The United States Supreme Court the other day gutted a long-standing legal guideline that federal regulatory agencies used to protect us from foul air, polluted water, adulterated food and ineffective drugs.
And Utah’s political class wants you to feel good about it.
Officials such as Gov. Spencer Cox and U.S. Rep Celeste Maloy said the end of the so-called Chevron doctrine, the principle that courts should generally defer to regulatory agencies’ interpretation of federal law, is a victory for, in Cox’s words, “individual liberty.”
Do you feel suddenly empowered? Don’t.
There is such a thing as federal overreach. But power taken away from the federal government does not magically diffuse through to the people. Power collects, as power always does, in the hands of the already powerful. In this case the corporations that will now enjoy more freedom to poison our planet, your children and you.
Sen. Mike Lee chortled that, without Chevron allowing regulators to make decisions, “It’s time for Congress to re-learn how to make real laws.” That is, to make laws that say what the rules are and aren’t left open to bureaucratic interpretation.
That’s rich coming from a guy whose entire obstructive legislative career was so well summed up by Star Wars villain Darth Sidious: “I have the Senate bogged down in procedure.”
But Congress and the states should take Lee’s challenge to heart and start making laws that enhance the power of ordinary people to thrive in a healthy environment. In a way that the Supreme Court can’t ruin.
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