Uhlmann on Why Congress Delegates Power

Because It Can, and No One More Powerful Has Said It Can't

My mentor (for over a decade) Michael M. Uhlmann was honored on the Gray Matters Podcast on 12 Dec 2019. Adam White, who runs the Gray Center (also did a podcast for years with Richard A. Epstein called Reasonable Disagreements during the Trump years), also calls Uhlmann a mentor.

Turns out, C. Boyden Gray, the namesake of the C. Boyden Gray Center of the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University—home of the Gray Matters Podcast—called Michael Uhlmann “the greatest teacher I ever had.” (21:30 mark). And Gray himself is no spring chicken. (And yes, that’s a US Supreme Court justice sitting next to Gray as he says that, himself also a mentee of Uhlmann).

I think Mike Uhlmann’s comments on the Administrative State (arbitrary power versus Constitutional accountability from below) are some of the clearest and most beautifully and bluntly expressed that I’ve heard.

If you can understand this, you’re on your way. (Starting at 38:30). If you can only understand maybe 30%, or 50% or maybe in parts, 70%, don’t be too discouraged. Expose yourself to this , anyway. As my Metaphysics I teacher, Dr. JP Moreland used to say, it’s not a bad thing at all to expose yourself to stuff that’s a bit above your head. Because what happens is you get used to it, you begin to catch things and level up, almost like a child or a teenager hearing dinner table talk from your parents’ high-level guests that is over the head but somehow sticks with you and puts you ahead of other kids who didn’t ever hear such dinner talk regularly. It gives you a resolve to push forward to understand more — and progress is possible. Progress will be actual if you keep at it.

FYI: this is the key issue in the 2024 Presidential Election as well as every Congressional race every two years. If you don’t know why, that’s a reason to push forward in this. That’s a sign you’re behind. (Not that you can’t catch up, so don’t be discouraged. But also, don’t be deceived—this is the key issue just as it was in 2016, popular ignorance to the contrary notwithstanding).

[Last Photo: C. Boyden Gray telling the distinguished audience that Mike “was the best teacher I ever had.” Mike was also my Con. Law Professor and mentor for over a decade during my graduate studies at Claremont Colleges].

Luke, for Trp