How clear are these opening words of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”? Judging by the U.S. Supreme Court's many ventures into this area, we'd have to say not very clear...
Justice
TGIF: Free Exchange Is Win-Win
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 17, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
With the possible exception of the political class and its cronies, most of us would be healthier, wealthier, happier, and freer if the public knew how to engage in "the economic way of thinking." The late Paul Heyne, who wrote a popular textbook by that name (now in...
TGIF: The Libertarian Solution
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 10, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
"What's the libertarian solution to social or economic problem X? How about problem Y or Z?" No libertarian needs to wait long before hearing such questions. But strictly speaking, the libertarian philosophy offers no solutions to specific problems. That's not what it...
TGIF: Heartless Immigration Restrictions Need Replacing
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 3, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Some elements of the right-wing are spreading the fear that Democrats are engineering a take-over of America by replacing white voters with nonwhites through liberal immigration policies. It's come to be known as "the great replacement," and in its ugliest form, it is...
TGIF: Glenn Loury’s Collectivist Immigration Policy
by Sheldon Richman | May 27, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Glenn Loury, the economist at Brown University, often has interesting things to say. His YouTube Glenn Show episodes with linguist and social commentator John McWhorter feature valuable insights and eye-opening data about race, woke "anti-racism," and related matters....
TGIF: Mask Mandate – Liberty Can Hang on One Word
by Sheldon Richman | May 6, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
As I mentioned recently, whether the courts protect or violate liberty in any given case is something of a coin toss. The matter could hinge on a single word. We just had a good example of that fact. On April 18 U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump...
Privacy as a Property Right
by Sheldon Richman | May 5, 2022 | Blog, Justice, Libertarianism
In 1993 I wrote an article at the Cato Institute that may be relevant to the current controversy over abortion and the Supreme Court: "Dissolving the Inkblot: Privacy as a Property Right."
TGIF: What Really Protects Liberty?
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 29, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, as if we needed another demonstration, that little stands between the government and our liberty. Champions of individual freedom have been properly disturbed by how much power governments at all levels have seized since the...