It’s been looking for a while like the Republicans are preparing for a possible Democratic shockwave in the November elections by doing all they can to consolidate the gains they’ve made for themselves and for their donor class during their period of controlling the entire government. ( The president* is cooperating in this effort because he knows nothing about anything, and because, winning!) The unseemly haste with which they’re trying to lard up the federal judiciary with embryonic Scalias is the most obvious example. But, as with all things these days, it’s best to keep your eye on the sparrow as well.

On June 21, in a case called Lucia v. SEC, and by a resounding 7-2 margin, the Supreme Court ruled that administrative law judges (ALJs)—who preside over quasi-legal proceedings within the various executive agencies—are what are called “inferior officers” of the United States and, as such, can be appointed only by the president or by the head of the agency in question. (The case challenged the bona fides of an ALJ who worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission and who had been appointed, as was customary at the time, from off a master list maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.) These people are more important than they appear to be.

Getty Images

Administrative law judges preside over hearings within the agencies. These hearings adjudicate disputes over claims and benefits, as well as cases involving actions taken by the agencies. In the case of the SEC, for example, the agency could choose to take action to enforce financial regulations through the administrative procedures rather than going to court. Now, thanks to the Supreme Court, hundreds of administrative actions likely are now open to review. To repeat, because of the Lucia decision, administrative law judges now can be appointed only by the president or the head of the agency. You can see where this is headed, right?

On Tuesday, the president* signed an executive order mandating that all ALJ’s be appointed only by the heads of the respective agencies. From the WaPo:

The order, which effectively also gives agencies more leeway in deciding the qualifications they want in those decision-makers, is a response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a challenge to the authority of an administrative law judge based on how government hires for those positions…

Getty Images

...Rep. Richard Neal (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, raised the prospect of politically motivated hiring for those positions. “Impartiality plays a central role in administrative law judges’ work. Allowing the appointment of judges who are big campaign donors, beholden to industry, or otherwise unqualified will result in unfair, biased rulings that harm ordinary Americans,” he said in a statement. The American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization, said the change “could have a stunning impact on how myriad administrative claims are handled. Political appointment could, for example, lead to more administrative law judges with pro-corporate anti-worker biases,” its president, Caroline Fredrickson, said in a statement.

Once again, what might have been merely a massive—if temporary—bureaucratic inconvenience caused by a fairly decisive Supreme Court ruling looks like something far more ominous due to the nature of this president* and his administration*, and of the behavior of a congressional majority that’s getting just enough of what it wants from him to remain as supine as it needs to be.

After all, this administration thought it was a good idea for Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. It still thinks it’s a good idea to have Mick Mulvaney running the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Its hiring practices are, ahem, uniquely suited both to looting the government for profit and to destroying the ability of regulatory agencies to do their jobs. One, of course, implies the other. This is not normal, as somebody once said.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io