David French thinks Congress represents the truly democratic element of the federal government. He, like many other commentators, also believes it is broken. His solution? Overturn Chevron, and things will get back to normal. Is he right?
Not in this case. The reasons for congressional dysfunction–the filibuster and a right-wing party that is more interested in drama and oppressing half the population than good governance–have nothing to do with Chevron, and will not go away if it is overturned.
If Chevron completely disappears, two things will happen. First, power will flow from unelected experts (bureaucrats) to unelected, increasingly partisan non-experts (judges). That’s not exactly a win for democracy. Second, the validity of all of our administrative rules will be back on the table, which is a recipe for chaos.
We just have to hope that Roberts and Barrett succeed in limiting this decision to issues that don’t really require special expertise. That is possible, but hardly a given.