the permutations of what it *might* mean in the future color a steely-eyed analysis of what the current state of the law is.
LKB, what’s the quickest way to get something like the BATF’s ‘Arm-brace is an SBR’ ruling in front of a federal judge who could put a stay on it’s implementation?
And their ’80 percent must be serialized at the point of manufacture’ ruling?
I think there are any number of currently pending cases (e.g., the bump stock case that’s en banc at the Fifth Circuit) where we’ll see how the courts deal with the one-two punch of Bruen + WV v. EPA.
But I don’t think the 80% receiver or arm brace cases are the test case we want first. You build these things brick by brick.
“But it’s important to … not let … permutations … color a steely-eyed analysis of what the current state of the law is.”
What do we foresee if we consider a Steely-Dan analysis of the current state of the law? No static at all? Badump-tish!
Evertime i make a comment with the word social1zst, they will not let it be shown. Does Pelosi’s daughter do the censorship here ?
Socialist.
Just testing.
Ed,
I posted a comment with the first word as s0c1alist ( with the correct spelling, of course. It immediately went to the land of moderation.
Now we know whats on the back side of the moon !
Same here…ramp it up to marxist.
Yup. Even muttering the name of The Great Pharmaceutical Company Inc we have all come to know, love and respect sends one into the re-education camps. Can’t describe priming the firing mechanism of a gunm either or it’s off to the camps. WEF al gore rythms indeed.
socialist, socialism.
Don’t you mean to say socialism, socialist? Perhaps we should all take a turn today. Maybe a few times. Go all Jan 6 on their behinds.
it was held, disappeared, then reappeared.
ice cream social, social construct, social studies, social graces, social media, social drinker, social disease.
Depends on what you say I guess. If you use the words “forced sharing” or “throw a harness over their head to pull your wagon” – stuff like that.
lol
Ha! Yup. Like beelzebub, me repeating your words went straight into the camps. I suggest we all do it multiple times over today. Rock it like it’s the day after Jan fifth.
Now, when agencies deliberately scoff at this SCOTUS decision (and, with this tyrannical regime, they will), criminal and civil suits should fly, class-action should abound, and all the aggrieved gather in force. We must make clear, through the courts and through feet on the street, that we will not abide tyranny.
All of the free states should have their legislatures pass legislation that annuls each and every encroachment that they pass. It would be just as legal as theirs.
Democrats in general, and the Biden Administration in particular, don’t care what SCOTUS rules when they don’t agree with the decision.
They’re lawless thugs and wannabe tyrants.
FJB
Yes. As I stated when the decision was released. The remakes (reverses) the entire administrative state. 95% of what fedgov has done with their BS “rule” making in the Executive Branch (and the wholesale buck passing from the Legislative Branch) for at least 90yrs has been UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Their budgets have also been BS as allow the various Exec Branch agencies to determine where their $ are spent.
Outlawing something that can readily be converted to something illegal, that’s letting the wolves into the sheep pen. Combustible liquids can be converted into Molotov cocktails, rags can be used as the fuse, bottles can be used as the container, plumbing pipe can be used for bombs or make shift guns, where does it end ?
It ends when they are all gone or when we are all gone.
Truer words…
Most likely the latter.
They truly believe to achieve utopia, you need to eliminate the unpersons. But the land of plentiful rainbows and unicorns will be reached just after the next massacre, and the next, and the next, and the next…
The SC based its reasoning on “major questions”, i.e. scope of agency rules. SC did not invalidate the “Chevron Doctrine” entirely.
Expect agencies to argue over whether their rules pertain to “major questions”.
Yup. WV v. EPA is a very big step to cabining or overruling Chevron, but it’s far from gone.
Good article yesterday by law prof Jonathan Adler, positing that SCOTUS will start giving Chevron the Lemon treatment:
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/07/10/will-chevron-get-the-lemon-treatment/
(For the non-law nerds out there, the Lemon test was created by SCOTUS 50 years ago for first amendment “establishment” cases. It was widely criticized, including by the Supreme Court, but never directly overruled — instead, SCOTUS would instead keep narrowing the scope of the Lemon test. Last month, SCOTUS finally declared the Lemon test dead, without formally overruling it.
Adler theorizes that this is how this Court will get rid of Chevron: it will SLOWLY get the death of a thousand cuts, with the scope of permissible Chevron deference decreasing (or, as they did in one case last month, with SCOTUS ignoring Chevron entirely).
That may well be what eventually happens, but as Sam notes (and as I commented supra), it’s not the law just yet. Chevron is still on the books, and there is no shortage of judges in the DDC and on DC Circuit who will be happy to continue to apply Chevron deference to let the administrative state continue doing its thing.
It would be helpful, useful, informative if you would write an article on administrative law vs. civil/criminal law. IIRC from university, administrative law begins with the accused having to prove innocence; our entire concept of “innocent until proven guilty” is upended.
“Adler theorizes that this is how this Court will get rid of Chevron: it will SLOWLY get the death of a thousand cuts, with the scope of permissible Chevron deference decreasing (or, as they did in one case last month, with SCOTUS ignoring Chevron entirely).”
That only applies for as long as the Court balance remains ‘Ever in our favor’.
The first chance the Leftist Scum ™ gets the high Court balance in their favor, all those gains can evaporate.
And they’ll do it while citing the ‘Dred Scott’ decision, as righting a wrong. (For the record, overturning that was the proper and moral thing to do.) With that same sense of mis-placed pious righteousness, they will overturn ‘Heller et.al’ when the opportunity arises. 🙁
Kind of a good thing I’ll be decades dead when that happens…
“check on the growth of the undemocratic “administrative state.”
Well. The “administrative state” was very democratic. You may know it by its more common name, Joe Biden
Actually “The New Deal”
“But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives.”
What a great dig at Obama’s famous line: “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.”
Gotta love that!!
Yes, it stands out, as it very well should.
might be a good time to re-read Animal Farm…..we’re getting deep into “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”
Animal Farm should be a must-read for all children. They love animal stories and this book will make them think.
“Congress set the definition of what constitutes a firearm in the 1968 Gun Control Act. In the case of reclassifying AR-pistols as short-barreled rifles, these definitions were created by Congress. Congress alone has the authority to rewrite them.”
I disagree with that statement! Nowhere in the text of 2A is there positive language that allows the government (including the legislative branch thereof) to regulate “Arms” in any manner. To the contrary, said language forbids “Congress”, or any other branch of government, from doing so! (That includes their bureaucratic lackies.) ALL “gun-control” – or any governmental interference with the right to keep and bear fire-“Arms” – of any kind – is thereby unconstitutional! This includes defining, banning, or anything else regarding it.
We have a “supreme Law” for a reason. That reason is for the people to keep their government from becoming a tyrannical body that with impunity runs roughshod over the people’s natural rights. By being disarmed, or at the disadvantage of not having the same types of “Arms” that they would deploy against us, we’ll be at in an inequitable position to defend ourselves against such a tyrannical government.
I’d seriously like to hear someone argue this point while recognizing, respecting and retaining the Second Amendment of the United States of America. I do not believe it can be done.
It’s ironic that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to provide arms to the people, but they’re all so intent on taking arms away. I’d love to see someone introduce a bill aimed at the effectiveness of the militia that would provide a $1200 refundable tax credit to anyone buying a rifle suitable for militia use — not that it would have a chance of passing, but it would direct attention to what the Constitution actually authorizes vs. what they wish it authorized.
Let’s back up the bus. DOJ/BATFE “Changed” the definition of “Machinegun” to expand it to include bump stocks and devices that cleary fire only one cartridge with each pull of the trigger. The stole Congresses Authority when they did it and nobody in House or Senate complained! The Lawsuit on bump stocks is still going through the courts. By definition, pistols with rifled bored are specifically exempted from being A.O.W.’s but ATF’s Memo says they must be NFA registered/taxed ifa vertical foregrip is installed. A decades old “MEMO” that has never been incorporated in the law/regulations as Administratively required.
“nobody in House or Senate complained”
Nobody in House or Senate complained be ’cause Democrats loved it and Republicans thought the ATF could do it and of course there would be that long drawn out thing with ‘compromise’
..nobody in House or Senate complained!
Uniparty
Unrelated, but …. ’cause Joe Biden
Uber broke laws, duped police and secretly lobbied governments, leak reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
More than 124,000 confidential documents leaked to the Guardian
Files expose attempts to lobby Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and George Osborne
Emmanuel Macron secretly aided Uber lobbying in France, texts reveal
Company used ‘kill switch’ during raids to stop police seeing data
Former Uber CEO told executives ‘violence guarantees success’
Totally unrelated, but seriously cool –
Take a look at a grain of sand held at your arm’s length. Got that image burned in your brain?
*Everything* in this picture fits on that grain of sand :
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
Click on the pic for full size, and let your mind totally melt down…
“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it is stranger than we can imagine.
– C.Sagan, astronomer
“Awe” is not a sufficiently strong word.
That photo brings two thoughts to mind:
1. At the speed of light, there is no distance and there is no time.
2. Why the heck did I have to end up on the same planet as Nancy Pilosi, Joe Biden, Chucky-Cheese Schumer, and Michael Moore?
Ha! With sincere respect LifeSavor and only in humor, a quote from Riddick, Pitch Black: “hahaha, where’s your God now, Holy Man?”
Smirk!!
Mind blowing isn’t it. Every clear night for many years now I have to spend some time stargazing. All the more fascinating when the milky way is in the sky. Or Jennifer Love Hewitt jogs by…
Sounding the alarm over Joe Biden
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sounding-the-alarm-over-joe-biden/ar-AAZs2l6?ocid=BingHp02&cvid=bd4a735ea18447b397e1bb45f52777ed
“SOUNDING THE ALARM OVER JOE BIDEN. President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects have seemed doubtful for months now. Many voters think the nation’s oldest president ever — he turns 80 in November — is too old for the job and is certainly too old for a second term. Many others think he’s simply doing a bad job. Many think both. And that includes Democrats who voted for Biden as well as Republicans who didn’t.”
but read the rest of the article I guess if you want.
“Now, the New York Times has published a devastating poll the paper conducted with Siena College. The survey found that 64% of Democratic voters want a different nominee in 2024 — just 26% want the party to renominate the president. On top of that, the poll shows Biden’s job approval among all voters at just 33%. And on top of that, just 13% of those surveyed believe the country is on the right track. “With the country gripped by a pervasive sense of pessimism,” the New York Times wrote, “the president is hemorrhaging support.””
The poll mentioned > https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/us0722-crosstabs-nyt071122/33ffa85627ee4648/full.pdf
In two years time, joe won’t have the mental faculties to not look like a complete moron in a live debate…
You mean two years ago?
It cant be a surprise to the public or the democrats… had to be a big give away when during a speech Biden said…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women are created, by the, you know the, you know the thing…”
“The survey found that 64% of Democratic voters want a different nominee in 2024 — just 26% want the party to renominate the president.”
Polls measure a moment in time. Polls cannot take into account future events. Polls tell you only what people say in response, not what they actually think or do.
Do not underestimate the ability of the Republicrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Control of the House and Senate changes only when it changes, not because people read favorable polls. Election of a president happens when it happens, not because people read favorable polls.
Really?
😉
Good point Sam. If the Gray Lady has stooped to provide a negative report on a Democrat, then there is something much worse (from our perspective) in the pipeline, and they are laying the groundwork for it.
I don’t think Pretendant Biden is “too old” for the job. Being older merely means there’s a greater chance that the frailties of mortality will catch up to you, sometimes even unexpectedly. How old was Ole Tippicanoe when he died in office, just 45 days into his term?
Having said that, Pretendant Biden, regardless of his age, is clearly too senile to hold the office, and likely has been for several years now. There are many 90-year-olds who would make a better President than Pretendant Biden, and that would include when Pretendant Biden was decades younger (although decades younger, he wasn’t senile, he was merely intellectually challenged).
When I read the recent SCOTUS decisions I thought the EPA decision may have further reprcussions for the left than the NY firearms ruling. Attack, attack attack! On all fronts.
Clausewitz. Good stuff.
Will this rein in the DHS and TSA too?
I’ll never understand why they make short barrels like .300’s without adjustable gas blocks.
The Far Right Radical Supreme Court needs to be aborted as soon as possible either by impeachment or Bide appointing more Liberal Judges immediately. The fate of the entire planet hangs in the balance. Trump increased tons of pollution into the air and water by relaxing EPA clean air and water rules and cancer deaths soared. The Gangster Criminal Republicans will never pass environmental protection laws and the Supreme Court is now their prostitutes and do their criminal bidding. Criminal Republicas of course are paid off by Industrial polluters so that clean energy. and anti-pollution laws will never be passed.
What is even more disturbing is that the Greed Monger Corrupt Criminal Republicans do not even care about what happens to their own children after they are dead on a planet that is already self-destructing from the greenhouse effect of too much pollution. The current huge fires threatening the ancient Sequoia trees are only one horrific example of a planet on the edge of the abyss of self-destruction.
Pppppppfffffffffttttttttthhhhhhhhllllllllllll. Pppppppfffffffffttttttttthhhhhhhhllllllllllll.
Oh God, please let that senile Biden try to pack the Court! That turned out badly for the last clown who tried it, it will be even worse for modern Democrats. He needs to get on with it if he is stupid enough to try it because there is a rather extreme chance he will lose the Senate as it is since 50/50 plus the giggling idiot tie-breaker won’t work if they lose even one seat. I would love to see the fallout because not even a majority of the Democrat party wants to see court-packing, and if they try it they will lose even more seats in both the House and the Senate. The Democrats are already crying about having put Biden in, as Obama said “if you want something really fucked up give it to Joe.”
I know you hate that SCOTUS is no longer the bitch of the communist left, but that is why we put Trump in place. Those three appointments are all we needed to force Congress to do their jobs instead of just passing some crap and saying, well whatever alphabet agency will figure out what we intended, passing non-stupid legislation is so hard.
“I would love to see the fallout because not even a majority of the Democrat party wants to see court-packing,…”
What the little people want is irrelevant to the Gestapos running the Democrat party, they openly mock them.
Power is first and foremost in their totalitarian minds… 🙁
quote—————Oh God, please let that senile Biden try to pack the Court! That turned out badly for the last clown who tried it———–quote
You really fell head first into the outhouse on that one. Moscow Mitch McConnell and later Trump both packed the court and now we have the worst Supreme Court in the history of the country with no regards to prior court rulings making a complete mockery of the courts reputation.
Reading comprehension fail the post.
Your understanding of history is even more pathetic than your understanding of what gave Trump his first SCOTUS pick. The Democrats had already killed Cloture for federal judge appointments and once the vacancy came up Obama tried to fill it with that horrific clown Garland. McConnell simply refused to schedule hearings or a vote, you don’t like it but that was within his power according to the rules of the Senate. I thank God that Garland is no longer on the federal bench where he can continue to damage the Constitution.
By the way I hope you aren’t so ignorant as to believe that stare decisis (precedent) is always a good thing, otherwise we would still have Plessy v. Ferguson. Look it up.
Definition of court-packing
: the act or practice of packing (see PACK entry 3 sense 1) a court and especially the United States Supreme Court by increasing the number of judges or justices in an attempt to change the ideological makeup of the court.
Trump nominating three justices that were confirmed by a majority in the senate is NOT “packing the court.” Read the definition. Soak it up. Put your seething aside. Start coping. Then realize that there have been 9 justices on the court for over a hundred years, and that “packing the court” would entail increasing the number of justices on the court, not simply replacing the current makeup of the court as they retired, or passed away, through following the constitution. And don’t even bother mentioning the senate blocking Merrick Garland. The constitution exactly says “With permission of the senate.” Obama didn’t have permission of the senate. Rules were followed. Cope and seethe.
Wrong! The prior courts made a mockery of the courts reputation by making decisions based on a pragmatic interpretations, and literally legislating from the court. As an example, the prior court used the 13th amendment and 14th amendment as interpreted to protect abortion. Which is total nonsense. The 13th amendment was ratified in 1865 and addressed slavery of blacks from Africa. There was zero inkling whatsoever, this would apply to killing unborn babies. Only a complete moron, which the court consisted of in the 1970s, would come up with this nonsense. The 14th amendment was ratified in 1868 during the reconstruction era and explicitly was ratified in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. There was zero inkling whatsoever, this would apply to killing unborn babies. Only a complete moron, which the court consisted of in the 1970s, would come up with this nonsense.
So you see, abortion, and a host of other made up laws by the court, were never voted upon by the legislature. Nobody got to vote, mkay? And it was a wrong decision. You want those as laws? Vote on them. Have your representatives vote on them. That is the proper way. The court is fixing the errors of the past, and making them right, and if anything, RESTORING the court’s reputation.
It is clear that, to you, “packing the court” means “putting people who respect the Constitution on the Court”.
Using Constitutional means to appoint (or not appoint, at the Senate’s Constitutional discretion) justices to the Court is not “packing the Court” — and it’s an abuse of language to pretend otherwise.
Packing the Court has always meant “increasing the number of Justices on the Court beyond the current 9 to give the current President a chance to appoint his cronies to the Court.” That you wish to do this, rather than defer to the consequences of elections, proves that you want to dictate by the whims of the people you want to be in power, and don’t care one whit what others may want in governance.
Don’t worry. Keep looking forward to having the SC at the edge of your execution pit. Unless you want to give them an enhanced interrogation first extracting a “confession” along with fingernails and teeth
Mmmmmmm liberal tears.
Salty. Just how I like em.
“The Far Right Radical Supreme Court needs to be aborted as soon as possible…”
Spoken like a true Fascist/Leftist/progressive or immature child.
When it’s impossible to win your case/argument in either the actual courts, the “court of public opinion/approval”, or in the hearts and minds of the vast majority of Americans, or/and when it is not actually specified in the Constitution, change the rules and disregard everything else. YOU know what’s best for me.
Right…
I have a proposition for you: wait until AFTER the ‘22 midterms to start calling for packing the court or impeaching lustices. If what you post has any validity at all, the democrats will win in a landslide. Personally, I’m not too concerned.
No, your frigging moron, the wildfires threatening the few remaining “old growth” forests are the result of idiot, Leftist/fascist/Gaiaist “woodland management” policies, foisted on us by the authoritarian Left and the “watermelon” “conservation” groups, like the Soviet Club (sorry, that was supposed to be “Sierra Club”). Any halfwit moron (which means anyone slightly brighter than you) knows that current state AND federal “woodland management” policies are objectively stupid, lead to MORE wildfires, reduce economice activity, and make only Leftist/fascists happy – oh, and have NO measurable effect on “the environment”.
But you keep f***in’ that chicken, dacian. You do realize, I hope, that ALL polls show your Leftist/fascist wet dreams are dying a well-deserved death??? Y’all (DESPITE your endemic electoral fraud) are gonna get your sorry, smelly @$$es handed to you in November, and again in 2024. I’m stocking up on popcorn – there will be MORE than sufficient Leftist tears to slake my thirst. Sucks to be a Leftist/fascist, dunnit, dacian the stupid??? To be CONSTANTLY totally wrong, and yet never learn a thing from it. Perhaps a sign of mental retardation???? Or is fascism just that much better than crack???
Good luck with that. I’m loudly laughing in a blissful state of Schadenfreude, at your seething and attempts to cope with this. It’s almost orgasmic. That is how great it is feeling.
LOL
Please. Your side is trying to ban cow farts. Literally. Seriously. Comically. You guys want a “carbon tax.” Our bodies are made of carbon. Trees are made of carbon. Practically everything is made of carbon. You are all insane, and the latest “climate change” hysteria is your latest religion. Not joking. You guys worship this crap. And questioning it, even in the slightest way, is blasphemy. Please forgive us, for not taking this garbage seriously.
Go ahead and lead by example for us. Put on a loin rag, turn off all your electronics, air conditioners, vehicles, phones, and start living on the land, with zero carbon footprint. Go ahead, we’ll watch.
LOL. This is a result of bad forest management, likely by tree hugging democrats. You see, trees don’t last forever. Take the forests of Wyoming as an example. When lightening strikes, sometimes there are forest fires. As the trees burn, their cones literally disperse the seeds by opening up during extreme heat. Then the seeds fall into a place open to the sunlight, with ash and underbrush cleared for their growth. it’s almost like it was… by design!
If carbon dioxide is really as dangerous as you make it out to be, then surely it wouldn’t be difficult to get Congress — even a Republican one — to pass laws to better regulate it.
It is clear, however, that you are angry that we even have a Congress. Who needs a Representative Republic, when we have an Administrative State that can dictate their own regulations when they see fit?
There’s a special word for such a government that dictates laws, rather than creates them with input from the People … but I can’t quite think, at the moment, what that word is.
Whatever form of government that is, though, you clearly prefer it over one where Representatives and Senators accountable to the People hammer out laws that the President can then decide to sign.
All this crap is about getting the coal plants fired back up to make the electric we will need for all them $80,000 electric cars we’re all going to own overnight.
Well show them Russians by gawd, we dont need your palladium.
Iran, Americas new lithium allie.
Allah be Praised.
(kissing salty ass really isnt that bad)
Let’s Go Brandon
May peace be upon you. And may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the nether regions of every leftist, unclean blasphemers of Truth and Liberty that they are. Now go, good possum, go to your centrifugalator and fix it, verily. The sand is running.
Among our biggest problems in recent years is simply that too many people are assuming authority they do not actually have. From our public education system to our national election processes, we have predefined rules and procedures for things. The lunacy of the Democrat party to circumvent established precedent and law to achieve the ‘transformation’ of the country has been quite evident. While we also watch those in the Republican party just sit there and allow it to happen with others like Cornyn that help the left destroy everything.
People forget that Northam was perfectly allowed to do things he did NOT have the authority to do. Just like Lina Hidalgo and many others in the Democrat party. THAT is the reason why so many people showed up in Washington on January 6th in that Trump rally to begin with. People are tired of watching the Constitution get trampled over by the left. Trump stood in their way and THAT is why he was impeached.
If they can repeal the 2nd Amendment then that changes things. Until THAT happens, ALL these gun-control laws the Democrats put into place are unconstitutional.
You are correct that ‘All gun-control laws are unconstitutional’. To “repeal the 2nd Amendment” however, the U.S. Constitution would have to be amended. For that to happen .66% of the States would have to vote in favor of such an amendment to even consider that question – then .75% of the States would have vote in favor of repealing 2A to ratify it. That’s never gonna happen so we’re safe from that. Our problem is that the Americal people have been dumbed-down by the govt. run educational (indoctrination) system to where we now allow our three branches of government (our civil servants) to get away with sedition, treason and other high crimes and misdemeanors. There are only two cures for what currently ails OUR Republic – fixing education and the rope.
It’s about time Americans (as opposed to their elected, annointed “public servants” realize something:
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 1:
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Our elected wonders figured out years ago that when they passed legislation that affected Americans, signed by POTUS, they would be held accountable for the consequences, both intended and otherwise. When bad things resulted from legislation, career politicians rightfully lose their jobs.
To insulate themselves, Congress, and the Executive Branch wove an almost impossible web of bureaucracy to do their jobs for them, purposefully making the creators of these regulations, noit real law, unaccountable to the electorate.
Returning this sacred duty to the Congress is a huge step in the right direction if a free republic is the goal. Posters here should understand this and “stay out of the weeds”, arguing one agency or another, or past history versus what can, and should be.
Get rid of all these agencies and those who sit atop them. We’d save billions in tax dollars, and while it won’t change a lot of legislators’ attitudes either in DC or in the various statehouses, it likely will amaze average Americans just how well their country, its states and metropolitan areas would run without some bureaucrat always looking over their shoulders.
So I’m supposed to believe that the agencies within the Exectutive Branch are going to willingly curtail their own power because SCOTUS said so when the people at the top of the Executive Branch are openly encouraging illegal behavior be directed at the Court?
Color me doubtful on that.
A few years ago I’d have considered this a pretty big win. At this point I’m fairly well convinced that it doesn’t much matter simply due to much larger problems coming down down the pike.
And honestly, the BATFE doesn’t really concern me as much as the obvious degradation of state and local institutions nationwide which have clearly gone astray for a variety of reasons that no one wants to discuss, nevermind fix.
Be cynical as much as you want. That helps nothing. Chipping away at least has had an affect. We didn’t get to this point in America over night, it took 75+ years of constant communist/left chipping, as well as patience. We would be smart to take it back in the same manner.
Yes, and I’ve been pointing that out and offering solutions for 20 of those years.
At a certain point you walk away from an alcoholic and let them hit rock bottom. They’re not going to change until faced with the binary choice of “quit or die”.
This country has hit that point for me. My patience, which was significant, is expended. I’m not going to continue wasting decades of my life on offering solutions (most of which were known centuries ago if you actually bother to read a damn book) to, essentially, dumbass drunks who will spit in my face for pointing out what should be obvious. I’m similarly unimpressed by the myopia in the 2A community which should know better.
So?
What are you doing about it other than whining on the internet? I know- some people would much rather be going around saying “I told you so” than putting half the effort into the long process of undoing 75 years of crap. Not accusing YOU, just pointing out that “some people take that attitude.
Seriously- in my 69 years I’ve never seen SCOTUS decisions that even veered slightly Right on such issues as 2A, Right To Life, slapping down regulatory agencies in support of Congress doing its primary Constitutional duty. There’s a long way to go but watching the “never lost a ruling” Left melting down over these decisions like little children throwing a tantrum should give you some indication of how impossible it would be to change things back to the dictates and confines of the Constitution overnight.
Some people around here would likely love to a see real shooting war. I just doubt there are enough of “us” right now that would/could be as cold-blooded as we know the Antifa faction of the Left is. Killing means little to them- they’ve been at it actively since before Roe was a “thing”.
The real challenge will likely be to teach these whacked-out babies to grow up and learn how to lose first, then how to try to sell their brilliant ideas to the rest of the country next. Requiring them to work to maintain their vices would also be a good thing.
Or we could all just sit around and bitch about the good old days and do nothing else. And as to “actually reading a book”, I’m fairly well versed in the entire Bible as well as Sun Tzu, among many other historical volumes. Not sure about your reading list.
What are you doing about it other than whining on the internet?
Tutoring children 14-25. You?
@hawkeye
“If the Gray Lady has stooped to provide a negative report on a Democrat, then there is something much worse (from our perspective) in the pipeline, and they are laying the groundwork for it.”
You broke the code.
“claimed to discover an unheralded power representing a transformative expansion of its regulatory authority in the vague language of a long-extant, but rarely used, statute designed as a gap filler.”
How this incredibly analogous to what happened with same-sex marriage in SCOTUS is left as an exercise to the reader.
Could this ruling be extended to include executive orders or signings?
While SCOTUS has spoken in Bruin and the EPA case, how will they enforce these rules? CA and NY are already going full bore in the opposite direction. We will beat them after a few more years and a few millions of dollars and they will try something else. EPA will find a new regulation to “interpret” and another state will take them to court and win after five years of expensive litigation. Eventually, a more compliant court will decide that our betters know better than we do and fix this pesky citizens.
It would be faster to beat them at the ballot box and have both state and the US legislatures pass laws negating the regulations and possibly the teeth of the ABC regulatory agencies, whose regulations are not, and, like Roe, et al, never were, laws. That’s the part some of the now “more wide-a-woke” Leftists are beginning to realize and admit publicly- that they should’ve actually passed laws to codify regs like Roe into American law via Congress and a POTUS signature when they could’ve, which would’ve been many times since 1973.
The one tactic we should take away from the Left is patience. Most of what we are now railing against was foretold by Nikita Kruschev back around 1962. They just stuck with it, invested in our education and political systems, and stayed out of the way.
I agree that this is going to take time, as it took over half a century to pull this mess off by the commie Left, but the time and effort will be well worth it, if not for us, for our children.
Seriously, it’s well past time the Boomers and next several generations did something good for the Republic. Most of us have literally been living off of the fat of the land since our births without adding to it. Roll up your sleeves, Americans, and quit bitching about how you “hate politics”. This could actually prove to be fun if we let it.
“We will beat them after a few more years and a few millions of dollars and they will try something else.”
There is “evil” in this world, and it never rests. Evil “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom it may devour.”
I can see legislators putting their favorite issues into EVERY bill that comes up for a vote. Overwhelming staff members (the only ones who actually read this crap) and reinforcing the adage scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. They’ll recommend everything for approval.We lose again.
In another life I was a coal guy in West Virginia and that helps me understand how far reaching this is. To all of those doubters based on West Virginia vs EPA, there are four southeastern coal fired power plants being considered for reopening already. This is not just a tool to reopen fossil fuels facilities nor is this a tool to let you keep that bump stock hidden under your attic floorboards. This is a tool to deconstruct the entire administrative state by denying them their greatest strength, the ability to make up regulations and then enforce them.
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