Legal Commentary

Today the Supreme Court denied cert. in Defenders of Wildlife v. Chertoff, a case that raised some interesting and (in my view at least) important issues about the non-delegation doctrine.  (I helped co-author an amicus brief urging a cert. grant, and Rick Hills blogged about the case here ).  Regardless of what the outcome might have been had the Court granted review, as an academic it's at least a little disappointing to see a Court with lots of self-created time on its hands deny cert. on (again, what seems to me) a case that pushes the boundaries of an important separation of powers doctrine.  I had entertained some vague hope that the Court might have used this case as a vehicle to signal some thoughts about the scope of Congress's power to delegate in other areas, in particular with regard to the the "War on Terror," but obviously that did not happen.