What is “The Swamp” exactly?

We’ve all heard the term and I think we all have our general ideas about what it is and we definitely know who is a part of it in Congress, but what are we really talking about when we refer to “The Swamp”?

Well, as I’m sure you know, “The Swamp” is a term that we basically use interchangeably with another term we’re all familiar with, the Deep State.

There are certain groups and individuals that are working to erode our freedoms in America and it comes through Congress, but it is not limited to Congress.

There are also certain groups that contribute to certain politicians in an effort to coerce them to vote and make laws that benefit them.

President Trump was doing his best to drain the swamp, but it proved to be much harder and deeper than anticipated. However, there is still an opportunity to further drain the swamp and it will be up to the Supreme Court to do so.

It could be a coincidence—or it could foretell an historic Supreme Court term. The Court has now accepted two cases for this term that could threaten the essential legal underpinnings of the federal administrative state.

The first is American Hospital Association v. Becerra, in which the plaintiff questions the Chevron doctrine—a rule fashioned by the Supreme Court itself in 1984 that requires lower federal courts to defer to administrative agencies’ interpretation of their delegated authorities, where the statute is ambiguous and the agency’s decision is “reasonable.” Under this rubric, lower federal courts have given administrative agencies wide leeway to interpret the scope of their authority.

The second case, which has received less attention, is West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, in which the state is challenging EPA’s authority to impose restrictions on the emission of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. West Virginia has a number of objections to the EPA’s actions, but one of them raises a constitutional issue known as the nondelegation doctrine, which was last invoked by the Supreme Court in 1935. This holds that under the Constitution’s separation of powers, Congress may not delegate any of its legislative authority to agencies of the executive branch. Accordingly, if Congress gave so much discretion to the EPA in the Clean Air Act that the agency could create what was in effect a new law—without congressional authorization—the Act would violate the nondelegation doctrine.

Decisions on these two court cases by the Supreme Court could do a lot to further drain the swamp by limiting the power of certain governmental agencies going forward.

Sources:
Law and Liberty