Lighten Up, Francis
Things are never as bad as they seem. It all works out in the end.
The End of Chevron Deference in Comparative Perspective, by Leonid Sirota & Edward Willis
The truth is boring.
Chevron was an aberration; Loper is a normalization, at lest when we compare the US to the rest of the world.
Deference is not being zeroed out. It is being dialed back.
‘Since the adoption of the Chevron doctrine in 1984, then, the United States has been an outlier. By reversing it, Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion aligns neatly with the prevailing position in the Anglo-Commonwealth. To re-emphasize the key point we are making, in comparative perspective the rule that courts authoritatively determine the law is not at all controversial; it is thoroughly pedestrian. And in the 40 years since the United States parted ways with these other jurisdictions, all we can say is that the sky has not fallen on the administrative state in the UK and elsewhere. To some extent, this may be because these jurisdictions’ approach, like the one set out in Loper Bright, allows for occasional residual deference. Mostly, though, this is because the administrative state can live with judicial supervision.‘
How Congress Unleashed the Presidency
The increasing power of the presidency (and the bureaucratic agencies in the Executive Branch) raises the stakes in the Presidential election, enflaming domestic political polarization.
The system’s imbalance has increased its volatility and its volatility increases the imbalance. Congress’ legislative diminution has contributed to the intensity of our politics. The consequent rabid street fight for the Presidency in focusing attention on the Presidency, diverts power from Congress.
‘I have a more specific explanation to add to the mix. The presidency has become much more powerful and less benign than it was designed to be. In recent years, the president has become lawmaker in chief, eclipsing Congress in many arenas of national life. He employs his new powers unabashedly for partisan purposes. His traditional, irreplaceable function as head of state and national leader has fallen by the wayside.
‘In many areas, such as tax and foreign policy, today’s president is, as ever, both uniquely important and politically constrained—he pursues his electoral mandate by collaborating with Congress and contending with international exigencies. But in many other areas he makes policy on his own. So that this year’s election, in determining who will be president for four years, will also determine whether to leave the southern border open, whether to restructure the power industry and phase out gas stoves and internal-combustion automobiles, and whether to require schools to let boys who feel they are girls compete in girls’ sports.’
Vance blames ‘broken bureaucracy’ for response to hurricanes
It’s easy to criticize bureaucracy. Nobody knows that better than me.
However, it’s often correct to do so.
Imagine the number of different people tripping over one another in an attempt to help … and, more importantly, to be seen to be doing something.
‘Vance shared with voters in North Carolina that he has little confidence in the federal and state governments’ ability to recover the state’s western region due to a “broken bureaucracy that’s managing this process.”
‘The vice presidential candidate was angry there are “eight different agencies” working on the recovery, calling it “bureaucratic incompetence.”’
Harari makes an interesting argument.
Everyone frets about our future Robot Overlords when the more immediate and terrible threat is that AI takes over functions in bureaucracies. It is a creeping takeover.
‘Humans have been conditioned by millions of years of evolution to dread violent predators like the one depicted in The Terminator. We find it much more difficult to understand bureaucratic menaces, because bureaucracy is a very novel development in mammalian and even human evolution. Our minds are primed to fear death by a tiger, but not death by document.
‘…
The havoc wreaked by algorithmic editors on human societies is a warning sign. The human world is a latticework of multiple bureaucracies, in which AIs can accrue enormous power even if they are totally incapable of mounting the Big Robot Rebellion. Why rebel against a system, if you can take it over from within?’
This doesn’t signal a near-term regulation of AI, I think.
‘The U.S. National Security Council released on Thursday its first-ever memo on artificial intelligence (AI), ordering federal agencies to use the "most powerful" AI systems while balancing the risks associated with the new technology.
‘The National Security Memorandum (NSM) details the U.S. approach to harnessing the power of AI for national security and foreign policy purposes "to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of AI," senior administration officials said.’