The Nondelegation Rumble

Advisory Opinions

Originalists have recently come under fire for trying to reinvigorate an old principle in administrative law called the nondelegation doctrine, which holds that Congress cannot delegate its own legislative power to other entities. Are originalists correct in claiming that the nondelegation doctrine was present at the founding? What does the historical record have to say about it? Why should living constitutionalists even care about this debate? Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan, and Ilan Wurman, an associate professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, join the show to answer all of these questions and more.

Show Notes:

-“There’s No Historical Justification for One of the Most Dangerous Ideas in American Law” by Nicholas Bagley and Julian Davis Mortenson in the Atlantic.

-“Delegation at the Founding” by Nicholas Bagley and Julian Davis Mortenson in Columbia Law Review.

-“No Nondelegation at the Founding? Not so fast,” by Ilan Wurman in the Yale Law Journal.

-Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States.

-Above the Law.

-The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment by Ilan Wurman.

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