The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State
Abstract
The post-New Deal administrative state is unconstitutional,' and its validation by the legal system amounts to nothing less than a bloodless constitutional revolution. 2 The original New Dealers were aware, at least to some degree, that their vision of the national government's proper role and structure could not be squared with the written Constitution: 3 The Administrative Process, James Landis's classic exposition of the New Deal model of administration, fairly drips with contempt for the idea of a limited national government subject to a formal, tripartite separation of powers. 4 Faced with a choice between the administrative state and the Constitution, the architects of our modern government chose the administrative state, and their choice has stuck.
