Supreme Court Justice SOUNDS ALARM!

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch expressed concern on Sunday about the potential impact of an “explosion” of new laws on Americans’ freedoms during an interview on Fox News.

In his appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, Gorsuch discussed his upcoming book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which will be released on Tuesday. Bream raised the issue of conduct being not only “over-regulated” but also “over-criminalized,” to which Gorsuch agreed, cautioning that Americans might unknowingly be committing felonies every day.

“I think that might be true. Some professors say that there are now so many federal laws on the books, crimes, that every American over the age of 18 commits one felony a day. And that’s happened in my lifetime — 1970 to present we’ve seen maybe a doubling in the number of federal crimes on the books. That just counts what’s in the code, the U.S. code passed by Congress. That’s just the tip of the iceberg because federal agencies have been busy too,” Gorsuch said. “On the one hand we need laws to keep us free and safe. On the other hand, if you have too many laws, you impair those same freedoms and our aspirations for equality, too, because who can deal with a world with so much law? James Madison said it’s going to be the people with money and connections. As a judge, now for 18 years, I just came to see case after case in which ordinary Americans — just  trying to live their lives, not hurt anybody, raise their families — who are just getting whacked by laws unexpectedly.”

Bream pressed Gorsuch further on his views about regulations, pointing out that some people refer to regulatory power as a “fourth branch of government.” She then quoted a passage from Gorsuch’s book, highlighting his criticism of federal agencies for acting as both “prosecutor and judge.”

“The IRS has a hot line if [you’ve] got questions — I mean, you don’t want to become a federal felon, you call them. It turns out for a period of time they were giving wrong answers about a third of the time. Then when asked, ‘How come so many wrong answers?,’ they said, ‘Well, the IRS code has just gotten so complex and there are so many new laws.’ There’s been an explosion in our laws and it’s new and it’s different and it’s in our lifetime,” Gorsuch said.

Bream then inquired about how an independent judiciary, like the Supreme Court, navigates “conflicts between branches.”

“The answer is the Constitution and if it’s in the Constitution and the other two branches are infringing on it — the right to exercise your religion, the right to bear arms, your right to speak freely — I am a duty bound, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and you win even though the government may not like it,” Gorsuch said. “When do I stay out? When the Constitution doesn’t say anything about the subject. That’s left for ‘we the people’ to decide in their democratic process’ and that’s most things in our daily lives, isn’t it?”

WATCH: Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch responds to President Biden's proposed reforms. pic.twitter.com/AwDRHlKTjH

— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) August 4, 2024