Blog
FTC Likely to Approve Office Depot, Office Max Merger
According to news sources, the Federal Trade Commission is likely to approve the merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax, the second- and third-largest office…
Blog
Public Pensions Are Not Property
Across the nation, state and local governments in dire financial straits face great difficulty in their efforts to bring their budgets under control. Pensions are…
Blog
Sugar Policy Drives Out Candy Companies
“Cheaper sugar sends candy makers abroad” says a headline in today’s Wall Street Journal (gated). The article noted that increasingly U.S. candy makers are…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obamacare in court, NLRB nominee, and America’s credit rating
Blog
J.P. Morgan Settlement Rips Off Taxpayers and Investors, Punishes Some Alleged Victims
Recently, The Washington Post reported that J.P.Morgan will pay $13 billion to settle lawsuits against it by the federal government and two…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 3 new regulations. Two Coast Guard safety zones and a catch limit for herring.
Citation
How to Fix Too Big to Fail
As the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out in its constitutional challenge to Dodd-Frank, Title I of the law gives the FSOC the ability to…
Citation
Obamacare’s Next Bout: More Legal Challenges
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) took the primary lead in finding funding and potential plaintiffs, as well as coordinating future…
Human Events
Football Team’s Name Is No Business of Congress or the President
Human Events
Health Law Faces New Legal Challenges
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, is coordinating the suits and helping with their legal costs, a spokeswoman said…
Human Events
Cuts can be made, but politicians have to want to make them
The program costs $9 billion annually and really should be eliminated since crop insurance is commercially available. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, even a…
Blog
Loosened Laws in New Jersey Result in Brewery Boom
Only a year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that would allow breweries in the garden state to sell beer…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Financial privacy, IMF wealth confiscation, and Dems against Obama on airline merger
Legal Brief
Halbig V Sebelius – Government’s Memorandum in Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
Plaintiffs’ Proposed Order Granting Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
Plaintiffs’ Exhibits in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction
Legal Brief
Affordable Care Act Lawsuit – October 4 Reply Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction and/or Summary Judgment
Full Document Available in PDF At long last, the Government has filed a brief defending the IRS Rule on the merits. (Dkt.
Legal Brief
Affordable Care Act Lawsuit – October 4 Supplemental Declaration in Support of Preliminary Injunction
Full Document Available in PDF In my declaration of August 5, 2013, I attested that I did not wish to purchase comprehensive…
Blog
Costly Anti-Bullying Programs Backfire
Countless tax dollars have been spent on anti-bullying programs, and 49 states have anti-bullying laws. After New Jersey passed a broad anti-bullying law, hundreds of schools…
National Review
Grilling the Park Service Bullies
The Park Service closed the City Tavern in Philadelphia, a meeting place for those who signed the Declaration of Independence, even though the tavern, at…
News Release
Update: Judge Refuses to Dismiss Affordable Care Act Lawsuit
UPDATED, Oct. 22 – The judge has rejected the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 – A federal judge will hear motions…
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 17, 2013: Supreme Court to Review EPA Carbon Emission Regulation Lawsuit
CEI is a co-petitioner in the case.
Products
Freedom of Information Act Requests on Official Time During Government Shutdown
The following are Freedom of Information Act requests seeking documents related…
Blog
Controversial NLRB General Counsel Nomination Vote Approaching
Now that the partial government shutdown is over, its back to business as usual. As such, the Senate will tackle the controversial nomination of Richard…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Fitch downgrade, EPA greenhouse gas rule, and Park Service barricades
Blog
More than a Third of House Dems Oppose Obama’s American-US Airways Merger Lawsuit; What Real Pro-Competition Policy Looks Like
Bipartisan opposition to the Obama administration’s reckless assault on the pending merger of American Airlines and US Airways is growing. While the end of the…
Blog
The Shutdown Is Over: What Now for Regulation?
The next day or two will also be slow ones for the Federal Register. But then there will be a flood of new rules as…
National Review
Regulatory overreach is the new normal
The Federal Register lists proposed and final rules, notices, corrections and presidential documents. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 1939 Federal Register was 2,620…
National Review
Regulating The Citizenry: What Really Happened During The Partial Government Shutdown
During the partial government shutdown, other agencies were also busy regulating the American people. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute reports, the federal government set…
Tulsa World
Energy conference speakers blast regulations
William Yeatman, an energy policy analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he opposes regulation that serves no public health benefit and only gratifies a…
Blog
Gmail’s Targeted Advertising Accused of Being Wiretapping: Part 2
As I stated in my previous article, a federal court is currently hearing a lawsuit challenging Google’s “targeted advertising” practices. The plaintiffs claim the…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Barricading memorials & businesses, Supreme Court to hear global warming case, and regulation during shutdown
Comment
Testimony on NPS Closures Before House Oversight and Natural Resources Committees
Full Document Available in PDF Chairman Issa and Chairman Hastings, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the National Park…
Fox News
Balance is not bias — Fox News critics mislead public on climate change
In George Orwell’s novel, "1984," the totalitarian state (“Big Brother”) demands blind belief in falsehoods that literally stand the truth on its head: War Is…
News Release
Hearing Today Examines Conduct of National Park Service During Shutdown
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Today at 9:30 a.m., the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a…
News Release
New York Court Hears Lawsuit Challenging Energy Tax Boondoggle
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 – A lawsuit in state court Thursday challenges carbon emissions regulations that will drive up electricity prices in New York. The…
Forbes
The International Monetary Fund Lays The Groundwork For Global Wealth Confiscation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report. Titled “Taxing Times,” the report paints a dire picture for…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Shutdown Continues, but Government Remainds Bloated
Blog
How Is the Shutdown Affecting Regulation?
Short answer: not much. Over at the Daily Caller, I go over some data from this shutdown, as well as the two Gingrich-Clinton showdowns.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Shutdown edition: 6 new regulations, from Basel III to bridge repair.
Blog
Judge Rules Federal Government Cannot Close County Park in Shutdown
Earlier, I wrote about the federal government's use of the federal government shutdown as an excuse to close many private businesses. Those were businesses that lease…
Forbes
Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge To Sweeping EPA Carbon Rules
The appeal was supported by the U.S. Chamber, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Southeastern Legal Foundation as well as companies like coal…
Time
Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to EPA Climate Regulations
But there’s no doubt that this case will be a test for the Obama Administration and its green allies—and an opportunity for industry groups and…
CBN
Who Shut Down the Parks? Memorial Closures Probed
The Competitive Enterprise Institute says the Obama administration has gone too far in its implementation of the shutdown. Shutting…
Human Events
How the Shutdown Can Inform the Debt Ceiling Debate
Co-authored by George Landrith. It’s all-shutdown-all-the-time in Washington these days. But all that talk has obscured the far bigger challenge facing the nation next week,…
Cleveland
Los Angeles Times riles climate-change skeptics by banning letters: A Closer Look (poll)
But Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a leading global-warming skeptic, tells the Washington…
Daily Caller
‘Why now?’ Fitch’s downgrade threat raises questions
“My question is ‘Why now?’” John Berlau, an economist at the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I just have…
News Release
High Court Accepts EPA Global Warming Cases, Including SELF/CEI Petition
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — The Supreme Court announced today it would review EPA’s massive set of greenhouse gas regulations for stationary sources. The Court granted…
Blog
October 15
Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will announce orders relating to two cert petitions we filed (with substantial and critically necessary pro bono assistance) that it…
Human Events
Obama, Father of all Czars
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution states: No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States[.] But when George…
Daily Caller
How the shutdown is impacting regulation
For the seventeenth time since current budgeting rules were adopted in 1976, the federal government is shut down. Seventeen years of relative peace have devolved…
Blog
Enviro Scare Tactics Undermine Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is “breast cancer awareness month” thanks to a collaborative campaign arranged by public and private groups united in the mission to fight breast…
Blog
“Ingratitude” at Tesla Motors?
Mother Jones’ profile of Elon Musk and Tesla Motors trots out a familiar story about industrial policy’s role in the success of infant…
Blog
Don’t Believe the Hype: Your Food Is as Safe as Ever
Supporters of big government are taking advantage of a Salmonella outbreak linked to raw chicken to condemn Republican lawmakers and…
Blog
Shut Down Fannie and Freddie Permanently
Cross-posted from Newsbusters.org “U.S. Government Shutdown Threatening Housing Recovery,” screams the Oct. 2 headline of a shutdown scare screed in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Wade…
Blog
Are California Droughts Natural or Man Made?
A ongoing battle in court and public opinion rages in California over the environmental status of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (both rivers meet, and…
Fox News
Memo to Al Gore — IPCC Report Confirms the “Planetary Emergency” is Over
Is global warming a looming catastrophe that will destroy life as we know it unless America and the world rapidly wean themselves off deadly fossil…
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 10, 2013: CEI Files FOIA Requests Over Park Closures
Blog
More Myths About the Government Shutdown
Young people often don't realize that government shutdowns used to be common, until the middle of the Clinton administration. The George W. Bush presidency was an exception…
Comment
FOIA Requests to Agencies on Government Shutdown Policies
During the government shutdown in October, 2013, executive branch agencies such as the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service, aggressively barricaded public access to…
Human Events
Obama’s Brinkmanship
We all remember the term “brinkmanship” from the Cold War, coined by President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. In an interview in Life…
Human Events
Regulatory scrutiny must be part of a deal
We all know how this is going to end. A deal will be made. Both sides will claim victory. Their bases will claim they sold…
News Release
CEI FOIA Requests Probe National Park Service Shutdown Decision-Making
Washington, D.C., October 10, 2013—In the wake of National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service crackdowns on private businesses and closures of open-air memorials and overviews…
News Release
Ten Questions for Janet Yellen
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 – Janet Yellen is President Obama’s choice to succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chair. She has extensive experience with the Federal…
Human Events
Raising the Federal Gas Tax
Marc Scribner Discusses the Fuel Tax on Fox Business…
Newsletter
CEI Today: GMO labeling, US #1 oil/gas producer, and planetary emergency cancelled
Blog
Gmail’s Targeted Advertising Accused of Being Wiretapping: Part 1
It has long been widely known that Google uses software that scans its users’ Gmail messages to generate targeted advertising. Recently,…
Blog
Boston Bus Drivers Illegal Strike
On October 8, hundreds of Boston Public School union bus drivers went on a surprise strike, which left nearly 33,000 kids without a ride to…
News Release
Yellen Pick Shows Left Unconcerned With Value of The Dollar, CEI Analysts Say
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 – Janet Yellen, now vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, has been selected by President Obama to lead the Fed. She is said…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Planetary emergency cancelled, union bosses paid during shutdown, and vindictive park closures
Blog
Obama Administration Memo: Keep Paying Union Bosses on Official Time
Over the weekend, the House unanimously passed the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act. If passed by the Senate, all furloughed federal employees will receive…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Obama shuts down tourist attractions, new regs put on hold, too, and what’s the planet’s biggest problem?
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
113 new regulations, from drawbridge schedules to viticultural areas.
Human Events
Shutdown? What shutdown?
Capital Research
The EPA’s War Against the States: States are supposed to lead in fighting pollution, but federal bureaucrats have usurped the states’ role
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Congress intended the Environmental Protection Agency to work closely with state and local officials—those nearest to…
The Hill
Shutdown halts federal regs
“We’re very pleased that the Obama administration’s ongoing efforts to wreck the U.S. economy with more and more heavy-handed and colossally expensive regulations has been…
Washington Examiner
Obama White House closing private businesses to add pain to government shutdown
Obama administration officials are using the government shutdown as an excuse to shut down privately-run tourist attractions, even though doing so costs the government far…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Twitter IPO aided by JOBS Act, Obama barricades tourist sites, and EPA destruction of public records
Blog
Some Genuine Vindictiveness in Park Closings
The Washington Times story on the attempted forced shut down of the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina may provide some…
Blog
Obama Administration Unnecessarily Shuts Down Many Private Businesses in Government “Shutdown”
PJ Media's Bryan Preston reported Wednesday that the "White House [is] ordering hundreds of privately run, private funded parks to close," using the government…
Blog
Selfishness Underlies the Shutdown, At Home and Abroad
Americans aren’t the only ones talking about government shutdown this week. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi almost collapsed Italy’s government on Wednesday by threatening…
Blog
Twitter IPO a Vindication of Bipartisan JOBS Act
Almost two years ago, I wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled, "Making It Legal to Tweet for Investors." In the op-ed, I described bipartisan bills…
Washington Examiner
Kansas Supreme Court reverses permit granted to Sunflower coal plant
Brian McNicoll, senior communications director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which advocates limited government, said experts at his think tank believe that if the new…
News Release
Twitter – and Investors – Gain from JOBS Act Regulatory Relief
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 – In its much-anticipated initial public offering filing released Thursday night, Twitter unveiled a company with some room for growth – much…
Blog
CEI Podcast for October 3, 2013: The Federal Shutdown
Blog
Regulators and Justice
The federal government cajoled JP Morgan into acquiring Bear Stearns. Now they are punishing JP Morgan for crimes allegedly committed by Bear Stearns prior to…
Blog
Obama Administration Uses “Government Shutdown” as Pretext to Block Access to Tourist Attractions
News Release
CEI Suit Seeks Injunction Against Ongoing EPA Record Destruction
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 – Attorneys with the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit Thursday to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from destroying senior officials’ records, a…
Daily Caller
Lawyers: Private parks should sue Obama administration for forcing them to close
“As a lawyer who once worked for the government, I assume there is no legal authority for this because these private tourist attractions were not…
Daily Caller
Labor analyst: Volkswagen workers claim ‘misled’ by UAW
Matt Patterson, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says the issue is important because, if it’s true, it would “significantly compromise” the union’s chances…
Blog
NYC Rubber Rooms Still Packed
Just three years ago, New York City Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers publicly heralded a deal to end "rubber rooms," the reassignment…
Legal Brief
CEI v. EPA – Sept 11 Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment in Richard Windsor Lawsuit
Full Document Available in PDF Defendant’s motion for summary judgment should be rejected, because it has not complied with this…
Blog
Regulatory Transparency Is Decidedly Lacking
The Office of Management and Budget reviewed a grand total of 47 regulations last year, or a little more than 1 percent of the total.
Blog
Please, Think of the Pandas!
Daily Caller
Environmentalists blame GOP for government shutdown
“This is a totally phony complaint that comes up every time there is a federal shutdown or threat of a shutdown,” Myron Ebell, director of…
Washington Times
The real cost of federal regulations
When the news broke that the National Security Agency has been monitoring Americans’ communications, the Obama administration was reluctant to discuss if it…
Washington Times
Government Shutdown, Italian Style
Misery loves company, goes the old saying. And in the face of government shutdown, America is not entirely alone. Head to Italy and the average…
News Release
Congress Should End Wind Energy Tax Handout
Washington, DC, Oct. 2, 2013 – Absent action by Congress, the federal Wind Production Tax Credit will expire at the end of this year, but…
Blog
Marek v. Lane cert petition in the Wall Street Journal
In The Wall Street Journal, David Rivkin and Lee Casey write about Marek v. Lane, arguing that it’s time to end class-action settlements…
Blog