Forwarded with comment: Who does what and how in federal government?

How does the government govern? "Poorly" is not the intended answer, even if you think it accurate. What I mean by the question is rather: What is the appropriate way for government to execute its decisions?

It is, of course, a fundamental issue, but a very unsettled one in our times. For a look at how things are going, I'd like to direct you to a few items elsewhere on the internet:

• With the U.S. Supreme Court rolling out end-of-session decisions, Mark Joseph Stern at Slate sees one of them as auguring "coming earthquakes in constitutional law. Think executive agencies have too much power to interpret and enforce the law? Want courts to dismantle landmark statutes protecting the environment, consumers, and employees? You may be in luck: The conservative justices are eager to take a hatchet to the federal bureaucracy that governs much of modern America."

Thursday's split decision in Gundy vs. United States related to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, passed in 2006. There was no question about the law's application to newly convicted offenders; the case hinged on whether it was appropriate for Congress to delegate discretion to the U.S. attorney general on how to apply registration requirements retroactively.

Justice Neil Gorsuch made clear he would require "Congress to give the executive branch vastly more guidance in enforcing statutes." This "fuzzy new rule," Stern writes, "would work a revolution in federal law. Hundreds of statutes task the executive branch with some broad goal, then let agencies fill in the details. … Americans may complain about bureaucracy, but with Congress perpetually deadlocked, these agencies keep the government running — and, crucially, adapting to new challenges, exactly as lawmakers intended."

• Meanwhile, on Medium, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota produced a list of 100 items she would do immediately upon taking office, including (just a random sampling) "immediately allow for the safe importation of prescription drugs from countries like Canada," "raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15," and "restore freedom to travel to and trade with Cuba." The Star Tribune reported on it here.

In the Washington Post opinion staff's weekly Friday ranking of the Democratic presidential candidates, Klobuchar is at No. 8, where she has languished in recent weeks. But in producing the list, she "did something valuable," writes Greg Sargent, a Post columnist and member of its ranking panel: "Many of the items on her list can be done via executive action. This is important, because it reflects a recognition not just that a Democratic president will find her agenda stymied if Republicans hold the Senate, but also because the candidates should proactively explain what they would do about this. Klobuchar came up with one answer."

"Forwarded with comment" is a periodic, online-only feature of Star Tribune Opinion. The idea is to share and discuss interesting items we encounter in our daily reading but are unable to republish in full.