Justice Gorsuch emphasizes need for regulatory reform in discussion with retired Justice Breyer

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch emphasized the need for regulatory reform in a discussion with retired Justice Breyer on Thursday night.

Gorsuch noted that the federal code has grown to more than 70,000 pages and that Congress passes about 2 million words of new law each year.

"The most powerful among us benefit from an overwhelming administrative state," he said at the Federalist Society gala in Washington, D.C.

"Both of us have seen so many cases … in which ordinary Americans have been swallowed up by laws. It is really a problem that has emerged in our lifetime," he added.

Gorsuch described Breyer as one of the leading experts on regulatory reform, citing deregulation of airlines as an example.

He invoked the recent news of "P'Nut The Squirrel" to support his position.

“I’ve just seen too many cases like that. You have just the other day, some of you might have seen one in the newspaper, if the newspapers are to be believed,” Gorsuch said.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation reportedly took P’Nut and his adopted brother "Fred the Racoon" from their owners' home on Oct. 30 to test for rabies, which they wound up not having. The pets were euthanized and decapitated in the process.

He joked that there might be a "sordid side” of P’nut’s background, given that the owner reportedly had an OnlyFans account.  

“[It] may contain a website that’s called ‘just for fans,’” Gorsuch quipped. “I don’t know the details. I’m not aware of any allegation that P’nut was involved in any of those acts.”