Another illegal power grab from the FTC

reason.com More than 30 million Americans have signed employment contracts that limit their ability to switch jobs to a competing company, and those contracts are regulated by laws in…

Ford Fischer: Why you should surveil the state

reason.com You've probably seen footage and images of the January 6 riot at the Capitol captured by today's guest, videographer Ford Fischer. A decade ago, Fischer cofounded New2Share,…

TikTok gets 9 months

reason.com Senate approves massive spending: Last night, the $95 billion aid package meant for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan passed the Senate. "The vote reflected resounding bipartisan…

Supreme Court takes up ATF’s unilateral ‘ghost gun’ rules

reason.com Can the government regulate objects that resemble unfinished firearm parts as if they are guns because, with tools and effort, they might be turned into working components?…

Brickbat: Who's Counting?

reason.com An estimated 171,000 Californians are homeless, making up about 30 percent of all homeless people in the U.S. The state spent $24 billion in fiscal years 2018–2023 on 30…

A Discussion of Jurisdiction Stripping and the Mountain Valley Pipeline

reason.com Last week I participated in a Federalist Society teleforum on the legal issues raised by Congress' decision to limit judicial review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in…

Capitalism makes society less racist

reason.com Capitalism and racism go together? I hear it all the time. "Racism is intricately linked to capitalism," says famous Marxist Angela Davis. "It's a mistake to assume that we…

The alarming implications of Trump’s immunity claim

reason.com When Congress impeaches and removes a federal official, the Constitution says, "the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment…

The Best of Reason: A Big Panic Over Tiny Plastics

reason.com This week's featured article is "A Big Panic Over Tiny Plastics" by Mike Pesca. This audio was generated using AI trained on the voice of Katherine Mangu-Ward. Music…

New Georgia law allows birthing centers to open without needing permission from nearby hospitals

reason.com When Katie Chubb tried to open a new birthing center in Augusta, Georgia, nearly three years ago, she hit an unexpected roadblock. The problem had nothing to do with the…

It took me months to get the ADHD meds the DEA says are overprescribed

reason.com The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been warning that prescription stimulant abuse could be the next opioid epidemic. After a monthslong quest to get my hands on…

The Narrowest Ground for Deciding Trump v. United States

reason.com I argued in a blog post on Sunday, April 21st that Special Counsel Jack Smith lacked defendant standing to defend the U.S. government's victory in the D.C. Circuit, in the…

Ten Thoughts on Starbucks, Corp. v. McKinney

reason.com Brief responses based on the second oral argument this morning: Starbucks wins. The Court will hold, as it should, that the four-factor test should be applied. The general…

Costly complexity

reason.com Happy Tuesday and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. I wanted to change up the newsletter's format a little bit to write about an underappreciated benefit of…

Northwestern Dean of Students' Presence at Anti-Israel Protest

reason.com I've seen some items online asserting that the Northwestern Dean of Students "joins anti-Israel rally organized by far-left student groups," was "openly standing in…

Does the constitution protect the right to get high?

reason.com The Constitution of the War on Drugs, by David Pozen, Oxford University Press, 304 pages, $27.95 When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Justice Samuel…

Politicians helped kill Amazon's Roomba deal

reason.com In January 2024, Amazon terminated its agreement to acquire iRobot, the company that manufactures the Roomba robot vacuum. That company then laid off nearly one-third of its…

Brickbat: 'Openly Jewish'

reason.com London's Metropolitan Police Service has apologized for threatening to arrest a Jewish man at a pro-Palestinian protest. Video showed police officers telling Gideon Falter…

Equity Isn't Venti for the Government

reason.com Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney. Read more in this piece at ScotusBlog by Ronald Mann. The question concerns the standard…

Fight Homelessness by Ending Exclusionary Zoning

reason.com Homeless encampment under an overpass in Oakland, California. (Blackkango | Dreamstime.com) Today, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, a…

"Despite Police Pushback, Biden Presses On With Visit To Syracuse After Two Cops Were Just Slain"

reason.com From the Daily Caller: Biden is set to travel to the city on Thursday to promote the CHIPS and Science Act and announce a grant delivered by the legislation, according to…

After Iowa police ignored her pleas for help, her estranged husband killed her

reason.com In October 2022, Angela Prichard was murdered by her estranged husband, Christopher Prichard. The crime wasn't entirely unpredictable; Angela Prichard had repeatedly sought…

Next Year In Jerusalem

reason.com Every year at the close of the Passover seder, Jewish people say "Next year in Jerusalem." In my life I have always repeated that phrase without much thought. Of course I…

Ohio AG Asks State Supreme Court To Bar Universal Injunction

reason.com The Ohio legislature recently enacted, over the Governor's veto, a law concerning transgender minors. The law was challenged in a state trial court. Two named plaintiffs…

TikTok measure passed by House is unconstitutional in multiple ways

reason.com Is TikTok's time finally up? On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed a measure that would require a change in the app's ownership or ban it if that doesn't happen.…

"World on the Brink" -- Interviewing Dmitri Alperovitch

reason.com Okay, yes, I promised to take a hiatus after episode 500. Yet here it is a week later, and I'm releasing episode 501. This is my excuse. I read and liked Dmitri…

For Those Who Want a More Musical Volokh

reason.com Volokh, apparently from the place name Wallachia (Romania), is a klezmer (East European Jewish) musical composition, or perhaps a kind of such composition. The post For…

District Court Unseals Sentencing Memorandum in Case Involving Detroit's "Topless Prophet"

reason.com From Judge Linda Parker's opinion Thursday in U.S. v. Markovitz (E.D. Mich.); the defendant is the author of Topless Prophet: The True Story of America's Most Successful…

Julian Simon was right: Ingenuity leads to abundance

reason.com If you're looking for further evidence that the world is recovering from the disruptions of pandemic policy, the Simon Abundance Index provides just that. After a brief…

The Bail Project Isn't Liable for Crimes by People It Bailed Out

reason.com From Troutt v. The Bail Project, Inc., decided Friday by the Kentucky Court of Appeals (opinion by Judge Pamela Goodwine, joined by Judge Christopher McNeill): On February…

Brickbat: Keeping Drugs Off the Street

reason.com Tressa Beltran, former police chief of Hartford, Michigan, has been charged with multiple felonies, including delivery of narcotics, larceny, extortion, using a computer to…

How to be the president’s kid

reason.com Theodore Roosevelt was president at the start of the Celebrity Age, and at the start of much of the modern image of the presidency. The White House was just beginning to be…

Cruel AND Unusual?

reason.com On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear argument in an Eighth Amendment case, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson. One thing I will be watching for is whether the justices…

House Passes REPO Act Giving President Authority to Confiscate Russian Government Assets in the US and Transfer them to Ukraine

reason.com In addition to finally passing long-delayed and much-needed military assistance to Ukraine, the House of Representatives today also enacted the REPO Act. That law gives the…

"Last Week, a … [UC Berkeley] Professor Confronted a Muslim Student During a Dinner for Graduating Law Students"

reason.com Here are the closing paragraphs of yesterday's NBC News article, "Columbia University protesters resume demonstrations after mass arrests": Is this really a fair and…

"White Supremacist Leader Sentenced to 44 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Make Death Threats Against Brooklyn Journalist"

reason.com The Justice Department reported yesterday: Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Nicholas Welker, also known as "King ov Wrath," was sentenced by United…

Why we remember Columbine

reason.com Twenty-five years ago today, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 classmates and a teacher, wounded 21 more people, and ended their…

Second Amendment Roundup: ATF redefines “engaged in the business”

reason.com ATF's Final Rule Definition of "Engaged in the Business" as a Dealer in Firearms amounts to 466 pages of responses to comments and the final rule itself. Over 252,000 of the…

If they ban TikTok, is Apple next?

reason.com The censors who abound in Congress will likely vote to ban TikTok or force a change in ownership. It will likely soon be law. I think the Supreme Court will ultimately rule…

New Title IX rules erase campus due process protections

reason.com On Friday, the Biden administration unveiled final Title IX regulations, nearly two years after the administration proposed dramatic changes to how colleges handle sexual…

Lawsuit Alleging School District Wouldn't Inform Certain Parents About Their Children's "Sign[s] of an LGBTQ+ Identity" Dismissed for Lack of Standing

reason.com From today's opinion by Judge Michael Watson (S.D. Ohio) in Kaltenbach v. Hilliard City Schools (a notice of appeal has been filed): … Plaintiffs allege that, if the…

Appeals court rules that cops can physically make you unlock your phone

reason.com As we keep more and more personal data on our phones, iPhone and Android devices now have some of the most advanced encryption technology in existence to keep that…

Oklahoma prisoners say they were locked in filthy, tiny shower stalls for days

reason.com Several inmates in an Oklahoma prison say they were locked in filthy shower stalls, some as small as 2 square feet, for days on end. In a lawsuit filed last week, the…

How the FISA reauthorization bill could force maintenance workers and custodians to become government spies

reason.com Tech companies and First Amendment groups are calling attention to a provision in a domestic spying bill that they say would significantly expand the federal government's…

Another day, another doomed plan to defund NPR

reason.com Rep. Jim Banks (R–Ind.) announced yesterday that he will introduce a bill to defund National Public Radio (NPR). Marsha Blackburn (R–Tenn.) has said she hopes to do the same…

The manufactured crisis of migrant terrorists at the border

reason.com Since late 2020, Border Patrol along the United States–Mexico border has encountered over 6.9 million illegal crossers. A recent Pew Research survey reveals that 57 percent…

Israel’s retaliation

reason.com Israel attacks Iran: Overnight, Israeli forces attacked near Isfahan, Iran, in retribution for Iran's barrage of drones and missiles that hit Israel roughly a week ago. This…

2024 Texas Review of Law & Politics

reason.com On April 13, 2024, I was honored to accept the Jurist of the Year award from the Texas Review of Law & politics. Perhaps more importantly, I was quite pleased to see the…

Seattle Improperly Imposed a "Heckler's Veto" on Street Preacher at "an Abortion Rally and an LGBTQ Pride Event"

reason.com From yesterday's decision in Meinecke v. City of Seattle, written by Judge Jay Bybee, joined by Judges Margaret McKeown and Daniel Bress: Appellant Matthew Meinecke's speech…

California is trying to drive landlords out of business

reason.com What do the state's insurance and housing crises have in common? Obviously, homeowner policies have an impact on housing costs, but I'm referring to something different,…

Review: Fun Police Podcast Exposes the Nanny State

reason.com It's a fairly well-established principle that the state can intervene when an individual harms another person: Your right to swing your fist ends when it hits my face. But…

Review: An anime reboot about Japan's transition from feudalism

reason.com Adapted from a best-selling manga series and a classic 1990s anime, Rurouni Kenshin follows the journey of Himura Kenshin, a legendary assassin who vows never to kill again.…

Brickbat: You Hate To See It

reason.com Police Scotland received thousands of complaints under the nation's new hate crimes law just in the first few days after it took effect. Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf…

Two Cheers for the Proposed End Kidney Deaths Act

reason.com At the Vox website, Dylan Matthews offers a compelling defense of the proposed End Kidney Deaths Act. He makes good points, and I agree the act would be a major improvement…

Revised Section 702 surveillance authority poses more danger than ever

reason.com At press time, the U.S. Senate is debating whether to not only renew the U.S. government's spying powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act…

Could virtual cashiers be the future of the restaurant industry?

reason.com In an innovative move, a chain of New York City restaurants introduced virtual cashiers, who are taking customers' orders over Zoom from their homes in the Philippines. The…

Laws Requiring Social Media Firms to Host Content they Prefer to Exclude Violate the Takings Clause

reason.com (Bigtunaonline | Dreamstime.com) The Supreme Court is currently considering two cases in which social media firms challenge the constitutionality of Texas and Florida laws…

Alvin Bragg's 'election interference' narrative is nonsensical

reason.com A year after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced 34 felony charges against Donald Trump, the former president's trial is about to begin. Yet people are still…

USC cancels valedictorian's speech over bogus 'safety concerns'

reason.com This week, the University of Southern California (USC) announced that the college's valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, would be barred from speaking at commencement. The school…

N.Y. Bill Would Require Users to Swear They Won't Use Generative AI to Produce "Offensive, Harassing, Violent, [or] Discriminatory" Speech

reason.com Here's the relevant text, from S8206 (sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Cooney and pending before the N.Y. Senate Internet and Technology Committee): Every operator of a generative…