I have a short essay up at the Liberty Law blog today “Upholding the Rule of Law In Season and Out of Season.” I argue in opposition to the conventional wisdom that it beneficial to relax the rule of law during times of economic crisis. In part I believe the belief in the need for discretion (and to relax the rule of law) in an economic crisis rests on a faulty analogy between national security crises and economic crises. I also argue that the benefits to discretion during economic crisis are lower and the costs, especially systemic costs and long-term costs, are higher than is commonly supposed.