Newsletter
CEI Today: Internet freedom, carbon taxes, and false health care fraud
Blog
The Great Hollywood Swindle
When is a market not a real market? When it trades in fake goods — products or services that could not exist if government didn’t…
Op-Eds
Angela Merkel’s Bismarckian Euro Diplomacy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be channeling her 19th century predecessor, Otto von Bismarck, in a striking way; engineering a diplomatic balancing act…
Daily Caller
Cyber Bill Shouldn’t Gut Private Contracts
(Written with TechFreedom president Berin Szoka) Days before August recess, Senate Democrats are scrambling to pass legislation creating a…
Daily Caller
Obama’s Jobs Council a Total Flop
When President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness last gathered in January, he boasted, “This has not been a show council. This has been…
Overlawyered
Chicken Scraps
From Overlawyered: I joined hosts Mark Newgent and Andrew Langer of RedMaryland on their BlogTalkRadio show Monday evening to talk…
Blog
Maryland’s Public Pension Debacle Is Likely to Repeat Itself
The Maryland public employee pension system announced this week that it had achieved a dismal return rate on its investments of 0.36 percent — a…
Blog
Postal Service Set To Default On Multi-Billion Dollar Retiree Payment
Openmarket.org Today, the United States Postal Service (USPS) takes one step closer toward a taxpayer bailout. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of…
Blog
Why Stop At Assault Weapons?
After the horrific events of the shooting in Aurora, countless pundits are calling for the reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban. I agree with…
Blog
Today’s Links: August 1, 2012
Blog
Postal Service Set To Default On Multi-Billion Dollar Retiree Payment
Today, the United States Postal Service (USPS) takes one step closer toward a taxpayer bailout. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the current…
Blog
EPA Attack On Asthmatics Coming To An End?
CEI warned policy makers a couple decades ago that an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) phase out of over-the-counter sales of CFC containing asthma inhalers…
Blog
Milton Friedman Turns 100
Products
Letter to Maryland State Board of Education
Full Document Available in PDF As a lawyer who used to bring civil-rights cases for a living, I am writing in opposition…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Sales tax bill, crony capitalism, and Chick-Fil-A
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 225: Boobie Pillows
Kern County, California's government takes morality very seriously. Chapter 9.12.010 of the County Code states that “No vendor shall vend stuffed articles depicting the female…
Blog
Unruly Lead Paint Rule
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently released an interesting report on regulatory impediments to job creation. Among the…
Overlawyered
Unhappy Birthday to You
Call the State National Bank of Big Spring,…
Overlawyered
State of the Web: Which vision of an ‘open Internet’ would you fight for?
The physical layer of the Internet is owned by a tight cabal of powerful corporations that includes behemoths like AT&T and Verizon Communications. During the…
National Journal
Carbon Tax: Bad Politics, Bad Policy
Carbon taxes have been in the news of late. On July 10, former GOP Congressman Bob Inglis of South Carolina launched the Energy and Enterprise…
National Review
What is NYU Going to Do?
From George Leef's post in The National Review: The furor over Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s opposition to same-sex marriage…
Overlawyered
Labor and Employment Roundup
From Overlawyered: Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains why he sees no contradiction in opposing the Employment Non-Discrimination…
Blog
Chick-Fil-A And Free Speech: New York City Council Speaker Pressures University To Punish Restaurant For Speech
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants to kick Chick-fil-A out of New York because its CEO said he opposed gay marriage. She…
Blog
Harassing Newborns And Their Mothers: Mayor Bloomberg’s Latest Overreach
The New York Post reports, “Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their baby formula behind locked doors so more new mothers will breast-feed.” When…
Blog
Miraculous Markets: Water Into Wine
Libertarians are often accused of “worshiping” the free market. But the truth is, markets can perform miracles. A car growing in Iowa? David Friedman (son…
Newsletter
Medieval global warming, threats to Internet freedom, and the Cybersecurity Act
Blog
Groupon Marketing class action settlement
There was a lot of publicity about the “$8.5 million” Groupon will pay to settle a class action over expiration dates; several class members complained…
Blog
Today in the News; July 30, 2012
Study
The Marketplace Fairness Act Would Create a State Sales Tax Cartel and Hurt Consumers
The Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832) seeks to capture more tax revenue for states on Internet purchases. Traditional retailers, states, and localities have urged Congress…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
86 new rules last week, covering everything from Florida tomatoes to tug boat races.
Daily Mail
America’s Real Choice: Cronyism or Capitalism
America appears to be at war with itself, if the Presidential campaign is anything to go by. The adverts that have saturated the airwaves over…
National Review
Sandy Weill’s About-Face on Glass-Steagall
Isn’t it something how a former Wall Street baron named as one of Time magazine’s “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis” suddenly becomes…
News Release
Internet Tax Bill Would Allow Taxation Without Representation
Washington, D.C., July 30, 2012–This Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will hold a hearing on the Marketplace Fairness Act (S.
Fortune
Google and Facebook’s new tactic in the tech wars
Fortune discusses the problem with cy pres awards and references Ted Frank for more details. The key recurring concern with any class action…
Blog
Amendment to Cybersecurity Act Would Deter Federal Government Privacy Abuses
[caption id="attachment_58589" align="alignright" width="150"] Lord Acton's beard absolutely knows that power corrupts[/caption] In the ongoing debate over the Senate’s Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (…
New York Post
Letter to the Editor: Quota-Free Classes
Kyle Smith misquoted me in his otherwise excellent column, “Political Science” (PostScript, July 15). I never said “courts have ruled that applying Title IX to…
Washington Examiner
Letter to the Editor: Pushback Against Chick-Fil-A is Illegal
Michelle Malkin was right to lament the mayor of Boston's contempt for the First Amendment. The mayor said he would block Chick-fil-A from opening a…
Blog
Maryland’s Unconstitutional School Discipline Quotas
Crimes and infractions are not evenly distributed across racial groups, as the Supreme Court noted in United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456 (1996). …
Blog
Politics In A Nutshell
Blog
Today’s Links: July 27, 2012
News Release
CEI Fellow Testifies On Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank “Unhappy” Anniversaries
Washington, D.C., July 27, 2012 – As two purported financial “reform” laws mark their anniversaries this July, CEI’s John Berlau testified two times this week…
Blog
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick One Signature Away From Health Care Mistake
Massachusetts is the latest in a string of states to transform private home health care providers into government employees. The disingenuous legislation will raise the…
Comment
Testimony on The 10th Anniversary of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act
John Berlau testifies July 26, 2012 before a House Financial Services subcommittee on the topic of the 10th anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Blog
Today’s Links: July 26, 2012
Washington Examiner
Cooperation Is What Markets Are For, Not Governments
When President Obama told a Virginia crowd last week that “if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” he was right. His…
Law Fare Blog
Ryan Radia of CEI on the Liability Exemption Provisions of Lieberman-Collins
From Paul Rosenzweig's post on Lawfare: Ryan Radia, who works for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, writes in with a few a couple of…
Law Fare Blog
President Obama’s Deportation Deferral Order Is Legal
“We will see each other down the line in litigation.” That threat was leveled by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at Department of Homeland Security (DHS)…
Law Fare Blog
Why Conservatives Must Heed Congressman Issa’s Call
In yesterday’s Atlantic interview, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa issued a conservative call to action on Internet policy: “The tech world needs us.” He’s right. Companies…
Law Fare Blog
Expanding Title IX
Hans Bader discusses the legal and practical implications of expanding Title IX. Fox News Channel's Fox&Friends, July 24, 2012…
Blog
I Never Said Title IX Was Unconstitutional, Or Only Applied To Sports, Contrary To Media Matters’ Claims
Over the years, I have often written about applications of Title IX to areas other than sports, once handled Title IX cases as a…