Gorsuch book offers critique of ‘too much law’
NEW YORK — Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch will have a book out this summer on a subject he has commented upon often — the volume of laws in the U.S.
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Wednesday that “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” will be released Aug. 6. The book is written by Gorsuch and one of his former clerks, Janie Nitze. According to Harper, Gorsuch and Nitze will review a variety of legal cases, from fishermen in Florida to an Internet entrepreneur in Massachusetts, and how Americans find themselves “trapped unexpectedly in a legal maze.”
“Some law is essential to our lives and our freedoms,” the publisher’s announcement reads in part. “But too much law can place those very same freedoms at risk and even undermine respect for law itself. And often those who feel the cost most acutely are those without wealth, power, and status.”
Since joining the bench in 2017, Gorsuch has voted against laws and regulations touching upon everything from the environment to COVID-19, and once said that he considered pandemic emergency measures “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” He is also a prominent critic of the 1984 Supreme Court decision in a case known as Chevron, which has been the basis for upholding a wide range of federal regulations. The court is expected to rule by late June whether to overturn Chevron.
Gorsuch’s previous books include “A Republic, If You Can Keep It” and “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.”