Matthew Cavedon In October 2018, law enforcement surreptitiously installed two video cameras near the top of utility poles to surveil Rolando Williamson’s home. The first camera was aimed at Williamson’s front yard and “could view only what was visible from the public street in front of the house.” The second camera, however, could see over the eight‑foot privacy fence that ...
Colin Grabow Ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling on whether the president can impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA)—oral arguments for which begin today—the administration has deployed a variety of odd and tenuous arguments in favor of granting the executive branch such authority. Perhaps the most imaginative White House claim is that denying the president’s ability ...
Kayla Susalla In the wake of several devastating and highly publicized school shootings over the past year, the new book School Shootings in American Culture, by psychologist Lisa Ross, offers a timely examination of their underlying causes. Drawing on the history of school shootings and policy responses to them, Ross explores these events through the lens of centralized power, hyperconnectivity ...
Chris Edwards Air traffic control (ATC) is becoming air traffic “chaos,” as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on October 4. As employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air traffic controllers are not being paid under the government shutdown. Some are staying home, which is causing flight delays and cancellations across the country. Such budget-driven chaos is unnecessary, as we ...
Kyle Handley The US Supreme Court will soon decide whether the president can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on imports from dozens of countries. That law was never meant for this purpose. Congress passed it in 1977 to let presidents freeze assets or restrict transactions during genuine emergencies, not to create a standing tariff ...
Dominik Lett This month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council will release a report aimed at improving federal disaster response. Over the last decade, FEMA’s annual spending has grown from $19 billion in 2016 to $32 billion in 2025 (adjusted for inflation). The FEMA Review Council’s recommendations should be informed by the ballooning costs of federal disaster programs, ...
Walter Olson The Trump administration is in court regularly with motions seeking injunctions as well as other discretionary court relief, such as stays of rulings against it. Two leading legal scholars, Will Baude and Sam Bray, argue in a forthcoming piece that courts should rebuff some of these moves by applying the famous equitable doctrine of “unclean hands.” (Equity is ...
Evan Sankey Meeting in South Korea last week, President Trump and China’s President Xi agreed on the outline of a one-year truce in their trade war. The US will cancel most of its threatened tariff hikes on Chinese imports, pause new restrictions on partially Chinese-owned firms accessing US technology, and pause sanctions on China’s commercial shipping. In return, China will ...
Clark Packard On November 5, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Trump’s sweeping tariff policy imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In the run-up, the administration insisted the tariffs are essential to conducting American foreign policy. Yet as my Cato trade colleagues and I argue in our amicus brief in the case, traditional diplomacy—not emergency ...
Thomas A. Berry and Brent Skorup On November 5, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in what is likely to be the biggest case of the term: the Tariffs Case. Although the twists and turns of the case have been complex, the bottom line is simple. Congress never authorized the tariffs at issue, and the Supreme Court should strike ...