(CNN) 鈥� Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy intend to lean on two recent Supreme Court rulings that they argue will make it easier to tear up a multitude of federal regulations.
The duo, who President-elect Donald Trump named to lead the newly formed , known as DOGE, point to the decisions in in 2022 and in earlier this year, both of which limited federal agencies鈥� regulatory authority.
However, multiple legal and regulatory experts told CNN that Musk and Ramaswamy are misinterpreting the decisions, which could actually make it harder to overturn existing rules.
鈥淭hese recent Supreme Court rulings won鈥檛 make their life easier in reducing the stock of existing regulations,鈥� said James Broughel, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank that aims to reduce regulations. Decisions 鈥渓ike Loper Bright work against them,鈥� he said.
Major rulings
In the Loper Bright ruling, the justices overturned long-standing judicial precedent that required courts to give deference to federal agencies鈥� rulemaking when a law is ambiguous, with the new decision meaning that courts will give more scrutiny to the regulatory moves the executive branch is making. In the West Virginia case, the Supreme Court cut back agencies鈥� power to address issues of major economic and political significance when Congress hasn鈥檛 explicitly given the agencies those authorities.
鈥淭ogether, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law,鈥� Musk and Ramaswamy, who have many business ventures that would benefit from fewer regulations, wrote in a recent in The Wall Street Journal. 鈥淒OGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission. This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.鈥�
But there are several problems with the pair鈥檚 assertions, said Nicholas Bagley, an administrative law expert and University of Michigan Law School professor.
鈥淭hose are cases that limit agency discretion,鈥� he told CNN. 鈥淭he cases add nothing to the executive branch鈥檚 power to reconsider old regulations.鈥�
Plus, federal departments would still have to follow the administrative process to overturn a rule 鈥� by issuing a new regulation in its place. The agencies would have to justify why they are changing the regulation and allow the public to comment on the proposed rule. The cumbersome effort would require significant agency resources, could take several years and would likely be subject to legal challenges after the new regulation was finalized.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very painstaking, very difficult process that鈥檚 likely to fail in most cases,鈥� said Richard Pierce Jr., a George Washington University law professor who specializes in administrative law and government regulation.
Slashing needed workers
What鈥檚 more, the endeavor would require a lot of assistance from agency staffers 鈥� the very workers that Musk and Ramaswamy have promised to cut. The duo argue in the op-ed that a should at least be 鈥減roportionate鈥� to the number of regulations eliminated, adding that fewer employees would be needed to produce and enforce regulations in the future.
That could backfire, experts say.
鈥淭hese are the people that they鈥檙e going to need to review all these regulations,鈥� Broughel said. 鈥淚f they really want to make a major dent in the stock of regulations, they鈥檙e going to need people who have been working with these regulations day in and day out, and that鈥檚 the career civil service staff.鈥�
Trump also promised a massive rollback in regulations during his first term, but he was more successful in slowing the pace of new regulations rather than slashing a multitude of existing ones, Broughel said.
During Trump鈥檚 first administration, the Council of Economic Advisers published a report in 2019 that said the president鈥檚 deregulatory actions would raise household income by $3,100 after five to 10 years. Also, it noted that the introduction of new regulations was being kept to a minimum.
There is, however, a way to eliminate some of the regulations recently implemented by the Biden administration. GOP lawmakers can use the Congressional Review Act to overturn rules enacted in the final months of President Joe Biden鈥檚 term, and those reversal measures are not subject to the Senate filibuster, meaning Republicans will only need 50 votes in the upper chamber to wipe those newly enacted Biden rules off the books. Roughly 100 rules could be eligible, according to a list compiled by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.
Conflicts of interest
Both Musk, who owns X and is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, have reasons to want to slash regulations, which could interfere with their vast business portfolios. For instance, in a town hall on X last month, Musk repeatedly criticized government regulations, citing their interference with his companies.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite arduous getting regulatory approval,鈥� Musk said while discussing his that develops implantable brain-computer interfaces. 鈥淚t does slow us down, and I think we should be able to go faster in the US with advancing Neuralink technology and other technologies that are out there unrelated to my company.鈥�
CNN鈥檚 Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
鈩� & 漏 2024 Cable 91欧美激情 Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
