Knockout Blow to Admin State Confirmed

Company long harassed by a federal agency is contacted to discuss a settlement an hour after the SCOTUS decision was announced.

Students of English literature may think of the Marquis of Queensbury as the father of Oscar Wilde’s intimate friend, Lord Alfred Douglas. This was John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.

Boxing fans know him as the man who lent his name to the Queensberry Rules of modern boxing. As Oscar Wilde experienced, the Marquess was a rude, aggressive, and at times brutal man. He seems to have thought of boxing as a way for men to inflict violence constrained by rules that minimize risk of terrible injury or death. This contrasted with the long tradition of dueling by sword or pistol, which so often resulted in the needless deaths of young men.

In the metaphorical boxing match between hard-working entrepreneurs and the state, the state usually wins. Exceptions to this rule occur when a company gets so big and rich that it can afford to deploy an army of lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

I believe it’s a metaphorical boxing match worth having, because both the state and huge corporations can become rapacious if they don’t occasionally get (metaphorically) punched in the liver or face. We humans have a bad habit of abusing power, so getting cut down to size is often a healthy thing.

As I reported in my morning post, SCOTUS Delivers Liver Shot to Administrative State, the court just overturned the 1984 Chevron decision, which is being hailed a major blow to the power of the federal administrative state.

I just received word from an old friend in Texas who has been harassed in court for years by a federal agency. Within an hour of the SCOTUS decision being announced, he received notice that the agency would like to discuss a settlement.

In other words, this morning’s knockout blow to the administrative state has been empirically confirmed, and it appears to be more severe than Micky Ward’s famous liver shot.

Indeed, from what my friend tells me, the knockout is more comparable to Mike Tyson’s famous 6-4 combination—that is, a right hook to body followed by a right uppercut to chin. When Mike executed this combination well, it was a mixture of surgical precision and brutality that yielded perfect knockouts. I always felt sorry for Mike’s opponents who were on the receiving end of this combination, but when it comes to the administrative state, I find this association of ideas deeply satisfying to contemplate.