An Unexpected Antagonist
An Unexpected Antagonist
Courts, Deregulation, and Conservative Judicial Ideology, 1980–94
This chapter argues that the Reagan administration's policy of “executive deregulation” largely failed because the federal courts rejected the administration's attempts to do this—even during Reagan's second term, when his appointees had come to dominate the federal judiciary. Judicial rejection of executive deregulation illustrates some of the contradictions in late-twentieth-century conservative ideology. Reagan-era conservatives were committed to anti-statist beliefs, out of which deregulation naturally flowed, but many also were committed to controlling “judicial activism.” The means deployed by these conservatives included textualism and a commitment to originalism in both constitutional and statutory interpretation. These approaches undermined executive deregulation. In this instance, conservative judicial method trumped conservative executive policy.
Keywords: Reagan administration, executive deregulation, conservatives, judicial activism, textualism, originalism
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