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Missing the Significance of Cass Sunstein
The news that Cass Sunstein returns to Harvard Law School from his position as policy chief at the Office of Management and Budget provoked a divided response. On his policy legacy, the left and right...
View ArticleBeyond Politics: How to Think about Government Failure
The next Liberty Law Talk is a conversation with Randy Simmons on his recently revised and updated book, Beyond Politics: The Roots of Government Failure. Serious policy analysis frequently begins with...
View ArticleThe Regulatory State on Autopilot (I)
In countries such as Germany (see recent post), climate change regulation proceeds by idiotic, popular and partisan consensus. Stateside, there’s less enthusiasm for post-carbon fantasies. Thus,...
View ArticleThe Regulatory State on Autopilot (II)
There is, I think, quite a bit to learn from the D.C. Circuit’s greenhouse gas cases, reviewed in yesterday’s post. Let’s start with a dorky but telling AdLaw point and move on to more cosmic themes:...
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The Road to Progressive Dhimmitude
In the recent Hobby Lobby Case, Justices Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said that corporations that don’t want to pay for abortions should simply not provide any health insurance: “But isn’t there...
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Introducing the Constitution: A Conversation with Michael Paulsen
This next edition of Liberty Law Talk is a discussion with Michael S. Paulsen, co-author with his son, Luke Paulsen, of their new book entitled The Constitution: An Introduction. The Paulsens’ book is...
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The Regulatory State: A Modest Reform Proposal
The Mercatus Center has just published a troubling snapshot analysis of the accumulation of regulatory mandates and restrictions since the Carter administration. Other analyses confirm the picture of a...
View ArticleRegulatory Reform: A Brief Update
In last week’s post on the regulatory state I surmised that “a retrospective review of the [Obama administration’s] retrospective review exercise would prove it to be largely pointless.” Well, not...
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State Attorneys General Challenge the EPA’s Clean Power Plan
Last month, the EPA finalized major new rules requiring carbon dioxide reductions across the energy-generating industry. The rules require power plants to reduce emissions levels to 32% below their...
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Net Loss: D.C. Circuit Upholds FCC “Net Neutrality” Rule
In a momentous decision, a panel of the D.C. Circuit (Judges Srinivasan, Tatel, and Williams; opinion by Srinivasan, partial dissent by Williams) has upheld the FCC’s “net neutrality” rule. Henceforth...
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How Did Our Politics Go Insane?
Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution, a dear friend and one of the nation’s most insightful and thoughtful political observers, explains in a provocative Atlantic piece “How American Politics...
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After Obamacare: A Conversation with Josh Blackman
This edition of Liberty Law Talk discusses with Josh Blackman his latest book, Unraveled: Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Power. Professor Blackman has been engaged with Obamacare since its...
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Congress Incongruous
In the late 1970s, I taught at the Kennedy School of Government and directed the “Harvard Faculty Project on Regulation.” Our group—professors of law, economics, political science, business, and public...
View ArticleReturn to the Original Sources of the Separation of Powers
I want to begin this response with a series of questions and comments. When and why did America go wrong? Put slightly differently, when and why did America get derailed? Who or what did the derailing?...
View ArticleBring Back Institutional Jealousy
Christopher DeMuth has identified the primary ailment afflicting administrative law today: the absentee Congress. Two stories from the Wall Street Journal on the day I write (August 10, 2015) tell the...
View ArticleCongress Incongruous — Response to Commentaries
I am grateful for the smart and informed commentaries on my Liberty Law Forum essay by John Samples, Gordon Lloyd, Michael M. Uhlmann, and those who posted shorter comments. They do not, I think, call...
View ArticleDecoherence . . . Or Incoherence?
Philip Wallach proposes the addition of a new term to our analysis of regulatory jargon—regulatory “decoherence.” I have no inherent objection to coining a new term: jargon can illuminate or obscure....
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Ten Ways for the Next President to Promote the Rule of Law
After eight years of President Obama’s administration, conservatives are much more likely to see executive power as a threat to the rule of law than a tool in service of it. Indeed, after 16 years of...
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Beyond Politics: How to Think about Government Failure
The next Liberty Law Talk is a conversation with Randy Simmons on his recently revised and updated book, Beyond Politics: The Roots of Government Failure. Serious policy analysis frequently begins with...
View ArticleThe Regulatory State on Autopilot (I)
Detail image of "The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June, 1919," by William Orban. Part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM ART 2856).In countries such as...
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