Tuesday Edition: Trump's Challenges

President-elect Trump wants to overhaul the administrative state, but to do that he’ll have to enact his own rules and regulations. (WSJ)

A study by NYU School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity: Compared to other recent administrations, Trump-era federal agencies had much less success in getting their major rules past the courts.

Also: Trump agencies’ rules were challenged at higher rates.

Zoom in: 28% of major rules written by federal agencies under Trump were challenged in court, higher than any of his recent predecessors.

• And 57% of challenged regulations lost in court, the highest failure rate since Bill Clinton's second term.

• Meanwhile, 7 out of 11 judges on the D.C. Court of Appeals, where many federal rules are contested, were appointed by Democrats.

Related: As Axios’ Emily Peck has pointed out, there’s a lot to undo, as the Biden administration “put through more rules than any other White House over the same time period.”

Bubba’s Two Cents

If Trump wants to make good on his promise to “shatter the deep state” and dismantle Biden administration regulations on energy, manufacturing and more, he’ll have to carefully navigate the bureaucracy and the courts — his track record here is mixed.

Last week, we told you about a Georgia mom arrested for letting her son walk home alone. Today, we’re digging into the safety culture that got us here.

A 2015 Pew Research Center survey on American parenting: Parents, on average, believe children should be 10 years old before they can play in front of the house unsupervised while an adult is inside.

• The average age parents consider appropriate for a child to stay home alone for about an hour is 12 years old, and they think children should be 14 years old before spending time at a public park unsupervised.

• 62% of American parents say they can be overprotective.

Related: The social scientists Jon Haidt and Greg Lukianoff have coined the term “safetyism” to describe American society’s growing overemphasis on physical and emotional safety.

• Lukianoff and Haidt say one place where safetyism has been particularly pronounced is the college campus, with its rise in trigger warnings, safe spaces and campus censorship.

• For instance, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy offered students "self-care suites" with milk, cookies, hot chocolate, coloring books and Legos to help them manage stress the day after Donald Trump’s election win.

• Other schools and colleges gave students who were “too emotionally distressed” the day off or provided counseling.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Complaints about the next generation being too soft are nothing new, but modern examples like extreme COVID rules and the safe-space movement on college campuses push the conversation into new territory. We’re prioritizing safety, rigorous scheduling and just general over-parenting at the expense of independence and adversity.

With the overdose crisis still looming and the war on drugs facing mounting criticism for its limited success, Rob Bovett argues for smarter, evidence-based drug policies in his latest essay. (The Liberal Patriot)

1. Research barriers: Schedule I drugs are labeled as having no medical value, blocking federal funding for studies into their potential benefits.

• This prevents critical research into treatments for diseases that could benefit millions, such as cannabis for epilepsy or psychedelics for mental health conditions.

2. Absurd categorization of drugs: Marijuana remains in Schedule I (the most restrictive category) alongside heroin, while more harmful drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl, which drove the overdose crisis, are in Schedule II.

3. Laws haven’t kept up with the times: Current policies don't grapple with the increase in high-potency cannabis products.

• Legal gray areas allow unsafe practices, such as unregulated THC levels in products sold under state laws.

• Communities are left to deal with increased homelessness and crime tied to illegal drug markets, which persist despite legalization efforts.

4. Going after the wrong targets: Decades of focus on border enforcement hasn’t significantly reduced the availability of synthetic drugs like fentanyl.

• Instead, regulating the chemicals used to make drugs could be a better way to stop production at its source.

5. Patchwork policies: Without a federal framework, states face challenges like interstate cannabis commerce, inconsistent regulation and under-enforced safety measures.

• The result is confusion for consumers, risks for public safety and missed opportunities for federal tax revenue and research oversight.