Stephen Breyer Makes the Liberal Case Against Court Packing
"Think long and hard," Breyer warns would-be court packers, "before embodying those changes in law."
Topics
Two Courts Debunk Persistent Opioid Myths
Both rulings emphasized that opioids have legitimate medical uses and concluded that drug companies could not be held responsible for abuse of their products.
When Is Drinking Ayahuasca a Religious Experience?
It should not matter whether would-be ayahuasca drinkers sincerely believe in shamanism or simply believe they will derive mental health benefits from the experience.
Ross Ulbricht's First Nonfungible Token
A virtual collection of 10 artworks made by Ulbricht at various stages of his life was worth $6.3 million at the time of sale.
China's Old Climate Promises Are 'New' Again
The Glasgow Declaration's empty platitudes confirm that China will not be hectored by the U.S. into making any significant changes to its climate policies.
Some People Love a State of Crisis
Why do so many people seem eager to fret and impose emergency measures even as COVID-19 becomes endemic and restrictions take a growing toll?
Same Border Rules, Vastly Different Portrayals
Trump's pandemic travel bans received vastly different media treatment than Biden's.
Photo: Little Amal, World Traveler
The Handspring Puppet Company and Good Chance Theatre sought to raise awareness of refugee rights while celebrating human migration.
Leave Goat Yoga Alone!
"We can't even do the things we want to on our own property that aren't even hurting anyone."
The Independents Strike Back
If you make the government feel too dangerous, a corrective bloc of voters will pour cold water on your face.
Seattle and Detroit Move Toward Decriminalizing Psychedelics
Though state laws in both places have not yet adapted, consumers of "entheogenic" plants and fungi are now less likely to be arrested and prosecuted in the two cities.
One Step Closer to Kidney Transplants From Pigs
Researchers are making great progress overcoming the problems that have long plagued attempts at xenotransplantation.
You Can't Solve Homelessness by Making It a Crime
In an August ruling, Washington's Supreme Court found that a homeless plaintiff's truck qualified as his homestead.
Haitians Meet the New Deporter-in-Chief
Biden presented himself as the immigration antithesis of Trump, but such promises have not been kept.
Inflation Means Interest Rates Could Rise. Higher Interest Rates Will Make the National Debt More Expensive.
The Fed may soon get serious about hitting the monetary brakes to slow the economy.
Closing Schools To Protect Kids Made Them Sick
Children forced to Zoom into school ended up with suboptimal immune systems—the opposite of herd immunity.
China's Quest To Take Taiwan
If Taiwan became embroiled in a protracted military engagement with China, global supply-chain turmoil would ensue.
Defending Armed Self-Defense
It's easy for many people to see the harm that guns are involved in every day in America, but much harder for them to see the harm that gun prohibition causes.
Texas' 6-Week Abortion Ban Threatens Every Constitutional Right
If it is upheld, state legislators easily could use the strategy embodied in S.B. 8 to attack other rights the Supreme Court has recognized.
Is Censuring a Legislator a First Amendment Violation?
"The First Amendment was never intended to curtail speech and debate within legislative bodies."
Hungarian Nationalism Is a Dead End
Hungary's brand of nationalism generates not just cronyist domestic policy but tawdry foreign policy as well.
William Shatner Goes to Space
After his flight, Shatner told Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, "I hope I never recover from this."
The Problem of 'Documented Dreamers'
There are about 200,000 "Documented Dreamers" who were brought to the U.S. legally by parents who obtained work or student visas. Some now face deportation.
Will Environmental Regulations Stop SpaceX?
The lawsuit could be a bellwether of how federal agencies must handle a burgeoning private space industry.
Medicare's Fiscal Ruin
Are Medicare's fiscal problems even worse than the headline numbers suggest?
Crisis at Rikers Island
In 2021, the institutional rot and dysfunction at Rikers Island cascaded into a full-blown catastrophe.
Vaping Regulation Threatens a Lifesaving Smoking Alternative
Policy makers are acting as if saving the lives of smokers via harm-reducing alternatives counts for nothing.
Against the Education Status Quo
After doing the jobs of teacher, coach, and cafeteria monitor for more than a year, many parents resented being told to sit down and shut up.
China's War on Crypto
China sees the value in a digital currency, but only if the CCP has full control of it.
Should NATO Open Its Doors to Georgia?
Conflict with Russia has been an ever-present threat in the three decades since Georgia broke away from the collapsing Soviet Union.
Turkmenistan's Record-Setting Repression
The most oppressive of the former Soviet countries is run by a dictator with a strange cult of personality.
The Baltic Way
How Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania ended up with relatively high degrees of economic freedom and political stability
Meet the New Boss in Azerbaijan
A look at Azerbaijan’s rampant corruption, unfair elections, and flimsy institutions
The Sick Man of Central Asia
Tajikistan remains economically underdeveloped despite plentiful natural resources.
A Glimmer of Success in Miserable Moldova
Maia Sandu, Moldova's new president, has cleverly positioned her new government as being in thrall neither to Moscow nor to Brussels.
Leaving Uzbekistan
Why is it so hard for Uzbek citizens to get permission to travel abroad?
Ukraine Still Hungers for Independence
For two years in the 1930s, the people of Ukraine were forced to starve in service of a political idea.
Watching Mikhail Gorbachev Resign in Moscow
The day the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time
Kazakhstan Kleptocracy
Authoritarianism and abundant natural resources make a treacherous combination in Kazakhstan.
Soviet Ethnic Policies Split Kyrgyzstan
Conflict between minority groups still lingers today
Remittances Bolster—and Limit—Armenia's Potential
Remitting took off during the Soviet period and has remained high over the years due to lack of domestic economic opportunity.
Barely Legal Strippers Now Illegal in Texas
Under S.B. 315, it is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, to employ 18- to 20-year-olds at any sexually oriented business.
