On the latest “Sunday Special” episode, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro talked with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who warned that the proliferation of complex laws and regulations is threatening Americans’ freedoms and undermining trust in government institutions.
Gorsuch told Shapiro that the U.S. Code has doubled in length since 1980, with Congress adding 2-3 million new words to federal laws annually. He noted that federal agencies have also been prolific, with conservative estimates putting the number of federal crimes buried in regulations at 300,000.
“And, of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Our federal agencies have been busy, too. There are so many federal crimes now buried in those regulations adopted by agencies, not necessarily by Congress, that nobody knows how many there are,” he said.
WATCH THE FULL ‘SUNDAY SPECIAL’ INTERVIEW WITH NEIL GORSUCH
Gorsuch emphasized the human toll of regulatory overreach, citing examples like a magician who had to obtain a federal license for his rabbit and create a 28-page disaster preparedness plan. He argued that excessive regulation undermines trust in government institutions and disproportionately impacts ordinary Americans trying to comply with complex laws.
“Most people have no idea what the law actually is,” Gorsuch added. “You can hire a lawyer and if you’re rich enough, then maybe you’re able to navigate the laws. If you’re not rich, then you’re probably screwed, depending on how tightly regulated any particular segment is.”
The justice expressed hope for bipartisan solutions, highlighting state-level efforts to eliminate unnecessary regulations. He pointed to the deregulation of the airline industry in the 1970s as an example of successful reform at the federal level. Gorsuch also stressed the importance of civic education, stating that “a third of Americans can’t name the three branches of government, let alone why we have them.”
Shapiro chimed in, stating, “When you look at sort of the history of the development of this giant bureaucracy, the amount of rulemaking you trace this this dramatic increase to sort of the latter half of the 20th century. But its roots lie in Wilsonian administrative state theories. And really that comes from German progressivism.”
“The original checks and balances of the Constitution were largely designed to prevent things from getting done in the absence of a large-scale approval of the things, the American public really had to be nearly unanimous in a lot of ways in order to get big things done,” Shapiro added. “And by the time we got to the early 20th century, Woodrow Wilson famously — and Teddy Roosevelt too — really believed that now the federal government had become unworkable; it just was not able to get the things done that it needed to get done. And so the idea was governance from above by experts who could thwart the checks and balances that were creating such obstruction.”
The discussion between the Daily Wire host and Justice Gorsuch highlights growing concerns about regulatory overreach and its impact on everyday Americans. Gorsuch’s warnings come at a time of heightened debate over the proper role and scope of government regulation.
At the federal level, Gorsuch noted that both Republican and Democratic administrations have undertaken deregulatory initiatives in recent years. The Supreme Court has shown a willingness to reconsider longstanding doctrines that give agencies broad latitude in interpreting and enforcing regulations. In June, the high court, with the help of Gorsuch, overturned the “Chevron deference” doctrine, which had required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
