The Constitution Is Back In Business

Started by Solar, July 19, 2018, 06:05:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Solar

Great read! This will make every Conservative smile. :thumbup:


Federal Court Puts Progressive Bureaucrats on Notice: The Constitution Is Back In Business

On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals breathed new life into the Constitution in an era of stifling bureaucratic "progressivism." For nearly 100 years, progressive leaders have been creating administrative agencies that effectively insulate the process of lawmaking from the clear limits in the Constitution. This ruling will help pare back the bureaucratic hydra.

"Agencies that have been making law now for decades are going to get more scrutiny, I'm sure of it," Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told PJ Media on Tuesday. "This case is a strong precedent for a core principle of the Constitution."

In Collins v. Mnuchin, the 5th Circuit ruled that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was unconstitutional because it had too much "insulation" from the presidency. As an administrative agency, FHFA came under the purview of the president's powers under the Constitution. The 5th Circuit ruled that Congress had insulated the agency from presidential control, effectively stealing his authority under Article II of the Constitution.

"The outer limit of Congress's ability to insulate independent agencies from executive oversight is the President's Article II obligation to ensure that the nation's laws are faithfully executed," Chief Judge Carl Stewart and Judges Catharina Haynes and Don Willett wrote in a unanimous ruling (with partial dissents from Stewart and Willett).

Any "excessive insulation upsets the separation of powers both by allowing Congress to weaken the President's performance of his constitutionally mandated duties and by allowing Congress to accumulate power for itself. Therefore, Congress cannot enshroud an agency in layers of independence-promoting insulation to the point at which the President cannot adequately control the agency's behavior."

The court ruled that FHFA is unconstitutional because of the "combined effect" of five reasons: the agency's director can only be removed "for cause," the agency has only one director with complete power, there is no requirement for bipartisan leadership, FHFA's funding comes outside the normal appropriations process, and the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board has a purely advisory oversight role.

To remedy this, the court struck down part of the law creating FHFA, the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), and made the FHFA director dismissible for any reason.

Blame the Left for Making the Supreme Court Too Political
The case involved shareholders for the two government-chartered private loan companies: the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"). In the terms of a 2012 agreement between FHFA and the Treasury Department, Treasury provided billions of taxpayer dollars in capital, but Fannie and Freddie were required to pay the Treasury quarterly dividends equal to their entire net worth. Investors were ticked.

The 5th Circuit did not make a specific ruling on the agreement in question, but it did remand the case back to a lower court to handle details.

Striking down FHFA as unconstitutional sent a clear and powerful message, however. The legacy of progressive bureaucracy has gone too far. The courts will uphold the Constitution.

This case sets a precedent that could encourage more constitutional challenges to bureaucratic overreach.

"I am confident that a decision like this one does empower those who have been concerned about the executive branch exceeding their constitutional authority to actually look for concrete challenges," Jipping, the Heritage legal scholar, told PJ Media. Those wishing to return the U.S. government to the limits prescribed by the Constitution will be able to launch legal assaults against bureaucratic overreach.

"We're not talking about a seminar topic here," Jipping quipped. "We're talking about actual lawsuits challenging actual agencies. This is the kind of case that can help make that transformation, to turn ideas into lawsuits."

Daniel Press, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), agreed. In fact, he argued that the case should undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a regulatory agency created by the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The five features of the FHFA that the 5th Circuit interpreted as unconstitutional "are almost identical to what the CFPB exhibits," Press told PJ Media. "Even more interesting, there is currently a constitutional challenge to the CFPB's structure at the 5th circuit. It would seem pretty clear then that the ruling does not bode well for the Bureau."

Indeed, the court's opinion went out of its way to argue that CFPB is not quite as egregious as FHFA, and not unconstitutional. "With respect to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ('CFPB'), the President, through the Financial Stability Oversight Council ('FSOC'), can influence the CFPB's activities"... and "this veto is a 'powerful' oversight mechanism" as opposed to the "purely advisory oversight role" of the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board.

On that point, Press emphatically disagreed. "FSOC is for all practical purposes a toothless check on the Bureau," he explained. The "oversight mechanism" means little.

Here's What Federal Regulations Cost Your Family This Year
"All CFPB regulations become final unless a supermajority of FSOC members — mostly independent agencies and the CFPB itself — vote it down," Press noted. "And even then, they can only overturn a rule or action if it threatens the entire U.S. financial system. That is an almost insurmountable task for a consumer protection regulation to do."

The Trump administration proves that the president does not control CFPB through FSOC, Press explained. "It is certain that this administration did not agree with the payday lending rule promulgated during its tenure by an Obama-appointed Director," Richard Cordray, the first-ever director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said. "But regulating payday lending does not come close to endangering the financial system, so it could not be overturned. Nor is it very likely that FSOC would have done anything to overturn it anyway."

Much more~

https://pjmedia.com/trending/federal-court-puts-progressive-bureaucrats-on-notice-the-constitution-is-back-in-business/
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

supsalemgr

Quote from: Solar on July 19, 2018, 06:05:59 PM
Great read! This will make every Conservative smile. :thumbup:


Federal Court Puts Progressive Bureaucrats on Notice: The Constitution Is Back In Business

On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals breathed new life into the Constitution in an era of stifling bureaucratic "progressivism." For nearly 100 years, progressive leaders have been creating administrative agencies that effectively insulate the process of lawmaking from the clear limits in the Constitution. This ruling will help pare back the bureaucratic hydra.

"Agencies that have been making law now for decades are going to get more scrutiny, I'm sure of it," Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told PJ Media on Tuesday. "This case is a strong precedent for a core principle of the Constitution."

In Collins v. Mnuchin, the 5th Circuit ruled that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was unconstitutional because it had too much "insulation" from the presidency. As an administrative agency, FHFA came under the purview of the president's powers under the Constitution. The 5th Circuit ruled that Congress had insulated the agency from presidential control, effectively stealing his authority under Article II of the Constitution.

"The outer limit of Congress's ability to insulate independent agencies from executive oversight is the President's Article II obligation to ensure that the nation's laws are faithfully executed," Chief Judge Carl Stewart and Judges Catharina Haynes and Don Willett wrote in a unanimous ruling (with partial dissents from Stewart and Willett).

Any "excessive insulation upsets the separation of powers both by allowing Congress to weaken the President's performance of his constitutionally mandated duties and by allowing Congress to accumulate power for itself. Therefore, Congress cannot enshroud an agency in layers of independence-promoting insulation to the point at which the President cannot adequately control the agency's behavior."

The court ruled that FHFA is unconstitutional because of the "combined effect" of five reasons: the agency's director can only be removed "for cause," the agency has only one director with complete power, there is no requirement for bipartisan leadership, FHFA's funding comes outside the normal appropriations process, and the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board has a purely advisory oversight role.

To remedy this, the court struck down part of the law creating FHFA, the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), and made the FHFA director dismissible for any reason.

Blame the Left for Making the Supreme Court Too Political
The case involved shareholders for the two government-chartered private loan companies: the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"). In the terms of a 2012 agreement between FHFA and the Treasury Department, Treasury provided billions of taxpayer dollars in capital, but Fannie and Freddie were required to pay the Treasury quarterly dividends equal to their entire net worth. Investors were ticked.

The 5th Circuit did not make a specific ruling on the agreement in question, but it did remand the case back to a lower court to handle details.

Striking down FHFA as unconstitutional sent a clear and powerful message, however. The legacy of progressive bureaucracy has gone too far. The courts will uphold the Constitution.

This case sets a precedent that could encourage more constitutional challenges to bureaucratic overreach.

"I am confident that a decision like this one does empower those who have been concerned about the executive branch exceeding their constitutional authority to actually look for concrete challenges," Jipping, the Heritage legal scholar, told PJ Media. Those wishing to return the U.S. government to the limits prescribed by the Constitution will be able to launch legal assaults against bureaucratic overreach.

"We're not talking about a seminar topic here," Jipping quipped. "We're talking about actual lawsuits challenging actual agencies. This is the kind of case that can help make that transformation, to turn ideas into lawsuits."

Daniel Press, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), agreed. In fact, he argued that the case should undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a regulatory agency created by the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The five features of the FHFA that the 5th Circuit interpreted as unconstitutional "are almost identical to what the CFPB exhibits," Press told PJ Media. "Even more interesting, there is currently a constitutional challenge to the CFPB's structure at the 5th circuit. It would seem pretty clear then that the ruling does not bode well for the Bureau."

Indeed, the court's opinion went out of its way to argue that CFPB is not quite as egregious as FHFA, and not unconstitutional. "With respect to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ('CFPB'), the President, through the Financial Stability Oversight Council ('FSOC'), can influence the CFPB's activities"... and "this veto is a 'powerful' oversight mechanism" as opposed to the "purely advisory oversight role" of the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board.

On that point, Press emphatically disagreed. "FSOC is for all practical purposes a toothless check on the Bureau," he explained. The "oversight mechanism" means little.

Here's What Federal Regulations Cost Your Family This Year
"All CFPB regulations become final unless a supermajority of FSOC members — mostly independent agencies and the CFPB itself — vote it down," Press noted. "And even then, they can only overturn a rule or action if it threatens the entire U.S. financial system. That is an almost insurmountable task for a consumer protection regulation to do."

The Trump administration proves that the president does not control CFPB through FSOC, Press explained. "It is certain that this administration did not agree with the payday lending rule promulgated during its tenure by an Obama-appointed Director," Richard Cordray, the first-ever director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said. "But regulating payday lending does not come close to endangering the financial system, so it could not be overturned. Nor is it very likely that FSOC would have done anything to overturn it anyway."

Much more~

https://pjmedia.com/trending/federal-court-puts-progressive-bureaucrats-on-notice-the-constitution-is-back-in-business/

Every small step is important. Another Obama overreach shortened.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

Solar

Quote from: supsalemgr on July 20, 2018, 04:11:02 AM
Every small step is important. Another Obama overreach shortened.
I see this as a huge leap while swinging a machete and lopping off arms along the way.
This is precedent setting.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

KeanuReev

see this as a huge leap while swinging a machete and lopping

T Hunt

Quote from: Solar on July 20, 2018, 05:18:23 AM
I see this as a huge leap while swinging a machete and lopping off arms along the way.
This is precedent setting.

Ive noticed that during the kavanaugh hearing, a frequent topic that keeps coming up is how congress has passed off much of its powers of to these executive agencies in the 4th branch of gvt.

And also the difference between lma law congress has passed vs a law from one of these many executive branch angencies, which is actually a regulatio . And how these agencies act as their own courts, passing judgments and fines who dont follow their rules.
"Let's Go Brandon, I agree!"  -Biden

Solar

Quote from: T Hunt on September 07, 2018, 12:31:19 AM
Ive noticed that during the kavanaugh hearing, a frequent topic that keeps coming up is how congress has passed off much of its powers of to these executive agencies in the 4th branch of gvt.

And also the difference between lma law congress has passed vs a law from one of these many executive branch angencies, which is actually a regulatio . And how these agencies act as their own courts, passing judgments and fines who dont follow their rules.
Tis true.
That has been the left's plan all along? They mastered Legislating from the bench, then moved to agencies like EPA, IRS etc, to usurp the power of Congress, while the GOP did absolutely nothing to stop it.
Kind of the main reason Trump won, he promised to end the madness.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!