Blog
Is John Boehner’s Lawsuit the Best Way to Rein in the Executive Branch?
House Speaker John Boehner plans to sue President Obama over perceived abuses of the separation of powers. Over at the Daily Caller, I argue that…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn: A Human Interest Angle
The Harris v. Quinn decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court is a major human interest story. Congratulations to Pam Harris and her son, Josh, and family…
The Daily Caller
Is John Boehner’s Lawsuit The Best Way To Rein In The Executive Branch?
On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner announced plans to sue the White House for breaching the Constitution’s separation of powers. “On one matter after another…
CNN
Supreme Court narrowly limits reach of labor unions
The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, however, celebrated the ruling as a major victory. "This decision delivers a major blow to the coercive powers…
The Freebeacon
Obama Allies Court Corporate Support for Climate Regulations
Whether the administration’s proposed policies will address those impacts is another question. “It’s weird that their argument is that [anthropogenic global warming] is bad for…
News Release
Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment
Contact: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258 CEI Experts Say Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment Comments on…
Blog
Alito’s Excellent Defense of “Corporate Personhood” in Hobby Lobby
The groundbreaking decision today in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, in which the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Obamacare’s contraception mandate violates the religious freedom of two closely…
Blog
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Hobby Lobby; Religious Businesses Can Invoke RFRA
In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Supreme Court has ruled that it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) for the Department of…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
There were no major regulations this week, but more than 80 little ones, covering everything from a religious exemption to the federal tanning tax to…
News Release
Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment
CEI Experts Say Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment Comments on Today's Ruling in Harris v. Quinn…
Human Events
Expert’s Take: TV Broadcast Rights
The Supreme Court this week ruled against a television broadcast company whose business model was infringing on copyright law. Ryan Radia, associate director of technology…
Blog
What’s at Stake in Monday’s SCOTUS Decision on Harris v. Quinn
This Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to decide Harris v. Quinn, as one of the court’s last two decisions to be handed…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Number of Proposed and Final Rules in the Federal Register
This is Part 12 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
News Release
Supreme Court Unanimously Curtails Obama Overreach in Recess Appointment Powers
WASHINGTON, June 26 – Today’s Supreme Court ruling in Noel Canning v. NLRB limits the president’s ability to make recess appointments without Senate approval.
Blog
Unanimous Supreme Court Strikes Down Unconstitutional Obama “Recess” Appointments
Today, in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down President Obama’s “recess” appointment of NLRB members during a non-existent recess, saying there has to be…
Products
Forget Sharia, The New Egyptian Constitution Enshrines Socialism
Blog
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Obama NLRB Recess Appointments Unconstitutional
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court made its ruling in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. In a 9-0 vote, all justices ruled that President…
Legal Brief
CEI Joint Amicus Brief in NLRB v Canning
Full PDF Document available here …
Blog
Why the Supreme Court’s Aereo Decision Protects Creators without Endangering the Cloud
This post was coauthored by Geoffrey Manne and Ben Sperry of the International Center for Law and Economics. It originally appeared at Truth on…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Federal Register Pages Per Decade
This is Part 11 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
Blog
SEIU’s Illegal Plan to Unionize Small Businesses Imposes Heavy Costs
The SEIU has a nefarious new plan to unionize small businesses: classify franchisees as big businesses.
WBUR Boston
Supreme Court Aereo Decision Also A Blow To Boston’s Tech Sector
The media company Hearst Corporation, which owns WCVB-TV in Boston, says it is pleased with the ruling for protecting its right to be compensated. The…
News Release
Aereo Decision Protects Creators and Distributors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Annie Dwyer; 202-331-2765 WASHINGTON, June 25 – This morning, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the online-streaming company…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: A Record Number of Federal Register Final Rule Pages
This is Part 10 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
Blog
For Working Families, Joining a Union Can Be a Short-Term Fix that Causes Long-Term Harm
In a meeting strangely reminiscent of the Legion of Doom, the Obama White House, the ultra-Progressive Department of Labor, and the liberal Center for American…
Blog
Paycheck Protection in Pennsylvania Passes First Test
Paycheck Protection in Pennsylvania is finally on the move. On June 23, the bill, which would end the use of government resources to collect political…
Blog
Modern Day Organized Labor Desperately Needs Reform
When the average American thinks of a labor union, they might envision hard working, blue-collar workers who are pushing for reasonable wages, safe working conditions,…
Blog
Ex-Im’s Invitation to Corruption
When government has a lot of money and power, it is natural for people to curry its favor. It is just as natural for those…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 24, 2014: TSA Still Flouting the Law on Body Scanners
Forbes
The Rise Of Uber Should Have Politicians, Regulators And Crony Capitalists Shaking With Fear
Consumers love choice and convenience, especially when it comes to getting from point A to point B. So as Uber takes the world by storm,…
Blog
IRS May Step Up Its Attack on Free Speech of Non-Profits
Earlier, we wrote about how proposed IRS regulations would gag 501(c)(4) groups—and potentially 501(c)(3) groups like think tanks as well—by redefining non-partisan, non-election-related criticism of government officials,…
Blog
Separation of Powers Survived Today by a One-Vote Margin
My colleagues over at GlobalWarming.org are already mulling over what today’s ruling in UARG v. EPA means for the future of American industry and energy production, but there’s…
Forbes
CEI Dinner Video 2014: The Power Breakfast Club
Human Events
1984 was an Enlightening Year
This year marks a quarter century since the collapse of the Berlin Wall. And that got me to thinking about how the world has changed…
Blog
FDA’s Salt Phobia a Waste of Money
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last week plans to phase in “voluntary” reduction in the level of sodium in foods produced by manufacturers and…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Thousands of Federal Register Pages
This is Part 9 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
News Release
Supreme Court Strikes Down EPA “Tailoring Rule”
WASHINGTON, June 23 – Today, the Supreme Court ruled in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency (UARG v. EPA). The court struck down…
Products
The Cure For Regulation Destabilization
If U.S. federal regulation were a country, it’d be the tenth largest, right there between Italy and India. For the typical family that regulatory cost…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
The Federal Register topped the 35,000-page mark last week. New regulations cover everything from tariffs on foreign cheese to dental implants to fireworks shows.
News Release
CEI Appeals White House Science Office Refusal to Reexamine Polar Vortex Video
Contact: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258 CEI Appeals White House Science Office Refusal to Reexamine Polar Vortex Video Scientific Basis…
Blog
India Takes Action against Eco-Colonialism
In The Really Inconvenient Truths, I wrote about the environmentalist mantra I = PAT, where I is environmental impact, P is population, A is affluence,…
The Wall Street Journal
‘Landmark’ Case: Tenure Also Protects Good Teachers (letters)
You are right to criticize California teacher tenure and dismissal laws for making it hard to get rid of rotten teachers in places like Los…
The Hill's Congress Blog
Republicans sell out free-market principles for union favors
Co-authored with CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte. The Norwegians are coming!” That’s hardly a call to send Americans scurrying to the barricades. But if…
Blog
Union Leaders Ignore Labor History, Double Down on Partisan Politics
Samuel Gompers was the first president of the American Federation of Labor and thus one of the most important labor leaders in American history. On…
Blog
Finance for the People
Over at The Freeman, I take a look at how technology has been democratizing access to capital, bringing news ways of raising money to people…
Blog
Ex-Im Reauthorization Fight: Release the Reagan
The Export-Import Bank is up for reauthorization in September. If the vote fails in Congress, the Bank and its $140 billion portfolio will cease to…
The Freeman
Finance for the People
Financial innovation: People like to talk a lot about it these days. But what is it? If you read the business press, it’s all about…
The Blaze
Obama Admin. Is Getting Grilled About a Massive Mortgage Database That Could Be Used for Criminal Investigations
Defying conventional wisdom as he often does, Pulitzer Prize-winning pundit (and fellow Newsmax Insider) George F. Will disputed the notion that in the wake of…
The Hill
Green Group’s Unscientific Attack on Soap
NRDC claims that triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial soaps, disrupts human thyroid functioning, but that assertion is based on a shoddy study in which…
Products
Xcel Energy seeks $138 million electric rate increase
If approved by the PUC, typical residential rates would increase by $3.96 a month starting in 2015. An additional increase in 2016 and 2017, in…
Blog
One Year Later: TSA Still Flouting the Law on Body Scanners
CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte contributed to this article. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses more than 700 full-body imaging scanners in 160 airports nationwide.
Blog
Big Labor Wants to Teach Us a Lesson
Progressives and those on the extreme left probably don’t worry about unions pushing labor history courses in their kids’ schools. But the rest of us…
Blog
Questions for Richard Cordray
This morning, Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, testifies to a House Committee on the Board's semi-annual report. One of the Board's…
Personal Finance Hub
Report finds regulation compliance costs businesses $1.86 trillion
Over the past several years, think-tanks and market-related organizations have released reports that have given the United States low grades when it comes to red…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: The High Cost of Overcriminalization
This is Part 8 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014…
Products
Political Spotlight Returns to Energy Panel This Week with Votes on FERC Nominees, KXL Pipeline
Adding to the mix is Competitive Enterprise Institute, which took part in attacking Binz last year before he pulled his name for the nomination to…
Blog
Partisanship Is Ruining the NLRB
Previously in a post on The Hill's Congress Blog, I noted that Congress intended the members of the National Labor Relations Board to be "impartial"…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 17, 2014: CEI Celebrates 30 Years
Blog
Distracted by Paranoia, Obama Administration to Regulate Map Apps?
A story in The New York Times is making the rounds about an Obama administration proposal to clarify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) authority to…
Blog
Cantor’s Loss a Warning Shot to Supporters of Ex-Im Bank and Johnson-Crapo
Defying conventional wisdom as he often does, Pulitzer prize-winning pundit George F. Will disputed the notion that in the wake of the shocking primary loss…
Forbes
Can Ralph Nader Get Progressives and Libertarians to Make Common Cause?
Eighty years old and still full of piss and vinegar, Ralph Nader should perhaps add honey to his repertoire, as he attempts to woo libertarians,…
The Hill
Conservatives Turn to NSA for Help Getting White House Records
In a new twist to the surveillance debate, conservative groups are asking the National Security Agency for help obtaining phone and email records about the…
Human Events
CEI Sues the NSA
The Washington Times
DRIESSEN: What’s really behind anti-Keystone fanaticism?
Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has promised to give $100 million to anti-Keystone Democrats, and Hollywood elites are lending their support and filmmaking skills to…
Blog
Laughing All the Way to the Export-Import Bank
The Kronies are back with a video about the Export-Import Bank, one of the federal government’s largest corporate welfare programs. While the video is less than…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Seventy-nine new regulations, from olive assessments to phone calls from prison.
Blog
Liberal Defense of Unions Fails
David Macaray might just be the perfect example of a leftist who doesn’t understand economics.
Blog
60 House Republicans Vote in Favor of Union Subsidy
In light of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Internal Revenue Service scandals, many Republican congressmen have come out against the practice known as union…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 12, 2014: CEI Sues the NSA
Blog
WorkplaceChoice Video Interview Series Premiere: Cyndi Cunningham and Forced Unionization of Care Providers
Hey folks, as part of a Workplacechoice.org's video project we're putting together a series of interviews with experts in the labor policy field and those…
Products
Regulating Sex on Campus
Blog
Survey of Federal Employees: Union Official Time Wastes Taxpayer Funds
As often stated on this blog, union official time is a wasteful, massive subsidy to federal-employee unions. And somewhat surprisingly, according to FedSmith.com survey many…
The American Spectator
Exporting Solyndras?
The New York Times’ crusading columnist Joe Nocera is an unlikely supporter of crony capitalism. Yet this week he has come out unabashedly in favor of the…
Blog
Judge Rejects United Farm Workers Contract that Prohibited Decertification Elections
A major problem with current labor law is inherited unions. Research done by the Center for Union Facts has found that less than 10 percent…
Blog
Progressive Department of Labor Joins Fight against Home Care Workers
As I have said before, President Obama’s Department of Labor is a prime example of activist bureaucracy. The department’s latest escapade has been to support…
Legal Brief
Complaint filed in CEI v. NSA
The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a lawsuit against the NSA for refusing to fulfill two Freedom of Information Act requests for records pertaining to the…
Forbes
Studying the History of Feminism Might Save Feminists from Themselves
The advance of women’s rights is one of Western Civilization’s greatest triumphs. Yet, in many developing countries, women are still treated like second-class citizens. So…
News Release
CEI Sues NSA to Obtain “Destroyed” EPA Phone Records
Contact: Annie Dwyer; 202-331-2765 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2014 Competitive Enterprise Institute Sues NSA to Obtain “Destroyed” EPA Phone Records WASHINGTON…
Human Events
Government and Baseball
Have you heard the one about attending a boxing match and a hockey game breaking out? Good jokes always contain elements of truth to…
The Hill
NSA sued for EPA records
A group of conservative and environmental organizations is suing the National Security Agency (NSA) in order to obtain records about top officials at the Environmental…
Newsmax
CEI’s John Berlau: US Needs ‘Rational’ Immigration Program
Newsmax insider John Berlau, Newsmax insider and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Newsmax on Monday he feels the wave of undocumented children…
The Washington Times
Watchdog rebuffed on EPA data turns to NSA
A pro-business watchdog group sued the National Security Agency on Monday, demanding that the spy agency turn over metadata logs for some phones registered to…
Blog
Receipt Shows What Is Wrong with the Minimum Wage
In a previous post, I noted that Seattle's proposed minimum wage was already having a negative impact on job creation and that Chicago should be…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
New regulations published last week cover everything from what to call UV lamps used for tanning to the federal government’s National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.
Blog
Regulatory Improvement Commission
That idea is now captured in a bi-partisan bill in Congress. Wayne Crews and I wrote about it this week in The Washington Times:…
Blog
Ridesharing Wars: Uber, Regulators, and the “California Compromise”
Yesterday, as many in the D.C. metro area are aware, Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease-and-desist letters to Uber (PDF) and Lyft…
Newsmax
In Honor of Maya Angelou, Herb Jeffries
Blog
Right-to-Work Laws Necessary for Worker Freedom
Thirty-three fire fighters are being laid off in Reno, Nevada, after the city lost a federal grant. One of Reno’s councilmen, Dwight Dortch, charges that…
Blog
Eubank v. Pella Corporation (7th Cir. 2014)
Judge Posner writes a very interesting Seventh Circuit opinion reversing a settlement approval on multiple grounds. A lot of friends forwarded the decision to…
Blog
Good News and Bad News about Honeybees
News stories related to honeybee health the past few weeks are all over the map. Some headlines claim that new research proves that honeybees are…
Blog
Friday June 6th: Have a Doughnut for Freedom
Do you know what today is? If you said D-Day, you’d be right. But this year, June 6 also marks another, less well known occasion.
Blog
UAW Hikes Union Dues 25 percent
On Monday June 2, the UAW's four-day constitutional convention commenced. And coming out of the convention is a really unpopular decision to increase union dues…
Blog
When Hedge Funds Meet Pension Funds
Are hedge funds dangerous? Depends on who you ask — and where you look. For most investors, they’re no riskier than other assets — just…
Blog
Updated: Ohio Union Release Time
Union release time is a subsidy to public-employee unions at the state and local level, but the cost and activities are rarely available for public…
Business Insider Australia
How A ‘Bunch Of Commies’ Are Forcing The Fortune 500 To Stop Destroying Rain Forests, Overfishing, And Burning Fossil Fuels
Even Greenpeace’s detractors have taken note of the organisation’s newfound potency. Fred Smith, former president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and founder of the…
Blog
Most Transparent Administration History Won’t Release Cost of Union Subsidy
U.S. citizens should easily be able to find out how their tax dollars are spent by the federal government. Yet under the Obama administration, the…
Blog
Union Deauthorization and Recertification Gains Employees Freedom in the Workplace
In today’s highly fluid workforce, employees require the freedom to associate or disassociate with labor unions in a timely manner. But for disgruntled union employees,…
Blog
Maya Angelou, Herb Jeffries, and the Freedom to Prosper
Competitive Enterprise Institute President Lawson Bader has said, "What CEI does, on a daily basis and at its core, is to celebrate and defend…
Washington Times
A Model for Rolling Back Outdated Regulations
Very few people would argue for maintaining horse-and-buggy rules in the era of driverless cars, such as Google’s recently introduced prototype. Most rules still manage…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 3, 2014: EPA Proposes Major Carbon Emission Regulation
Senior Fellow William Yeatman breaks down a proposed EPA regulation intended to significantly reduce carbon emissions in the U.S.