Pacific Legal Foundation Launches Nondelegation Project
By
| September 9, 2025
The Pacific Legal Foundation launched a new tool that “uses artificial intelligence to trace every federal regulation back to the law that supposedly authorizes it.”
The tool—which was developed by Patrick McLaughlin, a visiting research fellow at PLF—reveals whether Congress granted agencies broad, open-ended powers or gave them narrow, specific instructions. That distinction is crucial in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in West Virginia v. EPA, which developed the major questions doctrine, and Loper Bright, which restored meaningful judicial review of agency power. By mapping the legal foundation of each rule, the Nondelegation Project highlights which regulations may now be vulnerable to challenge.
An accompanying explainer on the Nondelegation Project identifies the agencies with the highest number of general delegations:
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (3,309)
- Environmental Protection Agency (2,752)
- Agricultural Marketing Service (1,284)
- Food and Drug Administration (1,155)
- Department of Justice (661); Food Safety and Inspection Service (661)
