The Enduring Fight Over 'Fighting Words'
More than eight decades ago, the Supreme Court invented a vague First Amendment exception that would-be censors continue to invoke.
April 2026
The Joys of Data Centers
Contrary to the claims of the not-in-my-backyard technophobes, all this growth comes with minimal environmental downsides.
Features
Trump 2.0, Year 1: A Libertarian Nightmare
Trump's second term lurches forward, powered by monarchical authoritarianism
Police Drug Tests Are Notoriously Unreliable. They Got This Man Wrongly Charged With Trafficking Fentanyl.
Roughly 30,000 people every year may be getting wrongfully arrested because of unreliable field drug tests, according to one estimate.
Interview
Tony Gilroy on Andor, the Force, and Authoritarianism
"The concept of the show was to talk about what happens when authoritarianism and fascism comes kicking down your door," the creator of the Disney+ series tells Reason.
Editor's Note
What the ICE Crackdown and China's One-Child Policy Have in Common
Population control is technocratic hubris at its most intimate and brutal.
Topics
Photo: Venezuela's Political Prisoners
As of early February, only about 300 prisoners have been freed, leaving hundreds still detained despite official promises.
Trump Ordered Using 'All Lawful Means' To Remove Immigrants. Many ICE Arrests Go Beyond the Law.
Agents are violating the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Blame U.S. Regulations for China's Dominance in Rare-Earth Minerals
America once dominated the rare-earth market, but permitting requirements are holding the industry back.
3 Reasons Why Trump's Math on Drug Boat Bombings Doesn't Add Up
The president claims that thousands of American lives are saved every time the government blows up a suspected drug boat.
This Cancer Researcher Home-Brewed a Beer That Works as a Vaccine
And he's publishing the process so you can do it too.
What Exactly Is a Groyper?
Nick Fuentes and his followers compete to see who can be most offensive.
What Happens If There's a Murder in Antarctica?
No single government controls the South Pole, so how do they deal with crime?
Nuclear Power Regulators Scrap Rule Saying New Reactors Must Withstand 9/11-Style Plane Crashes
This regulation didn't make anyone safer but it did make it harder to build nuclear energy projects in the United States.
NYC Transit Just Got Rid of MetroCards for Fares. The Successor Could Put Your Privacy at Risk.
Unlike the MetroCard, the OMNY system requires train and bus riders in New York City to give their name and phone number to the government.
Closing the Door to New Americans
The federal government slashed the annual cap of refugee intake to the United States by 94 percent last year.
Minnesota's Fraud Scandal Isn't an Immigration Problem. It's a Spending Problem.
Health care fraud is an all-too-common feature of the U.S. health care system, not only in Minnesota.
Yes, the First Amendment Protects Free Speech for Noncitizens
"Freedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country," according to a 1945 Supreme Court ruling.
Culture
I'm Dying of ALS. Knowing I Can Decide When To End My Life Brought Me Back From the Dead.
I didn’t really understand the power of Medical Aid in Dying until I received my terminal diagnosis.
Books
The Secret Phone Recordings of Henry Kissinger, a 'Habitual Liar'
A new collection of transcripts underscores the vast scope of Kissinger's systematic deception.
This 1,300-Page Anticapitalist History Gets a Few Things Wrong
Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History is...not a reliable history.
Reviews
Review: Did the Feds Finally Crack the Food Pyramid Code? Probably Not.
It's far more likely we'll be back to revise the pyramid again a decade from now.
Review: Have Aliens Visited Earth? This Documentary Says Yes.
The Age of Disclosure makes bold claims but is frustratingly thin on specifics.
Review: A Period Drama About the Price of Progress in the American West
Train Dreams follows a logger in the Pacific Northwest during the age of westward expansion.
Review: Resisting the Hive Mind Virus in PLUR1BUS
The protagonist in the Apple TV series does not want her consciousness absorbed into a collective human mind.
Review: A Thorough Account of Socialism's History
On Origin Story, podcasters Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt cover everything from Karl Marx to the British Labour Party.
Review: This Podcast Details the Brutal Effects of the War on Drugs
Collateral Damage tells some of the many stories of drug enforcement gone wrong.
Review: The Libertarianism of Stranger Things
The final season of the Netflix show delivers a message about moral responsibility.
ETC.
Max Martin on the Enhanced Games, Regulation, and Human Potential
"Performance enhancements are actually, contrary to what many people think, not that dangerous," the Enhanced CEO tells Reason.
Brickbats: April 2026
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world
