General Discussion

Enter the Federalist Society. Speakers at this year’s lawyer’s convention offered so many different proposals to halt regulatory action, it was difficult to keep track of them all. The conference opened with a speech by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a deeply conservative lawmaker who once claimed that federal child labor laws are unconstitutional because the Constitution was “designed to be a little bit harsh.” Lee used his talk to push the REINS Act, a bill that, if enacted, would most likely freeze most of the federal regulatory code in place. New York Law School Professor David Schoenbrod, the opening speaker at a panel on environmental law, called for a similar regime where regulations would not go into effect until they were enacted by Congress.