More from the OpEd ...

... The first few weeks of the second Trump administration have combined the "shock and awe" of the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the Silicon Valley mantra "move fast and break things." The shock treatment"Elon Musk's ascendency, Jan. 6 pardons, a Gaza Riviera, the Ukraine retreat, and so on"distracted attention from how President Trump and agencies of government such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are moving fast to break three foundational principles of American government and democracy: fair and legitimate investigations, judicial review, and executive branch agency independence.

Culture War-Themed Investigations

The effort begins with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's initiation of culture war-themed investigations based on the application of undefined or ill-defined regulatory concepts, the details of which are known only to him.

Such actions recall Justice Antonin Scalia's admonition, in a 2015 Supreme Court decision, that "[t]he vagueness of the law can invite arbitrary power."

In this case, Carr's message is clear to those the FCC regulates: "Fall in line or this could be you." ...