Two words. I am not a lawyer but having read and reviewed many contracts, it takes only one word to change the meaning and enforcement of one. But this is an Alice in Wonderland level legal rabbit hole we have jumped into that seems to violate laws already in place. Not executive orders but actual laws. As you noted, the damage is already done and will take years if not decades to unwind. Thank you for this excellent overview of the depths of hatred project 2025 and this administration have sunk.
The Alice in Wonderland frame is exactly right, Eric. And your distinction between executive orders and actual laws is where the real tension lives. The executive order does not create new law. What it does is attach a vague definition to an existing law (the False Claims Act) that has real teeth (triple damages, whistleblower bounties, debarment). The result is that a 160-year-old fraud statute is now being aimed at programs that were built to comply with Title VII, another actual law that is still on the books and still says what it said last year. Two laws, one word meaning two things, and the compliance officer in the middle cannot serve both masters at once. That is the rabbit hole. And you are right that the damage runs ahead of any enforcement action, programs are disappearing now, and rebuilding institutional knowledge takes far longer than dismantling it. Thank you for reading this closely.
Two words. I am not a lawyer but having read and reviewed many contracts, it takes only one word to change the meaning and enforcement of one. But this is an Alice in Wonderland level legal rabbit hole we have jumped into that seems to violate laws already in place. Not executive orders but actual laws. As you noted, the damage is already done and will take years if not decades to unwind. Thank you for this excellent overview of the depths of hatred project 2025 and this administration have sunk.
The Alice in Wonderland frame is exactly right, Eric. And your distinction between executive orders and actual laws is where the real tension lives. The executive order does not create new law. What it does is attach a vague definition to an existing law (the False Claims Act) that has real teeth (triple damages, whistleblower bounties, debarment). The result is that a 160-year-old fraud statute is now being aimed at programs that were built to comply with Title VII, another actual law that is still on the books and still says what it said last year. Two laws, one word meaning two things, and the compliance officer in the middle cannot serve both masters at once. That is the rabbit hole. And you are right that the damage runs ahead of any enforcement action, programs are disappearing now, and rebuilding institutional knowledge takes far longer than dismantling it. Thank you for reading this closely.