The Department of Freedom

November 11, 2017 Greg Penglis

No government in the history of the world has ever had a Department of Freedom.  Governments are dedicated to power and control.  This Department would be dedicated to exactly the opposite.  So this is going to require some thinking and planning. 

The goal of this Department is to restore, enforce and ensure, compliance with the Constitution by the Executive Branch, and by state and local government entities, including law enforcement, that are failing to enforce the Constitution and constitutional rights, as written.

This Department will have the power to abolish any current federal regulation, and any regulation under development, which is deemed anti-freedom, unconstitutional, or unduly burdensome. 

This is a check on the Executive by the Executive. This Department could create no law or regulation, but could submit laws back to Congress for possible review, rewrite, or repeal after evaluation of their effect on freedom and liberty. It would submit studies to Congress for how to increase freedom and would comment on the constitutional compliance of proposed legislation. The Secretary of Freedom would be elected by the state legislatures to give them representation back in Washington D.C.. States can also petition the Department to overturn any current or proposed regulation.

The Department would not be able to abolish or repeal regulations duly passed by Congress and signed by the President.  This Department is designed to repeal and abolish all the regulations proposed by regulatory agencies that become law, or have become law, without a specific authorizing vote by Congress and signature by the President.  This Department could also veto any internal procedure within agencies deemed anti-freedom or unconstitutional.  

For example the practice mentioned in the Department of Innovation of the Obama Administration practice of transferring fees and judgements from corporations to Leftist special interest groups, could be stopped by the Department of Freedom.  The personnel who engaged in that could be disciplined, fired, or recommended for criminal charges.  The same would apply to the practice of using the IRS to segregate out conservative groups from the tax free non-profit status accorded liberal groups.

This Department would serve as the Constitutional Consumer Action Agency for any citizen, group, state government entity, local government entity, corporation, small business, industry group, union, activist group, or other individual or body who wants to challenge the constitutionality, burden, or anti-freedom of any law or regulatory action by the Federal Government.

This Department would draw on the resources of college, university and organizations dedicated to freedom, such as CATO, Hoover Institute and Heritage Foundation, in order to bring the philosophical basis of freedom from our founding documents, into practice today.  The Department could propose legislation, propose new regulations, and new ways to regulate, that would increase the freedom and liberty of American citizens and all their enterprises.