Filius X. Publius and Associates

Civil Discussions About Politics and Religion

Administrative Law Judges

May 4, 2026

The federal government has dozens of small scale tyrannies. They are agencies that combine the powers of all three branches of government. We can restore republican government. We must reduce the power of the Administrative Law Judges. They must not try civilians. Rather, they should judge their agency’s rules or practices.
     
Filius X. Publius
 Some federal agencies are small scale tyrannies. Those agencies combine the powers of all three branches of government. Agency employees write laws. Agency employees enforce those laws. Agency employees bring the accused to trial. The agency holds the trial. Agency employees sit as judges and hear those cases.
Blayden Balance
 While it is true some federal agencies do all of those things, I think it going too far to accuse them of being a tyranny.
Filius X. Publius
 I am just applying James Madison’s definition. He defined tyranny in the Federalist Papers:
  The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
Blayden Balance
 Ok, so those agencies meet Madison’s definition of tyranny. What do you propose doing to correct the problem?
Filius X. Publius
 Clearly at least one of the functions must go. What about the executive function?
Blayden Balance
 Enforcing the law? No, someone has to do it. Congress created those agencies to enforce the law.
Filius X. Publius
 How about the legislative function? They stop writing regulations.
Blayden Balance
 That would require Congress to get back into the business of actually writing laws down to the level the regulations are at. Not likely.
Filius X. Publius
 Agreed. If Congress votes in some new regulation, they would get the blame for the problems their regulations cause.
 
 Fortunately, there is a ready solution to the pick-one problem. Remove the judicial function.
Blayden Balance
 What changes do you propose?
Filius X. Publius
 We should change the duties of the administrative law judges. Let’s change their jobs to match their titles. They would only judge how the agency is administering the law. They could order a re-write of any regulation that exceeds what the law allows. They would preside over civilian complaints against their agency. They could order their agency to amend illegal or harmful practices. We would limit their powers of punishment. They could punish a rouge agency employee who has abused his power.
 
 They could not judge any civilian’s compliance with agency regulations. They could not punish civilians at all.
Blayden Balance
 What about enforcing the regulations? Don’t we need judges to hear the enforcement cases?
Filius X. Publius
 Fortunately, we have a large federal judiciary with the power to hear such cases. The judges are all Presidential appointees. They were all confirmed by the Senate. They all have life-time appointments. They can hear both civil and criminal cases. You can read about them in Article 3 of the U. S. Constitution.

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