TerryD
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RE: Unelected Administrative Law Judges on the back foot
(05-23-2024 02:29 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote: (05-22-2024 10:44 PM)TerryD Wrote: (05-22-2024 05:03 PM)quo vadis Wrote: IMO, federal cases should be handled by federal judges, meaning judges appointed by the president with the consent of the senate. Any court that is part of a federal arm that doesn't have that characteristic is illegitimate, IMO.
That would wipe out ALJ's in every Department, as well as all U.S. bankruptcy judges, Federal Magistrates nationwide, all Federal judges in U.S. Territories and would accomplish nothing but further clog an already jammed up Federal Court system.
It also ignores Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution:
"Section 8.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
But these ALJs were not created by Congress, they were created by unelected Bureaucrats. Congress can create all the ALJs they want. In fact, the entire case could come down to that. Is a federal agency created and funded by congress allowed to then, all on its own, go out and create a shadow system of federal judges with 10x as many "judges" as we have Federal Judges, or does Congress have to create these Judgeships directly? I think it will make for a spirited argument.
The ironic thing is that there's no need to call them "judges" at all. Call them "arbitrators" or perhaps "adjudicators". Oh, wait, arbitrators don't normally go out all on their own and try to enforce a rogue agenda on Dartmouth, or Space X, etc etc, do they? Hmmmm.
If Congress delegated that power and authority to the agencies, then they are in fact Article I judges created by Congress.
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Unelected Administrative Law Judges on the back foot
