The Madisonian System: A Republic If We Can Keep It.

By Jonathan Turley

James Madison was a profoundly gifted and brilliant man with a wide array of intellectual influences. Perhaps the least well known was the influence of Sir Isaac Newton. I have been writing about the influence of Newtonian physics on Madison in the context of constitutional theory. Madison’s records show his fascination with Newtonian physics, including elaborate charts of orbital bodies and their gravitational pull. He viewed our tripartite political system—legislative, executive, and judicial—in such planetary terms: that they were locked in an orbit. The three branches create a stable system through their inverse gravitational pull.

The problem is that now this balance is being thrown off in two important respects. First, we’ve seen the rise of what I’ve called an “uber-presidency,” a dominant presidency within the system.

Presidents have been usurping power, particularly from the legislative branch, for decades. Second, we have seen the rise of a type of “fourth branch”—the domination of federal agencies that have become increasingly independent in their actions and policies. Today you are 10 times more likely to be adjudicated in an administrative proceeding than you are in a real court of law. There are roughly 100,000 adjudications in the federal system each year, and a million done by agencies. The vast majorities of direct limitations and regulations in your life are coming from agencies, not direct legislation. Yet, these agencies are insulated in a way that really challenges the basic representative democratic values that the Framers believed in......To Read More....