Can We Reform the Administrative State?

With gratitude for Law & Liberty’s forum on the Administrative Procedure Act’s 75th anniversary, this essay kicks off what should be a weighty, wide-ranging discussion. The issues of the hour may represent the most important aspect of the politicized constellation of issues that consume our times; namely, the administrative dimension of the collapse, over the past twenty-five years or so, of what former senator James L. Buckley calls “America’s traditional constitutional morality.” There can be no more urgent task than partially redressing this collapse by restoring an American culture of fair administration.

I start the ball rolling with this table-setting overview. But the issues of concern are far-reaching enough that they resist compression into one essay. With much help from distinguished commenters, a conversation will follow—one we hope will entice venturesome non-lawyers to engage these nation-rending issues. Our goal is to make accessible the gravamen of elaborately articulated, deeply entrenched positions by using a variant of the ancient dialogic method for investigating questions of first principle.

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