Blog
Chuck Schumer’s Unconstitutional Money-Wasting Machine
If you wanted a counterterrorism technology that could match Amtrak in terms of derailments, you couldn’t do much better than to use “stand-off explosive detection…
Blog
Is Administrative Law Unlawful?
Philip Hamburger's book Is Administrative Law Unlawful? will remind readers that much of modern bureaucracy violates the careful separation of powers that the Framers wrote into…
Blog
CEI Asks Supreme Court to Review Ulbricht Conviction
CEI has joined an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the conviction of Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a life sentence…
Reason
National I.D. By Any Other Name Still Stinks
Reason covers the release of a new report published by the Cato Institute and authored by Jim Harper. There have been many pushes to…
Study
The New National ID Systems
View Full Document as PDF The past few years have seen growing awareness and concern about U.S. government surveillance of the American…
Blog
Increasing Public Awareness Bolsters Potential for Blockchain Applications
Blockchain is a software architecture that seems very likely to unleash profound global forces if it crosses over into the mainstream.
Blog
Supreme Court Should Safeguard Rights to Digital Property in Microsoft Case
The Court should recognize that communications and data are property, and cut off the “innovative” use of subpoenas to collect data that should require a…
News Release
CEI Files Brief in Microsoft Supreme Court Case, Argues for Consumer Privacy Protections
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) filed a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of the respondent in United States v.
Bloomberg Politics
China Uses Facial Recognition to Fence In Villagers in Far West
Bloomberg Politics discusses new surveillance technology being tested in China with Jim Harper. China’s state surveillance apparatus is trying out a new tool in…
The New York Times
Blockchain or Blockheads? Bitcoin Mania Mints Believers and Skeptics
John Schwartz, writing for The New York Times, discusses Bitcoin with Jim Harper. Sometimes life shows you what absurd really…
Bloomberg Politics
Bitcoin Falls Into Gray Area of Disclosure Rules for Congress
Bloomberg Politics discusses Bitcoin with Jim Harper. To guard against insider trading and financial conflicts, members of Congress and federal officials must file regular…
The Washington Post
Bitcoin Got a Big Boost in 2017. Here are 5 Other Cryptocurrencies to Watch in 2018.
The Washington Post discusses cryptocurrencies with Jim Harper. Mainstream investors spent much of last year trying to figure out how to jump in on …
Blog
Bitcoin’s Wonderful, Awful Year
Will Bitcoin’s social capital grow to justify the current high price?…
Blog
Digital Finance Pioneers Using Bitcoin for Savings, Payments,…and Donations
Your support for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, given in Bitcoin or dollars, can help us strengthen the hand of the businesses that offer a revolution…
CoinDesk
Victory Lap? 2017 Was Bitcoin’s Backwards Year
2017 was another gloriously miserable year for bitcoin. As in 2016, gains in the price of bitcoin belie deep deficits in the cryptocurrency world.
Blog
Economics Will Be Our Ruination, Bitcoin Edition—and Some Notes on Securing Your Cryptocurrency
Asked about Bitcoin last week, economics Nobel laureate and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz said, among other gems, “It ought to be outlawed. It…
Blog
Court Orders Coinbase to Turn over Cryptocurrency User Data to IRS
Congress should revisit the law to protect privacy and due process in IRS investigations.
Blog
Supreme Court can Strike a Victory for Privacy in Carpenter v. United States
The “reasonable expectation of privacy” test invites courts into difficult line-drawing exercises when they try to apply the Fourth Amendment in hard cases.
The Wall Street Journal
Is It Unreasonable to Expect Cellphone Privacy?
A case that comes before the Supreme Court Wednesday may erode or solidify Justice Antonin Scalia’s legacy. How the justices decide in Carpenter v. U.S. won’t matter…
Blog
Framework for a Free Society: Celebrating the Ideas of Bruno Leoni
People can manage their affairs, even drawing and administering the lines between right and wrong, without legislators and bureaucrats.
News Release
CEI Comments on White House Call to End Social Security Numbers
CEI Vice President Jim Harper commented on the White House’s call for the end of social security numbers in light of the recent Equifax…
InsideSources
Three Early Lessons From the Equifax Hack
InsideSources covers the Equifax breach and Jim Harper‘s response to it. It’s been almost two weeks since Equifax reported the hack of 143…
Blog
The Equifax Breach and Regulation
In the Equifax breach, regulation is a likely contributor to the problem. It is probably not a good solution.
News Release
Equifax Data Breach Evidence that Congress Should Deregulate Credit Reporting
Competitive Enterprise Institute Vice President Jim Harper commented on the Equifax data breach. “When Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act forty-five years ago,…
News Release
Privacy Extends to Cell Phone Data, Argues CEI Amicus Brief in Carpenter v. U.S.
Friday the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed an amicus brief in Carpenter v. United States, a Supreme Court case centered on whether or not a warrant…
Blog
Defending 4th Amendment Privacy Protections for Digital Property
People have property rights in data about themselves that is allocated by contract between them and their service providers.
News Release
CEI Files Amicus Brief in Bitcoin Privacy Case
CEI filed an amicus brief in U.S. v. Coinbase, a case dealing with Bitcoin and user information. CEI’s brief argues that the IRS should not be…
CoinDesk
Think Tank Attacks IRS Subpoena in Coinbase Tax Dispute
CoinDesk covers CEI’s amicus brief filing in United States v. Coinbase. Opposition to the IRS effort to obtain user information from cryptocurrency exchange…
Fox Business Network
VIDEO: Jim Harper Discusses NSA Spying on Kennedy
Jim Harper, Vice President of CEI, discusses NSA spying on Fox Business Network’s Kennedy.
Blog
For the Sake of Financial Privacy, IRS Subpoena of Coinbase Should Go
Our brief in United States v. Coinbase might have a lot to say about what the future of financial privacy looks like.
SCOTUSblog
Symposium: Granular Analysis Versus Doctrine in Carpenter
The outcome of Carpenter v. United States will turn on how granular the Supreme Court is in analyzing what happens when government agents require…
Blog
Protect Free Speech Guarantees of Communications Decency Act
If operators of websites were responsible for what each of their users posted online, they could be on the hook for every potential defamation, infliction…
Coindesk
Understanding Bitcoin’s Scaling Debate: Politics Comes First
Software programmers are usually collegial and collaborative, but parts of the bitcoin developer community are currently displaying the kind of acrimony familiar to political capitols…
Coindesk
‘Bitcoin Sign Guy’ Has a New Job, But He’s Keeping His Identity Secret
Coindesk discusses Bitcoin Sign Guy’s new job at CEI with his boss Jim Harper. It’s been a tumultuous week since the man known as…
Blog
‘Bitcoin Sign Guy’ Joins CEI
Bitcoin Sign Guy rankled Congress and delighted the cryptocurrency community last week.
Blog
Don’t Follow the Money
The July/August issue of Foreign Affairs has an excellent article by Professor Peter Neumann of King’s College London entitled: “Don’t Follow the Money: The Problem with…
Fox Business Network
VIDEO: Jim Harper Discusses the TSA’s new book policy on Fox Business
June 26, 2017 – Jim Harper, Vice President of CEI, discusses a new TSA policy requiring passengers to exclude books from carry-ons on Fox Business’…
Blog
Arguments Against Cash Economy Bolster Government Power
The way people spend money and time reveals what they truly value.
Fox Business Network
VIDEO: Jim Harper Discusses NSA Leak on Fox Business Network
Jim Harper, Vice President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discusses a recent NSA Leak with Kennedy on Fox Business Network.
News Release
CEI Responds to SCOTUS Acceptance of Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking Case
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear a case determining whether law enforcement should require a warrant to track suspects through cell phone…
Government Technology
Tech Will Require Continued Adjustment and Definition Within the Law, Experts Say
Government Technology covers a panel held on April 10 at the National Constitution Center featuring Jim Harper, Vice President of CEI. During an…
Coin Desk
Bitcoin Needs More Politics, Not Less
Two years ago today, politics invaded the world of bitcoin development. It’s been non-stop controversy ever since. But Gavin Andresen’s essay series, “Time to…
InsideSources
Help the World’s Poor with a Bitcoin and Blockchain Future
In this age of virtual reality and talk of space elevators and head transplants, it can be hard to know what is real versus “fake…
Blog
Technology and Process Failures at TSA
The Transportation Security Administration has a history of tripping over itself to rush out technologies that are ill-considered and invasive.
Citation
VIDEO: Jim Harper Discusses U.S. Surveillance Laws on Fox Business
CEI technology policy expert and Vice President Jim Harper joined Kennedy on Fox Business to discuss U.S. surveillance laws and the vote on extending the Foreign Intelligence…
Blog
National Security Is No Argument against Regulatory Reform
On the Lawfare blog, Professor Ganesh Sitaraman of Vanderbilt Law School and the Center for American Progress offers an argument about regulatory reform that…
Blog
New York’s “BitLicense” on Trial
A lawsuit again New York's “BitLicense” regulation is challenging the state's targeting of Bitcoin-based businesses.
Comment
Testimony to Alaska Senate Committee on REAL ID Act (SB34)
Blog
States Should Resist Pressure to Implement REAL ID Act
National requirements for state ID cards are an abuse of the constitutional division of power between the states and the federal government.
Comment