In fact, the executive branch’s authority over fracking is rather profoundly limited by statute. Beginning in 2012, the Obama administration attempted to introduce “additional regulatory effort and oversight” of fracking by introducing new regulations through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 2015, the states of Wyoming and Colorado filed petitions for judicial review of the Obama regulations, and on June 21, 2016, federal district court judge Scott Skavdahl (an Obama appointee) held that the fracking rule was “unlawful.”
His opinion hearkened back to the basic separation of powers that’s at the heart of our federal system. In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, describing it as “a comprehensive energy bill addressing a wide range of domestic energy resources, with the purpose of ensuring jobs for the future ‘with secure, affordable, and reliable energy.” That bill quite specifically and intentionally granted fracking extraordinary protection from EPA regulation.
The Obama administration creatively attempted to circumvent limits on EPA jurisdiction by using the BLM to accomplish the same purpose. The judge wasn’t having it. His reasoning was sound: “If agency regulation is prohibited by a statute specifically directed at a particular activity, it cannot be reasonably concluded that Congress intended regulation of the same activity would be authorized under a more general statute administered by a different agency.”
In other words, say goodbye to President Warren’s unilateral fracking ban.
Sadly, proposing unconstitutional laws is a bad habit for Elizabeth Warren. Her crowning legislative achievement is the Obama-era creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a bureaucracy that was designed to exist outside our nation’s system of checks and balances. It’s now in the center of its own constitutional battle. In 2016, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that it was “unconstitutionally structured.” According to the court:
The CFPB’s concentration of enormous executive power in a single, unaccountable, unchecked Director not only departs from settled historical practice, but also poses a far greater risk of arbitrary decisionmaking and abuse of power, and a far greater threat to individual liberty, than does a multi-member independent agency.
Yes, the full D.C. Circuit later reversed this ruling, but it’s notable that the author of the original ruling was none other than Brett Kavanaugh, now an associate justice of the Supreme Court. And last June another federal court ruled it was unconstitutional, while just this Friday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in a separate case that also casts serious doubt on the constitutionality of the CFPB.
Warren’s most significant creation is on constitutional life support, and the prognosis is not good.
But that’s not all. How does Warren propose to regulate guns? In part by using unilateral executive action to enact background checks that would be constitutionally suspect even if enacted by statute. Moreover, she would unilaterally reinterpret the clear language of federal statutes to impose “all federal gun rules” even on those individuals who’ve not been traditionally deemed “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms.
In fact, the entire plan relies time and again on Warren’s pledge to stretch and extend regulations far beyond the language and intent of their enabling statutes — a move sure to spawn a wave of litigation in front of rightly skeptical federal judges.
But let’s not forget Warren’s vaunted wealth tax. Unsurprisingly, it also has constitutional problems. While the Constitution plainly (thanks to the 16th Amendment) allows for taxes on income, any other form of “direct tax” must be “in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration.” There are thoughtful progressive law professors who believe the “spirit” of the 16th Amendment could make the tax constitutional, but I’m skeptical — and I’m hardly alone.
I could go on. I will go on. Her signature proposal for protecting Roe v. Wade is to propose federal legislation that would create a national statutory right to an abortion, overriding each and every contradictory state law in America and representing, and advancing an extraordinarily expansive view of the commerce clause, one inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s recent holding in the Obamacare case. As the Court noted, the Constitution gives Congress “the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it.”
Time and time again, the pattern is the same. She’ll push regulatory authority beyond the statutory limit. She’ll push statutory authority beyond the constitutional limit. In so doing, she’d represent the next stage in imperial presidential evolution — reaching beyond both President Obama and President Trump, two men who have had their own problems staying within their constitutional boundaries.
If Warren does become president, she — and her voters — should prepare for profound disappointment. She has plans, but many of those plans won’t survive their first contact with the courts. Indeed, many of her plans are so politically and/or legally unrealistic that they represent a virtual political con job. That’s certainly par for the course for modern politics, but America needs to understand that the Democrats’ law professor-politician is making promises that the Constitution simply won’t let her keep.
Late last week CNN hosted ten back-to-back “climate crisis town halls” with Democratic presidential candidates, and while there is much to say about the candidates’ disputes (particularly about nuclear power), it was an Elizabeth Warren tweet the next day that truly caught my eye. Here she is, announcing yet another “plan” she has for “everything”:
Warren’s radical ideas are why it is imperative that conservatives keep the Presidency in 2020 as there is a 90% chance that Ginsberg’s seat on SCOTUS will be replaced between 2020 and 2024. If we keep a conservative court then radical progressive ideas (that run contrary to law and the Constitution) will always be shot down at the SCOTUS level even if she finds liberal progressives judges at lower levels.
The far left that Sen. Warren represents has become more and more hostile towards traditional American values and economic policies. The threat is real and has manifested itself into violence and riots. I am concerned that when Judge Ginsburg gets replaced that democrats and the far left will resort to events that will not only reveal the criminal “deep state” but physical harm to elected leaders. Pray for the safety President Trump, VP Pence and our country daily.
Why would we expect anything else (or legal) from someone who worked her way up by lying about her heritage.
Listen to the Democrats and for me, I am terrified. This is why we must keep 4 more years of Donald J. Trump’s Presidency. He has done more and honored more of his campaign promises. Employment is up, Unemployment is Down, I think the WALL is going up between the Southern part of the US and Mexico. I think it is the best interest of this country we elect our President and fill the House and Senate with Republicans to fulfill what President Trump wants to do for the next 4 years. My Democrat friends hate when I post online… Read more »
Disgusting listening to DemSoc presidential hopefuls spewing extreme propaganda that their base loves, knowing it is illegal/unconstitutional and therefore impossible. They are basically LIAR LIARS PANTS ON FIRES.
This woman is a dishonest political hack, clueless beyond a doubt.
In would only add that Warren is essentially promoting the same abuse of power that Obama loved so much. Obama’s pledge was to use his phone and his pen to circumvent Congress when he could not get his programs passed, and Warren is saying the same thing. It’s called an Imperial Presidency, and she would be a disaster to this nation. While I hope she or no other Democrat could be elected next year, keep your powder dry folks because things have gotten ugly and may well get worse.
I heard the news clip with her promising all of her baloney. The naive people in her audience cheered at everything Warren said. What a bunch of idiots.
Who cares. The fate of this country will be determined within the next 15 years with our next civil war. The Democrat Party needs to be purged of the communist/dictatorial/despot faction of politicians that infest it at the present time. They have plans for this country that are not “Mom, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet”. It is necessary at times for the continuation of freedom that blood be spilled to keep a Republic like ours – – – which has never ever been seen or experienced previously on this Earth – – – to thrive and survive. Those of you out… Read more »
Whenever I hear her speak – stupidly, most times – I cringe! 😣
One would think she is old enough to know better, crazy woman!
Go Trump Go 2020
This woman needs her head examined! Some of the crap she and other Dems come up with are really disturbing to a sane person.
Come on people you can’t tell this lying story telling crazy lady is nuts has a real mental problem, and very dangerous to Americans and our Country talks treason all the time against Our Constitution as Written to try to change, twist, discard, ignore our Constitution as Written is TREASON plain and simple, and I think it’s time to hold these Traitors accountable for their actions
Violating the law is of no consequences to the Socialist/Communist Democraps. We are at a tipping point. The majority of “republicans” in congress and senate are on board with the political criminals.
Elizabeth Warren is a fake. She was not born in Massachusetts and came from the Midwest. She only became a Massachusetts Senator after Ted Kennedy died. Useless Senator Ed Markey is a native of Massachusetts being born in Malden, Massachusetts. He should have been the Senior Senator. She is clueless and everything with her is free. She forgets nothing is free and it is us taxpayers who pay 💰 the bills. I hope she gives up her Secret Service protectors. Stop flying first class. Stop apologizing for her screwups.
Just watch these Dem hopefuls reverse their positions once one of them is the front runner and party candidate. Then, they’ll then back peddle and spout off about not meaning what they said, or make claims the press unfairly represented what they said. Presidential primaries are when America hears the truth, at least from the non-mainstream media. Once with a Democrat Party nomination, the Dem candidate will suddenly sound like a Constitutional, fiscal, and social conservative.
Another great article. Keep up the good work 👍
WARREN IS A VERY VIOLENT/SICK WOMAN! NO WAY, SHOULD SHE EVER GET CONTROL OF AMERICA!! THIS WOULD BE COMPLETE DEATH OF AMERICA! THIS IS ALL TOTALLY INSANE, PEOPLE WANTING TO TAKE OVER THE BEST COUNTRY IN THIS WORLD! INSANE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN THESE PEOPLE! THEY ARE INSANE! INSANE PEOPLE COMMIT DEATH IN THIS COUNTRY! THEY TALK ABOUT GUN CONTROL, WHAT ABOUT INSANITY CONTROL!! WHAT CAN INTELLIGENT PEOPLE DO ABOUT THIS?? OR BETTER, WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS INSANITY IN AMERICA TODAY CAUSING DEATH TO AMERICA!! WORSE THAN GUNS!! YOU ALL KNOW HOW THIS GOT STARTED IN 2007-2016!!? LET US… Read more »
Like Yangs idea for Thorium Reactors, all else Fail, No other Dems specific on issues save Vague raise taxes etc.
But Yang like the rest on Dem platform