Almost 10 years ago the free-speech champion Trevor Timm, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the time and now with the Free of the Press Foundation, implored readers "to stop using the ‘fire in a crowded theater’ quote" to justify limits on free expression....
Justice

TGIF: Abortion Rights v. Abortion Permissions
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 1, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Even if you cringe at last week's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, it would be wrong to say that the five Supreme Court justices took away women's right to have abortions. I say this because the Supreme Court, unfortunately, never actually recognized a...
Substantive Due Process
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 28, 2022 | Blog, Justice
[T]he conservatives reject substantive due process, which they see as a contradiction in terms that authorizes judges to legislate. If the term sounds odd, it would be odder still to dismiss the idea. As Roger Pilon writes, “By ‘law’ [in due process of law] the...
Privacy and the Constitution
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 27, 2022 | Blog, Justice, Libertarianism
"[B]oth the [']liberals['] and the conservatives misunderstand privacy. The conservatives engage in a narrow and unnatural reading of the Constitution in order to avoid seeing what they do not wish to see, while the [']liberals['] find in the Constitution not...
TGIF: Parents Should Govern Their Kids’ Education
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 24, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
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...
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...