This is John Batchel, a conversation with my colleague Richard Epstein of Civitas Institute about

Doge. Richard is unhappy with how clumsy it is, but then he goes to the heart of the matter,

which is it may not have the validation it needs without someone confirmed by the Senate.

Richard explains it.

Here, it's a small detail, but it looks to be a very large inconsistency with the authority

that Mr. Musk has gathered to himself.

Richard Epstein, much more of this later.

There's also another question about Doge, which is going to be litigated,

and I think he should probably lose on that, is why the hell does he get all this power, and how does it come?

Doge is a department, we are told. It's a department that lasts for less than three years,

and there is a long-standing executive statute, which allows the president by executive

order to put people in charge of certain kinds of specific project with people running it who have

received Senate confirmation. Well, the first thing about this executive order is that whatever

Mr. Musk is doing, it's not a specific project, it's the entire

government being shaken over, and he's not received any Senate confirmation.