Posted by
Miguel Diocuore Ph.D. on Monday, November 09, 2009 4:47:04 PM
“A single assembly, possessed of all the powers of government, would make arbitrary laws for their own interest, execute all laws arbitrarily for their own interest, and adjudge all controversies in their own favor.” That, in a nut shell, is the problem with the modern administrative state and why it so often tyrannical rather than just.'' One of the hallmark
characteristics of contemporary big government is the expansive administrative state. Administrative agencies create laws (regulations), prosecute regulatees alleged to have transgressed the regulations (hold administrative hearings), and adjudge law violations (impose forfeitures and fines). Profound differences exist between the rule of law in courts and that in administrative agencies. Congress’s investiture of legislative, executive, and judicial powers in single administrative agencies has caused a progressive transformation of law from defense of individual rights to violation of them and from decentralization of power with tolerance for liberty to centralization of power with intolerance for liberty. Thus, as the administrative state grows, so grows injustice. The changes spell the end of substantive rights protection for many industrious Americans.
Under the system envisioned by our founding fathers, courts adjudicate disputes with a significant degree of independence from those who bring and defend charges. An independent judiciary does not create the law when operating in accordance with the separation of powers doctrine, constitutional precedent, and the canons of construction. It does not enforce the law beyond issuance of an order. An administrative agency, by contrast, is far more efficient and draconian. It is a one stop shop—law maker, law prosecutor, and law adjudicator. There is no true separation of powers. There is no keen interest in respecting constitutional precedent (indeed, in several instances I have heard administrative law judges tell me that they have no power to declare whether an agency regulation or the application of it violates the Constitution and, thus, they leave constitutional challenges unaddressed). http://www.newswithviews.com/Emord/jonathan105.htm