Politics, Moderate
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Bowing to Public Opinion, Trump and Harris Agree That Marijuana Should Be Legal: It Remains Unclear Whether Either Would Do Anything About That as President
After former President Donald Trump endorsed a Florida ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana in that state, Vice President Kamala Harris accused her Republican opponent of flip-flopping on the issue. Yet Harris herself did not publicly support marijuana legalization until 2018, when two-thirds of Americans already ...Read more
A Federal Judge Highlights the Hazards of Reckless Drug War Tactics: The Ruling Notes That Breonna Taylor's Death Resulted From the 'Late-Night, Surprise Manner of Entry'
A judge recently dismissed a couple of the federal charges against two former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers who instigated the 2020 drug raid that killed Breonna Taylor. The ruling was by no means a vindication of the defendants, who still face several misdemeanor and felony charges, and it was an implicit indictment of the reckless ...Read more
Kamala Harris' 'Price Gouging' Ban Is a New Idea That Has Failed for Thousands of Years: The Vice President Is Counting on Voters Who Like What She Says but Do Not Consider the Predictable Consequences
In her first economic policy speech as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris rightly criticized former President Donald Trump for favoring steep tariffs, saying her Republican opponent "wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other ...Read more
Two Contradictory Decisions on AR-15 Bans Reflect Clashing Views of Supreme Court Precedents: Does the Second Amendment Allow the Government to Ban Guns in Common Use for Lawful Purposes?
Last month, a federal judge ruled that New Jersey's ban on AR-15 rifles is unconstitutional. A week later, a federal appeals court deemed a similar ban in Maryland perfectly consistent with the Second Amendment.
These dueling decisions reflect a basic disagreement about whether the Second Amendment allows the government to ban guns that are ...Read more
'Too Much Law' Gives Prosecutors Enormous Power to Ruin People's Lives: In a New Book, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Details the 'Human Toll' of Proliferating Criminal Penalties
"Criminal laws have grown so exuberantly and come to cover so much previously innocent conduct that almost anyone can be arrested for something," Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch observed in 2019. Gorsuch elaborates on that theme in a new book, showing how the proliferation of criminal penalties has given prosecutors enormous power to ruin ...Read more
Trump Values Judicial Independence Only When It Benefits Him: His Criticism of President Joe Biden's Proposed Supreme Court Reform Is Hard to Take Seriously
Two weeks before President Joe Biden officially proposed terms limits for Supreme Court justices, Donald Trump preemptively condemned the idea. "The Radical Left Democrats are desperately trying to 'Play the Ref' by calling for an illegal and unConstitutional attack on our SACRED United States Supreme Court," the former president wrote on ...Read more
Promising to Restore 'Law and Order,' Trump Falsely Claims Crime Is Rising: The Most Notable Recent Increase Happened on His Watch, When Homicides Spiked
"Our crime rate is going up," former President Donald Trump claimed during the Republican National Convention last week, when he vowed to "Make America Safe Once Again." Yet the most notable recent increase in the homicide rate happened on Trump's watch, and violent crime has been falling since then.
That gap between Republican rhetoric and ...Read more
A Ruling in Favor of DIY Distillers Affirms Limits on Congressional Power: A Federal Judge Rejected the Government's Excuses for Banning Home Production of Liquor
If you search for "home still" on Amazon, you will see a bunch of products that are explicitly advertised as tools for producing liquor. But while it is legal to make beer, cider or wine at home for your own consumption or to share with friends, unlicensed production of distilled spirits remains a federal felony punishable by up to five years ...Read more
Determined to Avoid Presidential Paralysis, SCOTUS Endorses Presidential Impunity: We Need Not Conjure 'Extreme Hypotheticals' to Understand the Danger Posed by an 'Energetic Executive' Who Feels Free to Flout the Law
Challenging the federal indictment stemming from his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump argued that former presidents can be prosecuted for "official acts" only if they are first impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate based on the same conduct. While rejecting that claim last week, ...Read more
Two SCOTUS Cases Show How an Unaccountable Administrative State Hurts 'Ordinary People': Contrary to Progressive Criticism, Curtailing Bureaucratic Power Is Not About Protecting the 'Wealthy and Powerful'
After the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed the powers of federal agencies in two cases last week, progressive critics predictably complained that the decisions favored "big business," "corporate interests" and "the wealthy and powerful." That gloss overlooked the reality that people with little wealth or power frequently are forced to contend with...Read more
Has SCOTUS Replaced One Kind of Unbridled Discretion With Another in Second Amendment Cases? Although Critics Say the Court's Current Approach Is Unworkable, It Has Been Undeniably Effective at Defeating Constitutionally Dubious Gun Regulations
Two years ago, New York Times columnist David French complains, the Supreme Court "created a jurisprudential mess that scrambled American gun laws" by saying they must be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." Last week, French suggests, the court drew back from the precipice when it upheld a federal law ...Read more
Critics Fundamentally Misconstrue the Supreme Court's Bump Stock Ruling: The Case Hinged on the ATF's Statutory Authority, Not the Second Amendment
After the Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration's bump stock ban last week, critics complained that the justices had interpreted the Second Amendment in a way that rules out perfectly reasonable gun regulations. That was an odd complaint, because the case did not involve the Second Amendment.
The Court's decision upheld an ...Read more
Trump's Abortion Dilemma: The 'Most Pro-Life President in American History' Cannot Please Hardline Activists Without Alienating Voters
When former President Donald Trump agreed to address a conference hosted by an organization that opposes abortion in all circumstances, President Joe Biden's campaign cited the appearance as evidence of Trump's extremism on the issue. But in his brief recorded remarks at the Danbury Institute's Life & Liberty Forum in Indianapolis on Monday, ...Read more
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