Maggie's Farm

The words of the Constitution are: "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." That's in Article I, Section One. Not a word about delegation and the use of "vested" implies that they may not delegate that power. Yes, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Congress can delegate its law-making powers to the Executive Branch - that's who the agencies, etc are, Executive Branch - but the language used in the decisions to reach that conclusion is talking about necessity because the issues are too complex for Congress or the subject matter is to technical. Those are not constitutional principles nor are they notions of constitutional interpretation. Furthermore, the Congress has purported to "delegate" judicial powers to the administrative bureaucrats; Congress has no judicial powers to delegate. Constitution gives those powers to the Supreme Court and such lesser courts as Congress shall by law create. And no, the IRS isn't a court. Nor is any other part of the Executive Branch. And before you repeat your insult about being profoundly ignorant of constitutional law, let me mention that I spent 35 years in the law. If there is no constitutional principal preventing agencies from being law-maker, investigating and arresting agency and adjudicator of guilt and punishment, how can one determine that "...sometimes administrative agencies exceed their constitutional reach..."? Other than by an appeal to whether one likes some particular decision or not; hardly "constitutional law". Read the legal literature of the time when the creation of these agencies was proposed and you will find, at best, legal sophistries presented as constitutional principles, designed to hide the fact that the Progressives of the time believed in the technocratic state, the rule of the elite well-educated class who have the correct opinions. In short, sir, you are mistaken as well as rude.