One of the tools in the tool box ought to be a regulatory death penalty–meaning that if an agency so abuses its power that it cannot be trusted not to be vindictive on a going forward basis, then it simply cannot examine the regulated entity. Let’s look at the NY State attempts to go after the NRA—it is painfully obvious that it is retaliating against the NRA–so why should an agency that is supposed to follow the law have any power over anyone.

On a related note, we saw all of this in plain sight—look at the CFPB, when Cordray was first “appointed”–the appointment was patently illegal, yet he exercised power over his fellow Americans. We all knew it–yet, his actions during that illegal time period had force. Why should anyone respect the law given the flouting of the law by POTUS and a powerful agency? Banks, a key target of the CFPB, were put in a spot where they could not challenge CFPB because the OCC would pound them. What does that say about those who ran the OCC? How can they be trusted to do anything right if they effectively barred banks from challenging the authority of the CFPB when Cordray was illegally running it?

One measure of how far we’ve departed from traditional rule of law thinking is to do a thought experiment—what if the OCC came out and said, “You know what, it appears that the appointment of Cordray was illegal–the OCC will not take any regulatory action against any financial institution that wishes to challenge the CFPB’s authority over it.” That actually should have been de rigeur—but the fact that such a position would be unthinkable shows how far we have sunk.