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WEST VIRGINIA v. EPA 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

have questioned that assessment.1  But by vesting the law-
making  power  in  the  people’s  elected  representatives,  the 
Constitution  sought  to  ensure  “not  only  that  all  power 
[w]ould  be  derived  from  the  people,”  but  also  “that  those 
[e]ntrusted with it should be kept in dependence on the peo-
ple.”  Id., No. 37, at 227 (J. Madison).  The Constitution, too, 
placed its trust not in the hands of “a few, but [in] a number 
of hands,” ibid., so that those who make our laws would bet-
ter  reflect  the  diversity  of  the  people  they  represent  and
have an “immediate dependence on, and an intimate sym-
pathy  with, the people.”  Id., No. 52, at 327 (J. Madison).
Today, some might describe the Constitution as having de-
signed  the  federal  lawmaking  process  to  capture  the  wis-
dom of the masses.  See P. Hamburger, Is Administrative
Law Unlawful? 502–503 (2014).

Admittedly,  lawmaking  under  our  Constitution  can  be 
difficult.  But that is nothing particular to our time nor any 
accident.  The framers believed that the power to make new 
laws regulating private conduct was a grave one that could,
if not properly checked, pose a serious threat to individual 
liberty.  See The Federalist No. 48, at 309–312 (J. Madison); 
see also id., No. 73, at 441–442 (A. Hamilton).  As a result, 

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1 For example, Woodrow Wilson famously argued that “popular sover-
eignty” “embarrasse[d]” the Nation because it made it harder to achieve 
“executive expertness.”  The Study of Administration, 2 Pol. Sci. Q. 197,
207  (1887)  (Administration).    In  Wilson’s  eyes,  the  mass  of  the  people
were “selfish, ignorant, timid, stubborn, or foolish.”  Id., at 208.  He ex-
pressed  even  greater  disdain  for  particular  groups,  defending  “[t]he 
white men of the South” for “rid[ding] themselves, by fair means or foul, 
of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of igno-
rant [African-Americans].”  9 W. Wilson, History of the American People 
58 (1918).  He likewise denounced immigrants “from the south of Italy 
and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland,” who possessed 
“neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence.”  5 id., 
at 212.  To Wilson, our Republic “tr[ied] to do too much by vote.”  Admin-
istration 214.