The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the Pro America Report. This is Ryan Hite, sitting in today for Mr. Ed Martin, who is out marching in the cold. Ed has been out with the March for Life today, doing a lot of activities, joining the rally in the March. Virginia got a good dump of snow. And he is out there with them marching for life Today. We’re gonna talk a little bit about that. And we’ve got quite a few other things to cover today on the program.
But before we get there, before we get to the meat of the show today, let me go ahead and remind you upfront. Go to proamericareport.com. There you’ll find Ed’s writing his substack and a lot of things to keep on top of. You’ll want to subscribe to it so you don’t miss anything and also head over to PhyllisSchlafly.com. There you will find the podcast for this program. All the standalone segments from the guests, the notes and resources links and everything that you will want are there and also at PhyllisSchlafly.com. You sign up for the e-mail list, get that daily WYNK e-mail. What you need to know every weekday into your inbox. 8:00 AM Eastern and all the other time zones concurrent, you will not regret it. Good decision. Very good decision. I think that you’ll appreciate.
But there’s a lot going on, man. This has been a packed week. I want to acknowledge right up front. Although we’re gonna circle back and talk about it in the wrap up today is the March for Life. If you weren’t aware, today is the March for Life. This happens every January on the anniversary of Roe V Wade. Obviously, even though Roe has been struck down by our current Supreme Court and it was a wonderful and good decision, there is still much work to do. There is still much life to protect. There are laws to be passed, there are legal challenges to be made and this of course, extends all the way down from the state, the local level, all the way up to the federal. That these discussions are still happening and it is so encouraging to see so many people still marching for that going out and defending human life, the most fundamental right that one of the most basic things that we recognize here in America. Or ought to and that is a great thing. So we’ll we’ll come back and talk about it, but that’s happening today in DC if you weren’t aware.
But there’s a lot that has happened and a lot that I think we haven’t quite talked about. We’ve spent quite a bit of time on Iowa this week. That was certainly a stunning victory for President Trump and what it looks like the well, I would say, it spells out what we’re definitely looking down here this primary season throughout 2024. I I’m not trying to make too bold a Prediction. But I Think that one’s pretty well going a certain direction at this point.
But there was something else that came up that I think that you need to know about. You may have had your nose buried in this, but if not, which is likely because it’s kind of deep down the dark hole of government agencies and very specific section of policy. I want to talk to you about something that is incredibly important.
I would say that most Americans agree today. One of the primary problems we face in America, if not the biggest issue in America today is the growth and power of the administrative state. This giant behemoth four – 430, we have over 430 federal agencies in the executive Branch. I mean, we can complain about court decisions that we don’t like. We can complain about Congress having such a, you know, low effectiveness or approval rating. But the administrative side, the executive branch is so bloated with bureaucracy that it is. inarguably the primary source of so many of our problems facing us today. You know, you wrap it up. Who, who, what are the? Where is the rampant corruption? It’s the letter agencies, the DOJ, their subsidiaries the F. FBI. You run down all the intelligence agencies, DHS, NSA, all of the others. Where have the problems come around? It’s at the administrative state. The executive branch. You run down all of the environmental stuff. All of the red tape and regulations on businesses, all of the policy over economy and finances. All of these are wrapped up in those 430 plus Executive administrative agencies. And it grows all the time and it feeds off of this itself, and it is a system, this administrative state, all of these executive agencies that has managed to insulate itself from the checks and balances that our founders placed into the constitutional system we claim.
So a huge opportunity has arisen, and that’s where it almost seems off the radar.
If you’re not into the commercial fishing world, you may not have noticed this, but two cases are in front of the Supreme Court right now. In fact, they had oral arguments this week and make no mistake, I am not here to predict the outcome on what is coming from the Supreme Court. That obviously would be incredibly risky to try to do. However, I want you to understand. What has been argued before the Supreme Court and what it means or what it could mean for us. These two vers – these two cases. Relentless Incorporated v. the Department of Commerce and Loper, Bright V Raimondo, Raimondo. I, pardon me if I’m mispronouncing something. These two need some some. What is it? There’s a good source, we’ve we’ve talked about Margot Cleveland before. She writes for the Federalist quite a bit. And also Margot is. She’s of counsel with the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Very interesting. So. And she’s involved in these cases, I think she actually is the. Her her organization is involved with Relentless Incorporated, but here’s the deal. She lawsplains things very well, and I’m gonna. I’m gonna link to this article. We’re gonna post it on social media and link to it. You’re going to want to read it. But here’s what it is. If you’re not deep into the commercial fishing world, these two cases have come before the Supreme Court, and and we could dive into the history of it and the commercial fishing and and what’s happened. But essentially, what’s what’s going on is that the Department of Commerce put down a rule in 2020, a final rule. And, you know, the difference. This is a law that Congress passed. This is a rule, a clarification on the existing law. That the Department of Commerce puts down and essentially it it and it it foisted an unfunded mandate as we like to say, they demanded that that some of these fishing companies have to do this new Thing to comply With US code with, with federal statutes, and you have to Pay for it too. And somebody’s company said no, no, that is not how this works, because Congress did not pass any law. And here’s the deal. You and. And I’m gonna start quoting out of some some documents here you the administrative and they say: administrative agencies are creatures of statute. And accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. Therefore, an agency literally has no power to act unless and until Congress confers power upon it.
Ha! Does that sound like our administrative agencies today, folks? No, it doesn’t.
So if you’re a Second Amendment advocate that is worried about the ATF, if you’re a businessman who is tired of the EPA hassling you, if you’re all of these different things, yes, every single one of these agencies across the board of all these different issues that we care about, all of them are running them are running amok. Putting into place their own power to put down quote unquote rules and give them the power of law when in fact Congress has made no such law.
So these fishing companies have challenged this rule. The two Suite, 2 suits have made their way up to the Supreme Court. They received their oral arguments this week and we will be getting a decision this week, but the reality is here’s what’s at stake.
It’s a very narrow argument. What happened is they challenged it. Lower court said, well, it’s kind of an ambiguous rule. So fishing companies, I don’t know if you can challenge them on this because this thing exists called the Chevron deference.
Now this is out of a 1984 case. Chevron V Natural Resources Defense Council, but basically what happened since 1984 because of another Supreme Court decision, we have had this precedent, this principle in American jurisprudence that. We will, the courts will defer to an agency and administrative agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute so long as the agency’s interpretation is reasonable.
Well, this gives an incredible amount of deference to administrative agencies, and they have used that deference to the fullest extent that they possibly can. So this case, this set of cases that has come before the court, has not only challenged this rule, it has challenged the foundation, very narrowly, of the Chevron deference, this principle that we’ve called. We may not care about the the commercial fishing industry, but you should very much care that these two cases, Relentless and Loper Bright. Are definitely giving the Supreme Court an Opportunity to revisit the Chevron deference, which has given an incredible amount of leeway to executive agencies, which has allowed the administrative state to build and bloat itself.
And watching Wednesday’s oral arguments was after listening, I should say, was incredible because the left just screached about the power of the administrative state and it sounds very much like and again, I’m not trying to put down a big prediction that will be proven wrong. It sounds like our current Supreme Court Ain’t buying it no more.
Well, how about that? There is a serious opportunity to overturn this Chevron deference principle, which has given so much leeway to the growth of bureaucracy, bloat in the administrative state. And I tell you what, we could see a major undoing, because if these commercial fishing industries get their way with the lawsuit before the Supreme Court, all of a sudden, like I said, you want to talk about. OSHA, EPA, the ATF, all of the agencies, whatever your issue, we may set up some serious dominos to start falling and demand that these things come back. This is this is a really incredible opportunity and you need to know about it. It connects back to West Virginia V EPA, a case in 2022 got overshadowed a little bit by the Dobbs Case.
This is big. This is really, really big. Take a look. That’s what you need to know is we are looking at the possible unraveling of the administrative state starting this year. Take a look at the Supreme Court. It’s a big deal. So that’s that.
We’re gonna move on to the rest of the show. I just wanted to stop and pause. Bring that to you and let you know about something that may have gone under the radar this week, in the midst of Iowa and all the other things happening, the March for Life. But that’s a biggie. That is a biggie.
Don’t forget, go to proamericareport.com, go to PhyllisSchlafly.com, sign up for our e-mail list there, and make sure you get all of the podcasts and come on back here after the break. We’ve got a couple of great guests. You’re not going to want to miss it. We will be right back here after the break on the Pro America Report.
