Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

Discussing Delegations

Subscribe to Gray MattersSubscribe

Does the Constitution set limits on the powers that Congress authorizes agencies to exercise? Last year, in Gundy v. United States, Justice Gorsuch issued a dissenting opinion calling for a reinvigorated "nondelegation doctrine." He was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas. Gorsuch's dissent, along with Justice Alito's separate opinion, and a subsequent opinion from Justice Kavanaugh, have inspired significant new research by a number of legal scholars. In fact, the Gray Center will soon workshop several new papers at a research roundtable, and discuss them in the autumn at a public policy conference.

One of the first major contributions to this wave of new scholarship is a draft article by Professors Nicholas Bagley and Julian Davis Mortenson. In "Delegation at the Founding," the University of Michigan professors contend that the Constitution's original meaning does not support calls for a reinvigorated nondelegation doctrine.

In this podcast, Professor Bagley is our guest, discussing the issues with the Gray Center's director, Professor Adam White.

Host:
Adam J. White