Civics: “Currently, the fourth branch is in many ways the most powerful, and certainly the most destructive, arm of the government”
– It has the privilege of targeting individual citizens on its own initiative, which is forbidden to the three other branches. – It can interfere their lives in any way it wishes by making a “ruling”. – The only recourse against a “ruling” is to take the bureaucracy in question to court. – But the process is the punishment, because this takes months if not years and costs tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. – Until recently, courts have deferred to bureaucrats as a matter of legal precedent. Now they merely do so as a matter of practice. – But should the bureaucracy lose anyway, the only punishment the court inflicts is that they are told they have to stop doing that specific thing. – Any fines or legal costs imposed on them punish the taxpayer, not the agent or even the agency. – And the next, closely related, thing the bureaucracy thinks of to do is once again fair game, until the courts are once again brought in, at further cost, to tell it to stop. All of this creates a Red Queen Effect.
