Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Concerned about Cass:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_25-2009_01_31.shtml#1233000911
The LA Times [1]reports that some liberal activists are concerned
about President Obama's decision to nominate Harvard law professor
(and one-time VC guest blogger) Cass Sunstein to be the
administration's "regulatory czar" as head the Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget.
While Sunstein is quite liberal on some issues, and [2]inflamed some
on the right with his [3]attacks on "extreme right-wing" judges, his
work on administrative law and regulatory issues is more moderate and
quite well-respected. From the LA Times:
Though he is generally described as left of center, Sunstein's
academic interests in regulation have led him to raise questions
about the constitutionality of liberal favorites such as workplace
safety laws and the Clean Air Act. He has embraced a controversial
"senior death discount" that calculates the lives of younger people
as having a greater value than those of the elderly.
Until recently such debates have taken place largely in the world
of legal scholarship. But now that Obama has named Sunstein to
serve as his regulatory czar, environmentalists and labor activists
are digging into his voluminous body of work -- and wondering what
policies might emanate from a man so dedicated to calculating the
dollar value of every regulation. . . .
"If a Republican nominee had these views, the environmental
community would be screaming for his scalp," said Frank O'Donnell,
president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington-based advocacy group.
Instead, the response has been muted, as environmental and labor
groups question the wisdom of criticizing the nominee of a popular
president who has promised to support their agenda.
The [4]Center for Progressive Reform, a non-profit institute "working
to protect health, safety, and the environment through analysis and
commentary," was among the first to [5]express concerns about the
Sunstein nomination, and today they released a [6]report critical of
his approach to regulatory policy. CPR President[7] Rena Steinzor says
the group won't support or oppose confirmation as "because we�re not
in that business," but they will likely be a source of ammunition for
any who do decide to oppose Sunstein's confirmation, and several CPR
member-scholars [8]opposed the confirmation of Bush OIRA nominee John
Graham.
My own view is that pro-regulatory groups have little to fear from
Sunstein's confirmation. Whatever questions Sunstein may have raised
about the desirability (or even constitutionality) of various
regulatory programs, I cannot think of anything he has written that
challenges the idea of an aggressive regulatory state. Sunstein's
administrative law expertise and analytical rigor is likely to
translate into greater regulatory authority for this administration,
particularly insofar as he is able to goad federal agencies to
strengthen the analytical and legal justifications for their proposed
regulatory initiatives. In this respect, Sunstein could make the Obama
Administration's regulatory initiatives more formidable and less
vulnerable to judicial review, and that is an outcome I would think
environmental activists and their allies would cheer.
References
1.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sunstein26-2009jan26,0,6872290.story
2. http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.2459/pub_detail.asp
3.
http://www.amazon.com/Radicals-Robes-Extreme-Right-Wing-America/dp/0465083269
4. http://www.progressivereform.org/index.cfm
5. http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRblog.cfm?bdtCreated=1/9/2009
6. http://www.progressivereform.org/articles/SunsteinOIRA901.pdf
7.
http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRblog.cfm?idBlog=1024E113-1E0B-E803-CA21979C057DC516
8. http://www.citizen.org/congress/regulations/graham/academics.html
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