The horns hadn't stopped beeping in Wilmington when the Washington Post stated the obvious: "Biden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies."



Yes, it is time everyone, to switch positions on executive action, administrative deference, and nationwide injunctions. The past four years have been fun. Now it's time to change things up.

In a best-case scenario, the Democrats will have 50 votes in the Senate. Any major legislation would require several Republican votes to beat a filibuster. And, if the Republicans carry a slim majority, then major legislation would likely not even be brought for a vote. Given these dynamics, it is entirely unsurprising that the Bide administration would turn to robust executive action to accomplish its goal.

Alas, the Biden administration will soon meet the Roberts buzzsaw. Over the past few years, the Chief has laid down a gauntlet of traps for Presidents who try to undo the actions of their predecessors. And I am convinced Roberts set these traps, knowing full well that he could snare them upon a Democratic President. The long game is quite long. Over the past four years, the Court's progressives were happy to join these precedents. And the Court's conservatives bitterly dissented. Now, it's time to change things up.

Of course, the Biden administration will likely bring more rigor to its rulemakings. Indeed, I'm sure many academics who were fierce critics of the Trump administration will soon find new employment in the Biden administration. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Chief Justice Roberts is the king of APA hindsight. He can write an opinion that makes it seem like the most innocuous omission in the regulatory process was fatal. He did it with Trump's DACA rescission. And he can do it again with Biden's rescission of Trump's DACA rescission. In July I wrote a post about how this litigation may proceed. I think we will be stuck with some of President Trump's policies for many years to come. Just in time for 2024. My article on "presidential reversals" may still see some light.

Without question, the most effective weapon to rescind regulations will be the Congressional Review Act. CRA resolutions are not subject to the filibuster. And I think the Democrats will be able to peel off some Republican vote on some of the more controversial Trump-era regulations. The Center for Biological Diversity argued that the CRA resolutions were unconstitutional, and failed to conform with INS v. Chadha. Thankfully, the 9th Circuit disagreed. Stay tuned.

ANAND: So it's election eve, you and Joe Biden are both known as centrists, moderates, but Biden has also talked about an FDR-sized presidency given the circumstances. In the event that Biden is president and you're Senate majority leader in January, should the first 100 days look like the modern, centrist Democratic Party's, or should it look like FDR's?

CHUCK: It ought to look like FDR's.

One area is climate, with a big, strong, aggressive climate agenda that takes into account working people, takes into account racial injustice.

The second is wealth and income inequality. Obviously, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Changing the tax code so it's fairer for labor rather than capital. Strengthening labor unions. One of the reasons working-class incomes have declined is the weakening of the labor movement. We have to strengthen that. We need a big, broad infrastructure bill, and it could create millions of jobs. A lot of those jobs should go to poor people, people who have had prison records. And these are good-paying jobs. Getting rid of student debt. I have a proposal with Elizabeth Warren that the first $50,000 of debt be vanquished, and we believe that Joe Biden can do that with the pen as opposed to legislation.

Then there are issues that don’t seem related to income inequality but are. Immigration reform. Criminal-justice reform is another economic issue. If you have a small conviction for a minor crime, you can never get a good job. I like the idea of paying care workers more.

The third area is democracy. We’ve got to change the structure of society. Making it much easier to vote. We can change America structurally that way.

So it’s a big, bold agenda. My job is to get as much of that passed and get the votes for it, which obviously is not something I can snap my fingers and do. I want the boldest agenda that we can get the votes to pass....