loquitur

Well, there are agencies and there are agencies.

But the idea that it's perfectly OK to have the same board of people decide whether to charge you, have their staff present the case and then decide whether you are liable, is a product of the New Deal. After all, they are "expert" with nothing but the "public interest" in their minds. The US Supreme Court cases that pretty much killed off the anti-delegation doctrine, which allowed Congress to abdicate its decision making power and leave it to agencies, are from the 1930s. The last case that held Congress over-did delegation was Schechter Poultry in 1935.

You can call me a libertarian crank, but Congress is who the people elected to make decisions about policy. Leaving it to agencies to make policy (as opposed to implementing it) is anti-democratic. And having those same agencies do both charging and enforcement is to my stupid eyes a due process violation -- but who the heck cares about constitutional rights when there is "enlightenment" to be brought to the benighted.

Please don't make me pull out my old case books from law school........