Archive | July, 2007

I agree with most of Randy’s and Ilya’s comments on libertarianism and war. I’m just writing to silghtly disagree with Ilya about the nature of libertarianism. As Ilya writes, the idea that “nondefensive humanitarian military intervention is potentially compatible with libertarianism” may seem to be “a paradoxical claim,” but really isn’t paradoxical at all. It […]

  Just got it in the mail, and like it a lot. I saw it years ago at an airport, was reminded of it a few days ago, and decided to buy it online. The Paleoartisans site from which I bought it isn’t really well set up for taking online orders; but if you e-mail […]

I agree with most of the points Randy Barnett makes in his excellent op ed on libertarianism and war. Both the Iraq War specifically and defense policy more generally have historically divided libertarians, as I explained in two posts last year (here and here). Randy makes a good case that libertarians who accept the idea […]

As general background on the history of the nondiscrimination ideal, the best place to start is Andrew Kull’s prize-winning The Color-Blind Constitution (Harvard Press). Kull details the rejection of the color-blind version of the 14th Amendment in favor of what was viewed at the time as the weaker and less radical version that was adopted. […]

Timothy Muris and Richard Parker, officials at the Federal Trade Commission under the Bush and Clinton Administrations respectively, have an op-ed in today’s Wall $treet Journal urging lawmakers to recognize the competitive reality of today’s oil industry before adopting additional regulations and controls. Here’s a taste: We’ve spent years at the Federal Trade Commission enforcing […]

Students at the Roger Williams University — Ralph R. Papitto School of Law wish to have Mr. Papitto’s name removed from the school because he used a racial epithet during a board of trustees meeting. Paul Caron has the details here.

Today a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed challenges to a series of agreements between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and operators of animal feeding operations (AFOs) in Association of Irritated Residents v. EPA. Judge David Sentelle wrote the majority opinion, joined by Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Judith […]

In a new article on Tech Central Station, Mike Krause and I examine the growing threat of Chinese influence in Latin America, and elsewhere. We suggest an expansion of free trade–with Latin America and with Taiwan–as part of the American response.

Orin points to a New Republic editorial that credits this quote to Judge Carlos Bea and Ted Olson: Today, the view lives on in elite organizations like the Federalist Society, with which Roberts has long been affiliated. Indeed, the much-cited coda to Roberts’s opinion — that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of […]

On NRO’s The Corner, Andrew McCarthy, Director of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, comments on the Goldsmith-Katyal proposal for a domestic terrorism court, and highlights his own proposal for a “National Security Court,” outlined in this paper, and previously discussed here. As summarized by McCarthy: The paper […]

An editorial in the New Republic suggests that the end of Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion in the recent Seattle school case — that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”– is some kind of special message passed among elite Federalist Society members. The […]

I recommend Burn Notice on USA. It is a surprising reprise of The Equalizer from the 1980s. The Equalizer, Robert McCall (played by Edward Woodward [“Breaker Morant“]), was a former spy for the CIA who quit in disgust and used violence, technology and his clandestine talents, along with a motley assortment of free lance spooks […]

In a follow-up to the work I’ve co-authored on Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices, I’ve been looking at the effects of any US Supreme Court retirements on the overall age and tenure distribution on the Supreme Court. Many people assume that, if a Democrat wins the White House in 2008, there might be one […]

In today’s Wall Street Journal (available for free here on OpinionJournal.com), I have an op-ed on Libertarians and the War in which I note that libertarian first principles do not dictate a single stance towards the war in Iraq and that libertarians are indeed divided on the issue. Here is a portion from the middle: […]

Whenever I write about the dangers of political ignorance, some people misinterpret me as claiming that ordinary voters are “stupid;” occasionally, I am even accused of having “contempt” for them. This is an understandable reaction. However, it ignores the important distinction between ignorance and stupidity. My argument is not that voters know too little about […]