George Will urges the U.S. Senate to perform its Constitutional – and ethical – duty. A slice:
Matt Gaetz, an arrested-development adolescent with the swagger of a sequined guitarist in a low-rent casino, will not be confirmed. His grotesqueness, however, makes three other nominees seem what they are not: acceptable. Considering only competence — leaving aside character blemishes — nothing in their resumes qualifies Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the policy and administrative challenges of running the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.
The Senate’s power to reject presidential nominees is as plenary as is the president’s power to nominate. “Ambition,” said Madison, “must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.” A senator’s interest is braided with the Senate’s powers. The Framers did not merely anticipate presidential-congressional conflict, they encouraged it with the Constitution’s structure. Senators can fulfill Madison’s expectations and hopes by counteracting presidential ambitions.
Although some Republican senators’ canine devotion to the president-elect is sincere, many have little respect and less affection for him, and some reciprocate his disdain. Rejecting Gaetz would exercise almost-atrophied institutional muscles and might be habit-forming: Individual senators’ enhanced self-esteem can be a precursor to institutional pride, which is a prerequisite for recovering Madisonian balance between the two political branches.
Also warning of Trump’s reckless nominees is National Review‘s Philip Klein.
Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld explains that Trump’s attempt to twist the Constitution in order to appoint nominees would likely be rejected even by the justices appointed to the Court by Trump. Two slices:
Mr. Trump has suggested he could unilaterally put Congress into recess. In April 2020, he warned that he might “exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress,” if the Senate continued to obstruct his appointments. But the president’s power to adjourn Congress, which has never been exercised, exists only “in case of Disagreement” between the House and Senate “as to the Time of Adjournment”—language that would seem to apply only when the House and Senate agree to adjourn but disagree about when. If Mr. Trump used that clause to try to suspend Congress without its consent, he’d be risking a constitutional crisis.
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The silver lining for Mr. Trump is that only the Supreme Court can overturn its precedents. If he can get the Senate into recess, the lower courts would be obligated to follow the Noel Canning majority and uphold the president’s recess appointments. That would buy him some time. But once the case reaches the high court, which could happen quickly, Mr. Trump should be prepared to see his recess appointments declared null and void.
GMU Econ alum Dominic Pino compares Trump’s first Secretary of Health and Human Services to the man Trump will nominate to hold this post during Trump’s second term.
Jacob Sullum warns that Trump’s nominee to head the FCC is no fan of free speech. A slice:
Announcing his choice of Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump described him as “a warrior for Free Speech,” which sounds good until you ask what Trump means by that. Carr, who has served as a Republican FCC commissioner since Trump appointed him during his first term in August 2017, believes that promoting freedom of speech requires curtailing liability protections for social media platforms and restricting their editorial discretion.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board rightly criticizes the Biden administration’s economically illiterate antitrust actions. Two slices:
Meet the latest victim of Biden Administration antitrust policy: Spirit Airlines. Spirit declared bankruptcy Monday after the Justice Department cut off a lifeline by blocking its merger with JetBlue Airways. Too bad the government won’t compensate the workers, flyers and creditors harmed by its blunder.
Spirit has run up $3.3 billion in debt as it slashed prices to attract customers. The scrappy discount airline last decade spurred more industry competition by unbundling fares, charging more for carry-on baggage, and scrapping amenities. But legacy airlines followed, and Spirit had too few airport gates, pilots and planes to compete effectively.
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DOJ’s other lawsuit blocking JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance with American has benefited no one other than United and Delta. Call it the Biden antitrust paradox. In the name of protecting competition, regulators are helping big companies get bigger. As usual, consumers and workers will pay.
Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is preventing Democrat Bob Casey from lawlessly stealing an election.
David Henderson notes the importance of having good economists teaching in colleges and universities. A slice:
One of my benefits from being on Facebook is that a lot of young graduate economics students and assistant professors of economics have heard of me and try to friend me. Unless I see some big negative–and I rarely do–I accept. As a result, I follow what they’re doing in their careers: what they teach, how they teach, and how students respond to their teaching. I read a lot of positive stories. I think of Art Carden at Samford University (who is now, actually, a full professor–how time flies), Jonathan Murphy at Nicholls State University, and Michael Makovi at Northwood University, to name three off the top of my head. I could easily name five or six others.
