Gorsuch to release book in August: ‘Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law’

Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch has a new book he authored with one of his former law clerks on the state of laws in the U.S., suggesting too many exist.

“Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” will be out Aug. 6 and published by Harper, part of HarperCollins Publishers.

Janie Nitze, the co-author, reviews several cases to demonstrate how Americans are “trapped unexpectedly in a legal maze,” according to The Associated Press.

“Some law is essential to our lives and our freedoms,” read an announcement from the publisher. “But too much law can place those very same freedoms at risk and even undermine respect for law itself. And often those who feel the cost most acutely are those without wealth, power and status.”

Justice Gorsuch has been a critic of executive agencies running amok with increased regulations, suggesting Chevron deference, which guides courts to defer to government agency heads, should be overruled.

The justices have a case this term giving them an opportunity to overrule Chevron. It was brought by fishermen challenging a rule that makes them pay for federal monitors on their boats. A decision is expected by the end of June.

Chevron deference derived from the 1984 case Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council. In the litigation, the council challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s 1981 change to its definition of the “source” of air pollution in enforcing the 1963 Clean Air Act. The change made it easier for factories to add facilities without going through the EPA review process.

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled in favor of the EPA, saying Congress had given the agency authority to interpret and enforce its policy and that judges should defer to that authority. The ruling reversed a decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Chevron deference doctrine, which requires judges to defer to an agency’s interpretation of a law as long as the interpretation is reasonable, established a critical test in administrative law.

If a law is deemed ambiguous but the executive branch’s interpretation is considered rational — even if it’s not the likeliest way Congress intended — the courts must uphold it.

Justice Gorsuch has argued the law requires judges to do less deferring and more judging.

This is his second book since he joined the high court in 2017 after being nominated by former President Donald Trump.

In 2019, his book “A Republic, If You Can Keep It” was published. Ms. Nitze and another clerk, David Feder, helped with that one.

Before that he authored “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia” in 2006.

• Stephen Dinan contributed to this story.