If You Want To Fix the Country, Devolve Power
Revived federalism is a start, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Revived federalism is a start, but it doesn’t go far enough.
As a recent Washington Post article explains, the combination of low taxes, job opportunities, and few restrictions on building new housing are crucial to the state's success. Both major parties have much to learn from Texas' experience.
Under current law, marijuana users who possess firearms are committing a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Montana's new law refusing to help enforce federal gun restrictions is similar to liberal "sanctuary cities'" refusal to assist in federal immigration enforcement. Both are protected by Constitution.
Conservative state legislators are taking a page from the playbook of pro-immigration activists and the marijuana legalization movement.
While overturning Roe v. Wade would lead to new restrictions in many states, legal access to abortion would be unaffected in most of the country.
Joe Biden, meanwhile, supports continued national prohibition, maintaining an untenable conflict between state and federal laws.
In both situations, the grant conditions in question were not clearly and unambiguously authorized by Congress.
There are now two district court decisions ruling against the moratorium and two upholding it.
The national eviction moratorium and Arizona’s business restrictions were based on dubious assertions of authority.
Two district court decisions have upheld the moratorium against various challenges, while one has ruled against it. The legal battle may be just beginning.
On the inconsistency between choice of law cases and interstate sovereign immunity cases
The Supreme Court did not resolve the case today, but did take the noteworthy step of asking for the views of the federal government.
The case was filed directly in the Supreme Court under its "original jurisdiction" over cases filed by one state against another. It could have important implications for the future of federalism.
The article adapts and expands some of the ideas developed in my recent book "Free to Move," and is now available for free download on SSRN.
Partisans who abandon constitutional principles because they prove inconvenient are in for a rude surprise when the other team wins.
The president acknowledges that there are limits to executive power, even during a public health emergency.
Let people join with the like-minded to reject officials and laws that don’t suit them and to construct systems that do.
A comparison of Texas and California suggests that legal edicts matter less than The New York Times thinks.
Cruz plunged into the constitutional abyss while Rand Paul stepped back, refusing to sacrifice democracy and the rule of law.
Centralization makes sense only if you ignore differences in local conditions—and trust the feds to make the right choices.
By his own account, the Texas senator is committed to defending a dishonest, amoral, narcissistic bully.
Under punitive federalism, localities refuse dictates from above while state and federal officials retaliate.
The bill is unlikely to make headway in the Senate, but it could nudge President-elect Joe Biden toward more ambitious reforms.
The combination of foot voting and decentralization of power can offer people more and better choices than are available at the ballot box.
Voters in four states voted to legalize recreational marijuana. In Oregon, they went much further.
The event is free and open to the public.
The event was sponsored by the Miller Center for Public Affairs.
How do we resolve the cannabis conflict between state legalization and federal prohibition?
If only that signaled a broader respect for legal limits on executive power.
For the moment, the executive "memorandum" is long on rhetoric, but short on actual action. If it ever does lead to action, it could be yet another attack on federalism and separation of powers.
The event is co-sponsored by the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University.
Both major parties defend the Constitution only when it's convenient.
Will his blunt self-aggrandizement reinvigorate concerns about presidents who exceed their powers?
New York City's primary election fiasco reveals gross incompetence rather than fraud.
A president from a party supposedly committed to restraining the federal government is now sending enforcers to cities over local objections.
Thanks to him, there will be no escaping accusations by the left that states' rights are merely a ruse to protect white power.
From the torching of an Elk statue to clandestine raids by federal officers, it's like a bizarro episode of Portlandia
The ruling is at odds with decisions by four other circuits and could be headed to the Supreme Court - unless Biden wins the election and reverses administration policy.
Fifth and final post in a series based on my new book "Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom"
State reform isn't a complete substitute for abolition of the federal judicial doctrine. But it can achieve a lot. A recent Colorado law provides a model other states would do well to imitate.
A Second Amendment hypocrite with a plan to undermine federalism
Third in a series of posts based on my new book "Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom."
The Department of Justice is finding creative ways to file federal charges against rioters and looters.
The event includes questions and commentary by Northwestern University law Professor John McGinnis
The Introduction summarizes the book's argument and provides an outline of the chapters that follow.
The first in a series of posts based on my book "Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom"
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