Thomas A. Berry Suing the government is expensive work. That’s why federal law authorizes the “prevailing party” in a civil rights suit against the government to request attorneys’ fees. But what happens if a court temporarily blocks a law as likely unconstitutional, and the legislature then repeals that law? Do the law’s challengers qualify as “prevailing parties” because they got ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Chapter 10 of Your Body, Your Health Care covers tobacco harm reduction by exploring various nicotine delivery systems that are safer than combustible tobacco, which causes the harmful chemicals linked to cancer, lung disease, and cardiovascular disease. A study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at the University of New South Wales ...
Alfredo Carrillo Obregon and Clark Packard Last week, President Trump announced the United States was imposing a 50 percent “national security” tariff on copper imports. Details are sparse, but Bloomberg reported that it will include all refined copper and semi-finished goods (i.e., bars, rods, wires, plates, etc.). As 60 years of failed steel protectionism—including the last seven-plus years of “national security” ...
David Kemp and Peter Van Doren Environmental regulations are among the most significant components of the federal regulatory state. Between 2006 and 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accounted for 71 percent of the monetized benefits and 55 percent of the costs of all major federal regulations. Of those benefits, 95 percent came from air quality rules, primarily those targeting ...
Jeffrey Miron and Jacob Winter President Trump has pledged to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in American history. Fulfilling that pledge would harm the country in many ways, including by weaking American entrepreneurship. A recent study confirmed that, Start-ups founded by native-immigrant teams outperformed start-ups founded solely by natives or immigrants. Three years after their inception, start-ups with native-immigrant ...
Chris Edwards and Yasmeen Kallash-Kyler Is it in Louisiana, New York, Illinois, or elsewhere? Let’s explore US Department of Justice (DOJ) data on public corruption convictions in the nation’s 94 federal judicial districts. DOJ convictions are one measure of corruption levels, although an imperfect measure as discussed below. The table ranks the districts by the annual average number of convictions ...
Neal McCluskey By a 6–3 vote, the US Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by firing 1,300 US Department of Education employees. Both the Supreme Court minority and the lower court argued that the staffing reductions were intended to dismantle the department, which only Congress can do because it makes laws, ...
Alex Nowrasteh Darel E. Paul, the Willmott Family Third Century Professor of Political Science at Williams College, wrote a piece for Compact Magazine titled “Mass Immigration Lowers Fertility.” He uses the example of Czechia to argue that a surge of refugees from Ukraine lowered fertility. Paul’s piece is unconvincing, even if well-written and interesting. The latter is certainly the case, as ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Researchers at the University of California-Davis released a study last month on three popular, currently illegal disposable pod vapes: ELF Bar, Esco Bar, and Flum Pebble. They found that certain heavy metals, such as antimony, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc, were present in the aerosols, some of which can be toxic or carcinogenic and are at ...