Wesley Smith argues in a recent commentary that the “biggest threat to American freedom, in my opinion, comes from the erection of an unaccountable bureaucratic state.” You might expect him to say that since he has written about medical ethics and patient power. But he goes on to quote from left leaning law professor Jonathan Turley who essentially says the same thing.

Jonathan Turley is a professor at the George Washington University Law School. He recently expressed his concerns with the government bureaucracy in a Washington Post column. He says: “The rise of the fourth branch has been at the expense of Congress’s lawmaking authority. In fact, the vast majority of “laws” governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats. One study found that in 2007, Congress enacted 138 public laws, while federal agencies finalized 2,926 rules, including 61 major regulations.”

Think of that for a moment. Congress passed over a hundred laws, but the federal agencies created nearly 3,000 rules. While we might have some recourse through elections to change Congress, we have no ability to affect any meaningful change on the government bureaucracy. This is rulemaking with little or no accountability.

The federal bureaucracy not only has superseded the legislative branch. It has also replaced a significant part of the judicial branch. Jonathan Turley explains that when an average citizen goes to court, he or she is more likely to have a case heard within the bureaucracy.

He says: “As the number of federal regulations increased, however, Congress decided to relieve the judiciary of most regulatory cases and create administrative courts tied to individual agencies. The result is that a citizen is 10 times more likely to be tried by an agency than by an actual court.”

The fourth branch of government is growing in both size and influence. Liberals and conservatives warn it is eroding our liberty.