Some 18 months ago, then-president Donald Trump sent jaws dropping and tongues wagging by claiming the Constitution gave him the power to close and open state economies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be,” he said of his supposed ability to overrule state shutdown orders.

Of course, neither he nor any president has such authority, whatever the wisdom of the shutdowns. But it was one more example of Trump’s belief that the Constitution gives presidents “the right to do whatever [they] want.” Throughout his time in the White House, the mainstream press and fact-checking organizations were kept busy knocking down such claims, with the Washington Post launching a regular podcast titled “Can He Do That?” (which it has continued in the Biden administration).

Trump’s wrong assertions of presidential power and his (and his administration’s) many falsehoods and misstatements in support of his policy preferences were a big part of the case candidate Joe Biden made for why voters should elect him to replace Trump. A Biden presidency would be a return to normalcy and the federal government would do its job, he vowed. This apparently appealed to many 2020 voters, including some who had serious policy disagreements with Biden.

Unfortunately, the past few weeks suggest the new president shares his predecessor’s belief that constitutionally dubious power-grabs and highly questionable claims are how the federal government should do its job.

In a major address last Thursday, Biden announced that his Occupational Safety and Health Administration “is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees … to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.” For now, it’s unclear exactly what this rule will entail; later in the speech, he spoke only of those employers giving “workers paid time off to get vaccinated.” But media coverage suggests he has much more in mind, including fining employers if their workers aren’t either vaccinated or undergoing weekly testing.

Articles on Biden’s announcement noted that Supreme Court decisions in 1905 and 1922 found government vaccination mandates constitutional and, according to a White House official, “The Labor Department has the authority to order companies to take specific actions to protect their workers if the secretary determines they face a grave danger” (per the Washington Post). But the Court rulings were about mandates under state law, not a federal order deputizing private employers to oversee their workers’ medical decisions. Such an OSHA rule would be a remarkable extension of the commerce clause or other federal enumerated power. Both Ilya Shapiro and Walter Olson have offered reasons for why we should be skeptical that OSHA has authority to enforce such a rule.

This isn’t the only recent constitutionally dubious power-grab by the Biden administration. Just a couple weeks ago, his appointed head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a broad moratorium on rental housing evictions, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden himself had previously acknowledged such an order probably would be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court quickly batted down the moratorium.

Nor is the vaccine mandate the only Trump-like action taken last Thursday by the Biden administration. That same day, his head of the Food and Drug Administration announced that, after “science-based public health application review,” the agency was prohibiting the marketing of some 946,000 vaping products. The FDA justified the decisions by claiming the product manufacturers’ “applications lacked sufficient evidence that they have a benefit to adult smokers sufficient to overcome the public health threat posed by the well-documented, alarming levels of youth use of such products.” The FDA made no mention that there’s plenty of evidence that many of those youngsters (and oldsters alike) would turn to far more dangerous conventional cigarettes in the absence of vaping products. Now, maybe the manufacturers didn’t include references to that research in their applications (doubtful, but maybe), but “science-based” FDA reviewers should be aware of the literature.

Constitutionally dubious power-grabs. Deceptive policy statements. Meet the new boss.

To be clear, people should get vaccinated against COVID and both adults and youngsters should avoid unhealthy habits, and the Biden administration can encourage both. Moreover, though it’s doubtful the Constitution gives the federal government—or at least the executive branch—vaccine mandate authority, state governments do have such authority (whatever the wisdom of such mandates). There’s a world of difference between the federal government encouraging such things and it mandating or prohibiting such things, in violation of the Constitution and honest policy discussion.

Also, to be clear, the new boss isn’t exactly the same as the old boss. The Biden administration isn’t engaging in the extreme behaviors that characterized the last weeks of the Trump administration. But then, the Trump administration wasn’t so extreme in its early months, either.

People may dismiss concerns about strict constitutionalism, federalism, and open policy discussion as mere “process” matters that shouldn’t obstruct policy. But process helps keep present and future policy and policymakers in-bounds, protecting citizens and the republic. If Congress and other public institutions had taken a strong stand against Trump’s early, milder transgressions and demanded he do much better, his presidency may have unfolded differently.

The same goes for the Biden administration. We’re nine months into his presidency, and it’s a good time to demand the return to normalcy that candidate Biden promised.