Supreme Court to review Chevron Doctrine

The Supreme Court is scheduled review a case with extremely far-reaching implications, implications that impact you and me.

The specifics of the case is that a US Federal agency mandated that fishermen in the Atlantic install electronic monitoring equipment and that the fishermen pay for it out of their own pocket.

The fishermen sued claiming that the agency had no authority to make that mandate because there is no language out of Congress that specifically gives the agency that power. That is, the authority to force the target to install electronic spying devices on the target's property on the target's dime.

Lower court decisions have been split with many citing the Chevron Doctrine which holds that Federal agencies have the authority to create mandates sans legislative review if the agency believes that those mandates are helpful in executing directives that were defined in legislative language.

To point to how intrusive and ridiculous this could become, a strict interpretation of the Chevron Doctrine means that the U.S. Department of Transportation might determine that installing speed limiters on all automobiles in the United States would save lives and they could mandate they be retrofitted on every vehicle on the road at the owners' cost, all without review by Congress.

The reason the case brought by the fishermen is so creepy is because if the Supreme Court rules that the Federal agency's actions were within the law, that sets a precedent giving the U.S. Federal government de facto authority to mandate that citizens place smart-devices in every room of their house. Devices with microphones and cameras. Devices with logic to process words and search for key phrases. Devices to call first-responders if they sense a lack-of-wellness ("Alexa, call 9-1-1") or sense hydrocarbons from gun cleaning products or hear certain frequencies that suggest a crying baby.

If the Feds have the power to mandate, they have the power to punish you if you do not comply.

So in a very real sense, this case is about giving the Metastasizing Surveillance State a green-light to force citizens to place "bugs" in every room of their living quarters.

Creepy!

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Jerry, the character in the last story, is an idiot savant. He has an inhuman ability to remember and recall data but no ability to exercise softer skills like judgement.

Jerry is the future. Jerry is AI.