Watch out for that third branch of government!

The Administrative Procedures Act may not be terribly exciting to read or talk about, but it does provide a form of basic protection for citizens against arbitrary government rule. As the attached article illustrates, the executive usually has to provide some rational justification for implementing policy based on…facts. However, when your governing is based on “alternative facts”, or more specifically, the random fever dreams of the executive, then it’s hard to clear even the lowest hurdles of judicial review. One of the more under-appreciated aspects of our moment in time is the pains federal government lawyers have to go to explain, ad hoc, the irrational decisions of the president, by pretending they are rational.