So here's my take on overruling Chevron as a regulatory attorney.

SCOTUS threw out Chevron deference, and in burying one doctrine, apparently exhumed Skidmore deference.

I don't think this is the end of the world for the administrative state. Courts in recent years, seeing the writing on the wall, have shied away from using Chevron deference in their analysis of executive branch action. Federal agencies have been beefing up their analyses and justifications in rulemakings to ensure they can withstand inevitable challenges.

The problem with Chevron has always been that whether a statute is "ambiguous" on the government's point is a matter of the level of generality in which you analyze it. A judge that wants to strike down a rule or action will find reason to do so, and vice versa. The Administrative Procedure Act still requires courts to analyze whether an action is arbitrary and capricious. And SCOTUS still says that courts may continue to consider an agency's views, expertise, and fact finding. Today's decision may change analyses without changing outcomes.

What is more concerning to me is that this decision continues the trend of this court to overrule precedent and grab power for itself as the final, unimpeachable arbiter of the government, with no check or balance to its power.

Also, as a regulatory attorney, I say this: Congress sucks at drafting laws. Judges do whatever they want in interpreting them willy-nilly.

The rulemaking process is onerous. It takes dozens of people hundreds of hours and up to many years to draft regulations - and that includes public notice and consideration of comments in drafting, which is something neither courts nor congress must do. Rules are written with expertise, careful consideration, public input, and literal blood that neither Congress nor courts apply.

The denigration and ossification of the administrative state and the civil service is bad for this country and good only for power hungry judges and special interests.

Everyone I interact with acts like the sky has fallen, like this decision is worse than overturning Roe, that this is the end, and I, a dude with clinical levels of anxiety, is the calmest person I know about this decision today, and maybe it's just that I knew this was coming years ago and already went through the stages of grief and reached acceptance, but good golly gosh I'm wondering if maybe I'm the one that's batshit and I should be more worried

I'm just mourning the hours I devoted to studying admin law (including working out a flow chart specifically for types of deference) that is now totally useless.

Hey everyone! I've changed my mind and I'm now panicking. SCOTUS issued a decision in a low-profile case that is actually a lot worse because it eviscerated the statute of limitations for challenging regulations (which had been 6 years after enactment).

Chevron being overturned didn't worry me because I just thought, okay, on a go-forward basis, agencies will have to very carefully justify their regulations, that's fine.

But now any regulation issued ever can be challenged under the low standards SCOTUS implemented. This means that regulations that are decades old settled law, like basic regulations about clean air and water, are now subject to challenge.

THIS IS VERY BAD!

This is also why you absolutely must vote for Biden or the Democratic nominee for President this year. Two wacko SCOTUS Justices, Thomas and Alito, are 76 and 74 respectively. If Trump wins again, they will retire, and he will appoint their replacements, meaning Donald Trump could potentially have appointed 5 of 9 seats on SCOTUS with 50 year old Justices. We will be seeing decisions like this for the rest of our lives.

But if Biden wins, there is a chance that one or both Justices may die and Biden can replace them if there's a Democratic Senate. This wi flip SCOTUS from 6-3 conservative to 5-4 liberal, potentially allowing us to reverse this decision, trump's immunity claims, restore Roe, forgive student loans, and more.

Presidential legacies last longer than their 4 year terms. Supreme Court justices that presidents appoint serve for life. We warned you about this in 2016, and this is what has happened since. You MUST vote.

truly the wildest thing about all the Bridgerton discourse about "is Nicola Coughlan too FAT to be a convincing love interest???" is that in many ways she actually looks better in the period costumes than her thinner counterparts because she has the figure to really fill them out. those dresses are incredibly flattering on larger bodies because they emphasise the bust and cleavage whilst creating a very elegant silhouette. there's something unintentionally hilarious about hearing pearl-clutching in the distance over "idk is this FAT WOMAN sexy enough to be believable as an object of lust??" whilst Penelope Featherington's majestic heaving bosoms are almost spilling out of her dress in a category 5 titty event. if anything she's too sexy. they had to spend the first two seasons putting her in ugly dresses in a desperate attempt to conceal the fact that she's serving more cunt than the entire itty bitty titty committee combined

they had to dress her like shit for two seasons because they were trying to hide that she is easily the hottest thing on this entire show.

A quiet little summery piece. 🌿

My solo show at Nucleus Portland opens tomorrow!

i don't really care about the merits of the original post ("is ai doing the same thing humans are?" i don't care! don't come here to debate that) i just found this exhcange to be... i don't know, baffling? harrowing? bafflarowing? you really can't honestly believe this, right?

anti-ai discourse has really cooked some people's brains. reading this made my eyes bug out my skull. i try not to discourse Unprompted but Jesus. we are so fucking cooked as a society if this is the popular take.

Big bed

Hence the invention of the Porch

it sure fucking is buddy

one of the most signs ever

alt text: essentially an enormous part of the reason that online leftist spaces suck so much is that they are filled with people who believe it is more important to do nothing wrong than it is to do something right

I think one big reason why we don't consider the stars as important as before (not even pop-astrology anymore cares about the stars or the sky on itself, just the signs deprived of context) is because of light pollution.

For most of human history the sky looked between 1-3, 4 at most. And then all of a sudden with electrification it was gone (I'm lucky if I get 6 in my small city). The first time I saw the Milky Way fully as a kid was a spiritual experience, I was almost scared on how BRIGHT it was, it felt like someone was looking back at me. You don't get that at all with modern light pollution.

When most people talk about stargazing nowadays they think about watching about a couple of bright dots. The stars are really, really not like that. The unpolluted night sky is a festival of fireworks. There is nothing like it.

This makes me almost sick with disgust sometimes. We somehow managed to ruin the sky. It's ridiculous.

↖ this user has drank from the infernal river Lethe, which flows through Hades and brings total oblivion, eradicating all memory and thought

how did it taste?

How did what taste?

Reblogging this again now because DON’T GODDAMN FORGET

As a recovering Capitalism True Believer, and a former aspiring economist… this one hurts.

Saw this on fb and had to share.

Transcript:

I think people aren’t giving the internet enough credit.

You grow up being told how great capitalism is and then you get online and find out that people in other countries have the same standard of living we do but without the constant fear of bankruptcy.

You grow up thinking, “going to the doctor is expensive, don’t get sick and if you do don’t go until you’re sure you HAVE to” and then you find out most of the developed world can go to the doctor for free, or at least for a very affordable rate.

You grow up thinking, “Work hard and be successful and you can retire at 65 and travel a little.” and then you get online and find out pretty much all of Europe gets weeks and weeks of vacation time a year and is doing their travelling in their 20s and 30s and loving it.

The list goes on and on. I grew up in the conservative south and it wasn’t an uncommon conversation starter when I was a kid for people to open up with things like “What church do you go to?” and so that’s what I thought the world was. Church and working for the weekend and be careful to save your pennies and not splurge and don’t get sick. It wasn’t until the internet appeared that I realized how differently a lot of people live and how much more appealing a lot of that sounded.

When you hear that someone else had a kid and it didn’t cost them any money, got a year off to raise it, gets free daycare, and goes to spain twice a year for vacation it’s pretty hard to still feel content with your 60 hour work week, 2 weeks off a year that you’re discouraged from actually using, and health insurance as your second biggest monthly bill.

Democrats finally hold an FCC majority in the final year of President Biden’s first term.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to vote to restore net neutrality later this month. With Democrats finally holding an FCC majority in the final year of President Biden’s first term, the agency can fulfill a 2021 executive order from the President and bring back the Obama-era rules that the Trump administration’s FCC gutted in 2017.

The FCC plans to hold the vote during a meeting on April 25. Net neutrality treats broadband services as an essential resource under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC greater authority to regulate the industry. It lets the agency prevent ISPs from anti-consumer behavior like unfair pricing, blocking or throttling content and providing pay-to-play “fast lanes” to internet access.

Democrats had to wait three years to enact Biden’s 2021 executive order to reinstate the net neutrality rules passed in 2015 by President Obama’s FCC. The confirmation process of Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn for telecommunications regulator played no small part. She withdrew her nomination in March 2023 following what she called “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks.”

Every single time a Republican gets elected President, it takes literal years to undo the damage. And then people complain the Democrats "aren't doing enough." Well maybe if they didn't have to spend three years of every four years in the White House undoing the CRAP their Republican predecessor did, they could get more stuff done!

Here is the goggle doc on what to do! Even if you don’t need to live in New York, you can message the tourism board.

Do you live in New York state? Do you like being able to protect yourself from covid in a public space LEGALLY? Please do this.

If you do NOT live in New York state, please reblog this.