Crane, Levy on Executive Power

Cato honcho Ed Crane and board member Bob Levy have co-writen an op-ed entitled, "No, a President Can't Do as He Pleases," which sounds quite a bit like a scolding of fellow Catoite Roger Pilon for his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Much as I disagree with Pilon's op-ed (disclosure, I'm a former Cato employee), it seems to me that this is the proper response. Cato is of course a libertarian think tank. But my experience there was that within that framework, there is quite a bit of intellectual freedom. A common refrain there has always been that "there is no official Cato position, only positions held by Cato scholars." Crane didn't fire or publicly discipline Pilon for apostasy. Rather, he took up a pen himself, and wrote a piece that, along with Tim Lee's rebuttal and Gene Healy's forthcoming book, makes it pretty clear that Pilon's position on executive power isn't one held by many others at Cato.

MORE:  Lee and Healy also have a piece in today's Orange County Register on FISA.