How Merrick Garland could torment Trump
Last edited Tue Apr 11, 2017, 09:04 AM - Edit history (1)
The spurned Supreme Court nominee has had a lot to say about deregulatory initiatives like the one the president's pushing.
By Josh Gerstein | 04/10/17 05:26 AM EDT
As Neil Gorsuch is sworn in to the Supreme Court, liberals are still teeming with anger over Merrick Garland being denied that same seat at the hands of Senate Republicans. ... However, many on the legal left are hoping the jilted Obama nominee can still play a role in thwarting one of the central thrusts of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda: what top Trump adviser Steven Bannon famously called “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”
As Trump presses to roll back regulations across the federal government — formally vowing to dismantle two rules for every new one issued — an article Garland wrote more than three decades ago has emerged as a kind of playbook for those plotting the legal resistance to Trump’s campaign to unwind regulations aimed at protecting the environment, workers’ rights and more.
The 1985 article in the Harvard Law Review, penned as the Reagan administration's deregulation initiative was gathering steam, emphasized the duties of courts to take a "hard look" at attempts to revoke federal rules. Garland argued that agencies revoking regulations must have at least as good a basis for killing a rule as they did for issuing it — and that the action be consistent with congressional intent. ... “The hard look demands that the agency show that the course it chose was reasonable in light of the relevant policies, alternatives, and facts,” Garland wrote.
Another legal expert said there are unmistakable parallels between the Reagan-era deregulation effort Garland helped resist in the courts and the one Trump is embarking upon. ... “This is the world we are about to enter,” said Paul Verkuil, a leading authority on the federal rulemaking process. “You have to be able to justify your decision to end a regulation. ... {Garland} pretty much knew what he was talking about. It was a dramatic and important article which got a lot of play.”
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Josh Gerstein | jgerstein@politico.com | @joshgerstein
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as they did for issuing it — and that the action be consistent with congressional intent. ... “The hard look demands that the agency show that the course it chose was reasonable in light of the relevant policies, alternatives, and facts,” Garland wrote.
Another legal expert said there are unmistakable parallels between the Reagan-era deregulation effort Garland helped resist in the courts and the one Trump is embarking upon. ... “This is the world we are about to enter,” said Paul Verkuil, a leading authority on the federal rulemaking process. “You have to be able to justify your decision to end a regulation. ... pretty much knew what he was talking about. It was a dramatic and important article which got a lot of play.”'
Imagine trump 
