Mike Fox The prosecution of Sidney Reid is poised to be a pivotal test of constitutional justice, set against the backdrop of significant public friction following the presence of federal agents and their heavy-handed tactics in DC streets this past summer. The widespread unease among residents who witnessed these occupations directly impacts the right to a fair trial. Reid was ...
Kevin Frazier Among the dozens of AI bills sitting on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, at least one is particularly worthy of national attention. AB 1064, the Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act, addresses growing concerns about so-called AI companions. These AI tools can pass off as friends, advisors, or even lovers to some users, including minors. The ...
Romina Boccia and Tyler Turman Democrats have instigated a government shutdown by rejecting a clean continuing resolution and demanding that Republicans agree to extend the Obamacare COVID-19 subsidies and reverse the modest Medicaid spending restraints enacted under President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). Their opposition to reductions in health care spending, though predictable, underscores what makes the July reconciliation legislation significant. Though bloated ...
Walter Olson As Eugene Volokh points out in a recent post, some progressives and gun control advocates blasted the American Civil Liberties Union when it sided with the National Rifle Association against then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s use of financial regulation for purposes of retaliating against the group’s pro-gun advocacy. But the civil liberties group was right to take the ...
Romina Boccia As we predicted about three weeks ago on our Debt Dispatch Substack, the federal government shut down today at 12:01 a.m. I had a chance to speak with the Washington Post’s Early Brief Author Matthew Choi, who captured many of my thoughts well: Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the pro-free market Cato Institute, said ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Cato adjunct scholar and California State University-Northridge economics Professor Shirley Svorny (1951–2022) passed away nearly three years ago after a long battle with multiple myeloma. Shirley devoted much of her career to showing how medical licensing laws raise costs and block access to care. Even near the end, she was still trading ideas with Cato’s health policy team. ...
Mustafa Akyol On September 26, I joined an international conference held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City: “Weaponization of Religion by the Taliban and Its Consequences on Afghanistan and Beyond.” It was organized by the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations, which is still controlled by Afghan diplomats of the former constitutional government that was ...
Matthew Cavedon What constitutional power does the federal government have to criminalize civil rights violations? This is the question raised by a recent Eleventh Circuit decision upholding the conviction of a racist who tried to run a black family off a Florida road. When the violator of someone’s civil rights is a state government, the federal power question is easy ...
Norbert Michel and Jerome Famularo Claims of a relentless housing crisis are prevalent in policy circles, politics, and the media. But as we have described in several blog posts and a working paper, there are good reasons to be critical of that view. Proponents of this theory often uncritically cite estimates of the housing shortage ranging from one million to ...
Matthew Cavedon A couple of weeks ago, I warned that excessive limits on what constitutes a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment endanger the freedom of association under the First Amendment. A new executive order issued by President Trump on September 26 confirms this. The order begins by alleging the existence of “sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, ...