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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom
Jay Sekulow—one of America’s most influential attorneys—explores a post Obama landscape where bureaucracy has taken over our government and provides a practical roadmap to help take back our personal liberties.Jay Sekulow is on a mission to defend Americans’ freedom. The fact is that freedom is under attack like never before. The threat comes from the fourth branch of government—the biggest branch—and the only branch not in the the federal bureaucracy. The bureaucracy imposes thousands of new laws every year, without a single vote from Congress. The bureaucracy violates the rights of Americans without accountability—persecuting adoptive parents, denying veterans quality healthcare, discriminating against conservatives and Christians for partisan purposes, and damaging our economy with job-killing rules. Americans are bullied by the very institutions established to protect their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our nation’s bureaucrats are on an undemocratic power trip. But Sekulow has a plan to fight back. We can resist illegal abuse, we can reform a broken system, and we can restore American democracy. This book won’t just tell you how to win, it will show you real victories achieved by Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice. Unless we can roll back the fourth branch of government—the most dangerous branch—our elections will no longer matter. Undemocratic is a wake-up call, a call made at just the right time—before it’s too late to save the democracy we love.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2015
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noway-josé
June 28, 2017 Trump lawyer's firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show:
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal Jay Sekulow approved plans to push people to give to his Christian nonprofit, which then paid big sums to his family
How Trump's Lawyer Got Rich Scamming Christians
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal Jay Sekulow approved plans to push people to give to his Christian nonprofit, which then paid big sums to his family
How Trump's Lawyer Got Rich Scamming Christians
August 19, 2022
This book is nearly ten years old, so at first I was afraid it would be outdated. But the information is still relevant, and some things appear prescient. Mr. Sekulow is a lawyer who frequently argues cases in front of the Supreme Court. Most of these cases involve defending people from government overreach. The worst offenders of the government are not the president or Congress or the Supreme Court but government bureaucracies. They are set up and left to grow, increasing in greed and power until the actual government as set up by the Constitution is dwarfed.
These bureaucracies create law and selectively enforce laws. They persecute citizens, who are guilty until proven innocent. They can attack a political candidate, make up a charge, and ruin the person’s reputation even though they’re innocent. Nowadays, if the government decides you’re not woke enough or your ESG score is too low, they can take your wages and assets and liberty without due process.
These bureaucracies tend to favor the Left, probably because the Right has no spine and feels guiltier about circumventing the Constitution, but all sides are guilty. Mr. Sekulow covers outrages mostly by the IRS, VA, DOJ, EPA, and NLRB. The IRS is the worst offender, and in recent new, Congress voted to double the size or it, all to squeeze even more taxes out of you, Everyday Citizen. Yay!
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The IRS apparently hates the adoption tax credit and sees no problem with inflicting mass-scale audits on adoptive families. In fact, during one two-year period adoptive families were more likely to be audited than any other significant category of taxpayers. … “Despite Congress’s express intent to target the [adoption tax] credit to low and middle income families, the IRS created income-based rules that were responsible for over one-third of all additional reviews in FY2012. Of the $668.1 million in adoption credits claims in tax year (TY) 2011 as a result of adoption credit audits, the IRS only disallowed $11 million—or one and one-half percent—in adoption credit claims. However, the IRS also had to pay out $2.1 million in interest in TY 2011 to taxpayers whose refunds were held past the 45-day period allowed by law” (Taxpayer Advocate Service). It is difficult to construe this audit campaign as anything other than an IRS attack on adoption itself.
The IRS is an agency out of control, with scandals raging from top to bottom, scandals that hurt Americans, unlawfully redistribute wealth, and contradict our constitutional structure. This is an agency that is incapable of reforming itself.
It has been said that the “power to tax is the power to destroy.” But the contemporary IRS enjoys much more than the mere power to tax. … It has the power to investigate, to harass, to target, and to at least attempt to imprison. Similarly, for its friends, it has the power to reward, to enrich, and to provide safe harbor even from other federal agencies. The IRS has too much power. It is corrupt, hurting Americans it dislikes while rewarding its friends. It will not reform itself. It must be abolished.
Bureaucracies … are an attempt—heroic or otherwise—to force the world to conform to a rational system. But human beings, much as we pride ourself on our rational thinking, are actually a grab-bag of instincts, intuition, and habit, with a handful of rationality thrown in to pull everything else together. This serves us well because it matches how the universe actually works, but it also means that there will al ways be a conflict between bureaucracies and human beings. The relationship starts out on the wrong foot and gets worse as it goes along. (J. R. Dunn)
In 2001, a man named Bradford Councilman was charged in Massachusetts with violating the wiretap laws. He worked at a company that offered an online book-listing service and also acted as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to book dealers. As an ISP, the company routinely intercepted and copied emails as part of the process of shuttling them through the Web to recipients. … Prosecutors interpreted the ISP’s role of momentarily copying messages as they made their way through the system akin to impermissibly listening in on communications. The case went through several rounds of litigation, with no judge making the obvious point that is how ISPs operate. After six years, a jury found Mr. Councilman not guilty. (Harvey Silverglate)
As laws proliferate, the DOJ is both unable to—because of limited resources—and unwilling to—because of concern for public outrage—prosecute every single federal crime in the United States. Prosecutions even of white-collar, nonviolent criminals often trigger federal mandatory sentencing laws, and thus can lead directly to length prison sentences. Flooding our jails with inadvertent, confused “criminals” is not the way to endear the federal government to the American people. Yet this very proliferation increases the potential for politically motivated targeting.
While the EPA could ban DDT only within the United States, its action had long-lasting and far-reaching consequences, impacting countries dependent on American aid. The human suffering has been staggering: “As a result, insect-borne diseases returned to the tropics with a vengeance. By some estimates, the death toll in Africa alone from unnecessary malaria resulting from the restrictions on DDT has exceeded 100 million people” (Robert Zubrin).
Pursing companies without evidence of wrongdoing, leaking personal information, hiding official emails, giving awards to fictitious people … this is exactly the wrong agency to obtain additional power, but as this book was being written the EPA was actively seeking the authority to garnish citizens’ wages without a court order.
Resistance works. The federal government simply cannot justify in public the abuses it hopes to accomplish in private, outside the public eye. In other words, when advancing its ideological agenda, the bureaucratic branch of government often depends on public ignorance or apathy.
It is interesting, however, that well before the avalanche of government abuse outlined in this book, we Americans were much closer together. As we separated, our bureaucratic government enabled and empowered that separation—by decisively taking sides in the critical moral, cultural, economic, environmental, and political issues of our day.
[The American people] are angry that their government is turning against them. They’re angry that misconduct is not just overlooked by positively encouraged. They’re angry that leftist members of Congress serve as cheerleaders and enablers of blatantly unlawful activity. And they’re angry that too many of their fellow citizens look at IRS abuse, DOJ bias, and NLRB overreach and say, “Those conservatives get what they deserve.” … That is a recipe for further division, for further animosity, and—ultimately—for increased government abuse.
These bureaucracies create law and selectively enforce laws. They persecute citizens, who are guilty until proven innocent. They can attack a political candidate, make up a charge, and ruin the person’s reputation even though they’re innocent. Nowadays, if the government decides you’re not woke enough or your ESG score is too low, they can take your wages and assets and liberty without due process.
These bureaucracies tend to favor the Left, probably because the Right has no spine and feels guiltier about circumventing the Constitution, but all sides are guilty. Mr. Sekulow covers outrages mostly by the IRS, VA, DOJ, EPA, and NLRB. The IRS is the worst offender, and in recent new, Congress voted to double the size or it, all to squeeze even more taxes out of you, Everyday Citizen. Yay!
Clean content
=============================
The IRS apparently hates the adoption tax credit and sees no problem with inflicting mass-scale audits on adoptive families. In fact, during one two-year period adoptive families were more likely to be audited than any other significant category of taxpayers. … “Despite Congress’s express intent to target the [adoption tax] credit to low and middle income families, the IRS created income-based rules that were responsible for over one-third of all additional reviews in FY2012. Of the $668.1 million in adoption credits claims in tax year (TY) 2011 as a result of adoption credit audits, the IRS only disallowed $11 million—or one and one-half percent—in adoption credit claims. However, the IRS also had to pay out $2.1 million in interest in TY 2011 to taxpayers whose refunds were held past the 45-day period allowed by law” (Taxpayer Advocate Service). It is difficult to construe this audit campaign as anything other than an IRS attack on adoption itself.
The IRS is an agency out of control, with scandals raging from top to bottom, scandals that hurt Americans, unlawfully redistribute wealth, and contradict our constitutional structure. This is an agency that is incapable of reforming itself.
It has been said that the “power to tax is the power to destroy.” But the contemporary IRS enjoys much more than the mere power to tax. … It has the power to investigate, to harass, to target, and to at least attempt to imprison. Similarly, for its friends, it has the power to reward, to enrich, and to provide safe harbor even from other federal agencies. The IRS has too much power. It is corrupt, hurting Americans it dislikes while rewarding its friends. It will not reform itself. It must be abolished.
Bureaucracies … are an attempt—heroic or otherwise—to force the world to conform to a rational system. But human beings, much as we pride ourself on our rational thinking, are actually a grab-bag of instincts, intuition, and habit, with a handful of rationality thrown in to pull everything else together. This serves us well because it matches how the universe actually works, but it also means that there will al ways be a conflict between bureaucracies and human beings. The relationship starts out on the wrong foot and gets worse as it goes along. (J. R. Dunn)
In 2001, a man named Bradford Councilman was charged in Massachusetts with violating the wiretap laws. He worked at a company that offered an online book-listing service and also acted as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to book dealers. As an ISP, the company routinely intercepted and copied emails as part of the process of shuttling them through the Web to recipients. … Prosecutors interpreted the ISP’s role of momentarily copying messages as they made their way through the system akin to impermissibly listening in on communications. The case went through several rounds of litigation, with no judge making the obvious point that is how ISPs operate. After six years, a jury found Mr. Councilman not guilty. (Harvey Silverglate)
As laws proliferate, the DOJ is both unable to—because of limited resources—and unwilling to—because of concern for public outrage—prosecute every single federal crime in the United States. Prosecutions even of white-collar, nonviolent criminals often trigger federal mandatory sentencing laws, and thus can lead directly to length prison sentences. Flooding our jails with inadvertent, confused “criminals” is not the way to endear the federal government to the American people. Yet this very proliferation increases the potential for politically motivated targeting.
While the EPA could ban DDT only within the United States, its action had long-lasting and far-reaching consequences, impacting countries dependent on American aid. The human suffering has been staggering: “As a result, insect-borne diseases returned to the tropics with a vengeance. By some estimates, the death toll in Africa alone from unnecessary malaria resulting from the restrictions on DDT has exceeded 100 million people” (Robert Zubrin).
Pursing companies without evidence of wrongdoing, leaking personal information, hiding official emails, giving awards to fictitious people … this is exactly the wrong agency to obtain additional power, but as this book was being written the EPA was actively seeking the authority to garnish citizens’ wages without a court order.
Resistance works. The federal government simply cannot justify in public the abuses it hopes to accomplish in private, outside the public eye. In other words, when advancing its ideological agenda, the bureaucratic branch of government often depends on public ignorance or apathy.
It is interesting, however, that well before the avalanche of government abuse outlined in this book, we Americans were much closer together. As we separated, our bureaucratic government enabled and empowered that separation—by decisively taking sides in the critical moral, cultural, economic, environmental, and political issues of our day.
[The American people] are angry that their government is turning against them. They’re angry that misconduct is not just overlooked by positively encouraged. They’re angry that leftist members of Congress serve as cheerleaders and enablers of blatantly unlawful activity. And they’re angry that too many of their fellow citizens look at IRS abuse, DOJ bias, and NLRB overreach and say, “Those conservatives get what they deserve.” … That is a recipe for further division, for further animosity, and—ultimately—for increased government abuse.
May 30, 2015
I knew our governmental bureaucracy was out of control, but I was shocked at how far out of control it is. It hardly matters who is elected to the presidency or legislature, because the federal agencies control so much of what happens in Washington. Often they fill in the details of laws and actually determine what the American people have to adhere to. People have to start paying attention to what is going and take a stand or our country will be destroyed.
April 18, 2017
An important book, and especially timely in this election season. Federal agencies - IRS, FDA, EPA, VA, FBI, and the rest of them, are out of control, run by bureaucrats who make their own rules with the force of law and are accountable to no one. The IRS has been used by several presidents to harass their enemies, recently by delaying the approval of sheltered tax status to any organizations deemed to be too conservative. FDA has approved some dangerous drugs and denied approval of marijuana and other beneficial drugs; big pharma has far too much influence on FDA. The EPA tells owners what they may and may not do with their property; small ponds become protected "wetlands" by their definitions. We recall the mismanagement and lies of the VA, leading to veterans waiting months or years for appointments. And so on.
Author Sekulow, who has represented many of the victims of federal bureaucracies before the Supreme Court, calls this "fourth branch of government" the biggest danger to our country and proposes solutions.
I hope all the current presidential candidates will read this book, and I hope they are asked whether/how they intend to tackle the abuse and corruption that are rampant in these agencies. It certainly leads me to wonder which of them has the guts and the skill to clean house.
Author Sekulow, who has represented many of the victims of federal bureaucracies before the Supreme Court, calls this "fourth branch of government" the biggest danger to our country and proposes solutions.
I hope all the current presidential candidates will read this book, and I hope they are asked whether/how they intend to tackle the abuse and corruption that are rampant in these agencies. It certainly leads me to wonder which of them has the guts and the skill to clean house.
August 1, 2020
As America gets wrapped up in the politics of our elections every two or four years thinking about the major changes and promises that we expect based on who wins the election this time, we tend to forget that there is a vast army of unelected bureaucrats who run the government. They do have their own political leanings and will help or resist what the elected officials are trying to accomplish based on their personal beliefs. They are difficult or near impossible to let go or replace due to protections through their union contracts. Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom by Jay Sekulow Examines how this system works and how what you voted for often doesn't seem to happen. Departments that are tasked with implementing laws that are passed by writing the regulations and rules control how intent actually gets formulated. It's another case of learning how the sausage is made and, as usually happens, you start to lose your appetite. Of course, it all depends on whether or not the philosophy of these entrenched bureaucrats aligns with yours. The author does a great job of investigating, analyzing, and presenting his finding making his points easy to understand, as scary as that is.
January 8, 2016
I'm going to see the writer at an event later this month, so I thought I'd read his most recent book. If you're a newshound, as I am, there's not much new here except the writer's prescription for what ails us, which I enjoyed. It's disappointing that although the writer was directly involved in several of the Us vs. The Govt cases he writes about, he doesn't hang the blame for bad acts on individuals. He should have.
April 6, 2017
Excellent
I highly recommend this book to those who want to understand what is happening behind you back in government. This book goes back two years and has proven very insightful and accurate based on today's news. Mr. Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice continue their efforts to expose and bring corruption to the public eye. The ACLU's actions and influence serve to restore and maintain our constitutional republic. They deserve our thanks for their efforts.
I highly recommend this book to those who want to understand what is happening behind you back in government. This book goes back two years and has proven very insightful and accurate based on today's news. Mr. Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice continue their efforts to expose and bring corruption to the public eye. The ACLU's actions and influence serve to restore and maintain our constitutional republic. They deserve our thanks for their efforts.
May 15, 2017
Jay Sekulow has redeemed himself as a writer with this book. The first book I read by him was Rise of ISIS, which was terrible because it had very little to do with ISIS. Instead it mostly complained about Hamas and the UN. This book delivers on the title and stays focused on the thesis. But what makes this book really stand out is it goes into great detail about how federal bureaucracies have too much power and no accountability. Sekulow documents how the IRS, EPA, VA, Department of Justice, and NLRB harass citizens or their incompetence leads to people dying, all without anyone being fired. Sekulow has more credibility with writing this book, as he is a lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice. He knows the law and has represented clients in some of these cases. However, the most important aspect of this book is that he highlights an issue that is often not brought up in political discourse. One important note he makes throughout the book is that the bureaucracies often do not change with presidential elections. Meaning, no matter who becomes president, the federal bureaucracies will continue to be in favor of the party of government and threaten American liberties and freedom. He urges for limiting, and in the case of the IRS, abolishing, these agencies so they become accountable to Congress and the people. He posits that this won't happen with the changing of a president or party, but with raising awareness and getting the American public to resist when the bureaucracies overstep their bounds. He writes how these agencies back down quickly when the public becomes outraged at these incidents. Overall, a really good book.
February 16, 2017
An eye-opening book that reveals just how agenda-minded several of the bureaucratic areas in our government are. From the IRS to the VA, the book shows how several groups of people have been profiled and in some instances persecuted with anything from unnecessary annoyances to extremely unlawful behavior and cover-ups. The most disappointing aspect of the bureaucrats is that they will probably die, before they get fired for any wrong doing, making it such a difficult process that most supervisors don't find it's worth the effort. Sometimes, even when they've gone through the effort of firing an employee who committed wrong behavior that person might not be let go. The problem increases when you find out none of these people have been elected, but yet they have an incredible amount of influence on the economy and welfare of our country from our health care to the cars we can drive. He suggests abolishing the current IRS and putting a simpler, more manageable one in it's place. In the end, the book encourages us to resist and make a unified effort when extremely unlawful activities are being led by the bureaucrats.
May 24, 2020
I've followed Jay Sekulow's work since the 1980s. This book is the culmination of his decades of research, experience, and insight into the American political system. It took me a while to cull through all the information, and to ruminate over the implications, but I found it one of the most informative and unbiased, fact-based evaluation I've ever read. Highly recommend it to my conservative, pro constitutional friends.
March 15, 2021
Jay has a complex in defending billionaire funded groups who try to subvert democracy. His attempt to cry partisanship from Obama, who was not a good president is one of the funniest examples of projection as he is the definition of partisanship.
His stories about his family immigrating are told with so many caveats and asterisks to seem like they weren't refugees like it's a bad thing. This man's career is a grift.
His stories about his family immigrating are told with so many caveats and asterisks to seem like they weren't refugees like it's a bad thing. This man's career is a grift.
August 12, 2017
eye opening
October 19, 2018
I knew this author in college. We were on student council together. A good honest guy. Well written intelligent book.
March 17, 2025
It's a little bit outdated now, but the principles still apply. Hopefully we are seeing the beginning of the bureaucracy being brought under control now.
January 10, 2017
Our government is sick, Jay prescribes the cure.
August 20, 2015
Yeah, so all politicians are corrupt. Moving on.
July 16, 2015
I liked the way the author used words to say things
April 6, 2016
Makes me angry!
More people need to be aware of the tyranny in our government! This book is a great start! Well done!
More people need to be aware of the tyranny in our government! This book is a great start! Well done!
September 20, 2016
Now I REALLY hate the IRS, DOJ, VA....
Am more middle of the road, but felt points were well made and credible. A timely read, given political candidates and the upcoming election.
Am more middle of the road, but felt points were well made and credible. A timely read, given political candidates and the upcoming election.
Want to read
December 21, 2016#UnderstandingOppression
Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom by Jay Sekulow #truth
Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom by Jay Sekulow #truth
June 13, 2016
Informative and eye opening.
March 27, 2017
Some good information within the book itself. However, ideologically and politically, I will likely never agree with the author. The finger pointing got to be a bit much as well. I've committed to reading books from authors whose beliefs differ from mine. Now on to something more enjoyable.
March 18, 2018
Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ are modern day heros. While others that know how messed up things are shrink away from the fight for the Great American Experiment, Sekulow stands fast in the gap. In this book, he outlines the rise and threat of an unconstitutional "fourth" branch of government, the permanent, unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy, and suggests remedies. It will make you angry, frustrated, and depressed, but in the end it offers hope.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews