Once again, Americans are ready to celebrate the 4th of July. Very ready indeed. But let's remember that the holiday is actually known as Independence Day, marking the anniversary of the act of American Patriots in declaring independence from Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence is the nation’s birth certificate. More than that, Independence Day marks a momentous event in human history. For the first time a new nation was established upon the premise that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

For more than 200 years, the United States of America has been learning how to fulfill that promise. But on Independence Day, we celebrate the fact that this world-changing promise was made and a new nation was born. A nation founded upon liberty, dignity and self-government. Happy Independence Day.

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In 1976, the occasion of our bicentennial, the great political scientist Harry Jaffa wrote that in 1776 we were nothing, promising to become everything; but having become everything, we were then promising to become nothing.

In two years, we’ll be celebrating our 250th anniversary. But, the principles of natural law, liberty and equality are all under grave assault. In 2021, among the first acts of the Biden administration, was the dismantling of the 1776 Commission, established to teach an accurate and invigorating history of our country.

Can you imagine our nation having a 250th celebration true to our Founding principles?—Under a continuation of this administration, in 2026?

History, Ronald Reagan said, is a ribbon, continually unfurling. We have unfurled that ribbon far and wide. Today, it’s unraveling quickly. As we celebrate this 4th—we look forward to our 250th with a renewed commitment to this great experiment in liberty, trusting for a quarter-millennial celebration worthy of our nation’s Founders.

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In its Loper Bright ruling, the US Supreme Court made all of us a little freer by limiting the power of unaccountable federal bureaucrats. Overruling the 1984 Chevron case, the Court held that judges need not defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of federal laws.

Agencies like the EPA, FDA, and SEC have been usurping an ever-larger role in American life. They were created to flesh out highly complex laws through expert regulation. But their power has metastasized. They’re not in the Constitution, but they’re an effective fourth branch of government. Each agency has the equivalent of legislators, who write regulations; executives, who enforce them; and judges, who interpret them.

But unlike those in the other, constitutional branches of government, these bureaucrats aren’t subject to the democratic process. They’re unelected and unaccountable.

Loper Bright marks the beginning of a much-needed reckoning with the administrative state.

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