Ninth Circuit Affirms Anti-Libel Injunction, Rejects Overbroad Portion

In Ferguson v. Waid , handed down Jan. 8, the District Court had concluded that Sandra Ferguson, a former client of Brian Waid's but also a lawyer...

No 'Insurrection' or Violence at Virginia Gun Rights Rally

Peaceful demonstration against increased gun regulation in Richmond. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's emergency declaration proves as silly as...

Trump's Impeachment Trial Will Only Make Us Hate Washington Even More

Today is the day that the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump gets underway. Proceedings start around 1 p.m. in Washington (go here for...

Brickbat: Affordable Housing

Berlin's construction industry has come to a near halt, with no new major construction and landlords performing only emergency repairs. The cause is...

A Year Ago, the Media Mangled the Covington Catholic Story. What Happened Next Was Even Worse.

On the weekend of January 18, 2019, a short video appeared on Twitter that purported to show a group of Catholic high school boys—one young man,...

Supreme Court Leaves Obamacare Trapped in Legal Limbo

From practically the moment it was signed into law 10 years ago, Obamacare has been trapped in judicial limbo. The various lawsuits against it—...

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants To Give Police the Power to Detain People Who Don't Answer Their Questions

A Kentucky lawmaker wants to grant police in his state the power to detain a person for two hours if he or she declines to offer up identification...

Still Seething Over 2016, Hillary Clinton Slams Sanders for Sexism Sans Substance

In aiming a series of personal attacks at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) and his supporters, Hillary Clinton achieved little more than once again...

Today in Supreme Court History: January 21, 2010

Vladimir Putin Is Not Reforming the State. He's Taking Power for Himself.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his entire cabinet resigned last week in the wake of what The New York Times' Andrew Higgins calls "...

In Advisory Opinion, Florida Supreme Court Says State Can Require Ex-Felons To Pay Fines Before Having Their Voting Rights Restored

The Florida Supreme Court issued an advisory opinion last week condoning a state law that prohibits residents with felony convictions from voting...

Economist Russ Roberts Isn't Worried About the Middle Class

"A lot of people think the middle class is dead, dying, hollowed out," says Russ Roberts, an economist at Stanford University's Hoover Institution...

Is Houston's Affordability Just a Myth?

Houston has been held up as a rare example of an American city that is both large, thriving, and cheap, thanks to the minimal restrictions it...

Donald Trump's Costanza Defense

"Was that wrong?" George Costanza asks in a 1991 episode of Seinfeld after his boss confronts him with a report that "you and the cleaning woman...

Is CCPA short for "Law of Unintended Consequences"?

This week's episode includes an interview with Bruce Schneier about his recent op-ed on privacy. Bruce and I are both dubious about the current...

Facial Recognition and the Danger of Automated Authoritarianism

Clearview AI, a tech startup, has created an app that enables law enforcement agencies to match photographs to its database of over 3 billion...

Capitalism Has Improved Access to Entertainment

Reporters complain about business. We overlook the constant improvements in our lives made possible by greedy businesses competing for your money....

Impeachment Hall of Shame (and Fame?)

Will the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump already be over by the time you listen to this week's Reason Roundtable podcast? Not quite, though...

Mitch McConnell Revises Impeachment Rules After Bipartisan Backlash

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) on Tuesday revised key parts of the roadmap for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial after...

MLK Day + Virginia Gun Rights Rally =

Here's Prof. Johnson's post: you can find his book here: When W.E.B. Dubois patrolled his home with a shotgun after the 1906 Atlanta race riot, he...

Black Gun Ownership

A Pew Research Center 2017 survey gives us some estimates: Black gun ownership is lower than white gun ownership—but not by much. For whites, 36%...

Why Do Evangelical Christians Support Israel?

A new academic paper published in Politics and Religion explores the source of evangelical Christian support for Israel. There are a host of...

The Case Against the Slippery Slope Case Against Impeachment

The first of the two articles of impeachment on which Donald Trump is about to be tried by the Senate focuses on "abuse of power." In my view,...

Virginia Gov. Northam Smears Gun Control Opponents to Frighten His Base

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is misusing a regularly scheduled political rally to frighten his base and gin up support for his troubled...

"Fraudulent Lawsuits and Illegal Hacks to Silence Online Consumer Complaints"

Some of it may be familiar to our readers (see here for my brief on the "fraudulent lawsuits" side of the analysis), but there's a new item, too: [...

Brickbat: Punched Out

Former Prince George's County, Maryland, police officer Stephen Downey was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of assault and...

Google v. Oracle

The briefs have started to come in [see here], and the Supreme Court will soon hear oral argument (date TBD), in the Google v. Oracle** case. **...

Should Banks Be in the Gun Control Business?

A new federal gun control bill calls for banks and credit card companies to provide transaction data to the feds on some firearms purchases. The...

Today in Supreme Court History: January 20, 1953

1/20/1953: President Eisenhower is the first President to take the inaugural oath on January 20, following the ratification of the 20th Amendment....

Kids Climate Plaintiffs to Seek Rehearing En Banc

Last week, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, the so-called...

Senators Propose Limits on Police Use of Facial Recognition 

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers wants to limit the use of facial recognition technology by federal law enforcement. In November, Sens. Mike Lee...

'Jane Jacobs Goals Through Robert Moses Tactics'

Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution To Rebuild American Prosperity , by Charles L. Marohn Jr., John Wiley & Sons, 240 pages, $25 In the years...

Today in Supreme Court History: January 19, 1990

Tyler Cowen on "State Capacity Libertarianism" II: Is it the Right Path for Libertarians to Follow?

In my last post on economist Tyler Cowen's case for "state capacity libertarianism" (SCL), I took issue with Tyler's claim that SCL is the wave of...

Unanimous 5-Judge Federal Circuit Court Opinion

From U.S. v. Alcantara (2d Cir. 2005): Before: WALKER, Chief Judge, CARDAMONE, WINTER, STRAUB, and LAY, [*]  Circuit Judges. [*] The Honorable...

Desperately Smearing Amy Coney Barrett

Slate has started a new series, "Trump Bench," in which Mark Joseph Stern profiles the records of prominent Trump judicial nominees. In his latest...

Vice President Pence's Profile in Cowardice

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal praising the "courage" of Republican Senator Edmund G. Ross of...

The Return of the "Faithless Elector"

As I predicted here, on Friday the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two consolidated cases (Chiafalo v. Washington (10th Cir.) and Colorado v....

Sex Offender Laws Are Broken. These Women Are Working To Fix Them.

S andy Rozek is the polar opposite of what comes to mind when you hear the word activist. A 78-year-old great-grandmother and retired high school...

Today in Supreme Court History: January 18, 1873

Chefs in Ireland Are Fighting a Mandatory Menu Calorie Count Law

Some of Ireland's leading chefs are  protesting  a proposed mandatory restaurant calorie labeling law, with several of the country's top chefs...

You Can Call Connecticut "The Sanserif State"

Will Robots Lead to Widespread Joblessness and Economic Inequality?

Robotics will soon lead to widespread joblessness and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. That was the resolution of a public debate...

Gun Rights Groups Sue Over Virginia Governor's 'Emergency' Ban

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has issued an emergency executive order barring the bearing of arms in the area where a gun rights rally is scheduled...

No More Pandemics?

Remember SARS? Back in 2003, this deadly coronavirus had jumped the species barrier (probably from bats) into human beings and was spreading across...

Ninth Circuit Dismisses Kids Climate Case for Lack of Standing

Today a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that the plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States —the so-called...

Justice Department Investigates Appalling Conditions at Mississippi Prisons

The Justice Department is now reportedly investigating Mississippi prisons, in the wake of violence that left five inmates dead as well as news...

Transgender Writer Forced to Retract Trans-Themed Science Fiction Story

Clarkesworld, a well-regarded science fiction and fantasy web magazine, recently published first-time author Isabel Fall. The title of her story,...