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End Federal Pressure for Racial Quotas in Special Education
No child should be barred based on her race from a public education program needed to address her learning disabilities or educational deficits. But the…
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Education Department Withdraws “Dear Colleague” Letter Restricting Student and Faculty Rights
The Education Department recently withdrew two famous examples of regulatory “dark matter” issued during the Obama administration.
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The Never-Ending Title IX Investigation
Los Angeles lawyer Ken White notes that a professor is being “investigated for writing about being investigated for writing about being investigated.” This Title…
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Civil Rights Experts Issue Report on Unjustified Federal Meddling in Education
The Obama administration attempted to micromanage educational institutions by imposing new rules that never went through the legally-prescribed rulemaking process.
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Ohio Drug Price Initiative Gives Taxpayer Money to Unnecessary Lawyers
Lawyers and allied interest groups have long enriched themselves at taxpayers’ expense. But usually, it has been by bringing lawsuits, not defending them.
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Education Secretary Takes Aim at Federal College Discipline Rules
The Education Department may withdraw legal guidance regarding sexual assault and harassment on colleges campuses.
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Economic Growth Rose to 3 Percent in Second Quarter of 2017
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the second quarter. That was significantly higher than the 2.7 percent expected.
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White House Suspends EEO-1 Form that Cost Businesses $400 Million to Gather Wage Data
On August 29, the White House suspended a burdensome reporting requirement for employers that would have cost them $400 million while yielding information…
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$15 Minimum Wage Could Cost 47,000 Jobs in a Single U.S. County
The Washington Post has “sobering news for $15 minimum-wage boosters.”…
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Democrats Peddle Job-Killing Proposal in ‘Better Deal’ Blueprint
A $15 national minimum wage would eliminate more than 7 million jobs, according to a 2016 study.
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Restore Economic Opportunity by Repealing Occupational Licensing Rules
To increase growth, we need to get rid of some of the unnecessary barriers to economic opportunity that have arisen in recent years – such…
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A Failed Defense of Federal Meddling in College Discipline
For an unelected federal bureaucrat to dictate the burden of proof at colleges across the country is disturbing.
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Seattle Minimum Wage Hike Shrinks Workers’ Incomes
A credible new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals, notes Max Ehrenfreud at The Washington Post’s Wonkblog. The City…
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Proposed Education Department Cuts Are Long Overdue
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Cut Crime By Repealing Useless Occupational Licensing Regulations
Many occupations that pose no special risks or need for regulation are off-limits to people who have criminal convictions, or never committed a crime, but…
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Emoluments Clause Does Not Ban Sales to Foreigners
The Constitution is not hostile to the free market or international trade. Indeed, many…
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Justice Department Ends Diversion of Federal Settlements to Left-Wing Groups
Attorney General Session Sessions has prohibited Justice Department lawyers from diverting legal settlement funds to special interest groups outside the government.
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Laptop Bans Harm Tourism and Airlines
Banning laptop computers from airplane cabins could not only harm safety, but also the tourism industry.
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TSA Delays Transatlantic Laptop Ban, Which CEI Questioned in Petition
On May 31, the Secretary of Homeland Security said the TSA “might” still impose a ban on transatlantic flights in the future.
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Congress Should Repeal Overbroad College Harassment Rules
The Clinton/Obama demands completely ignored the very purpose of a university, which is to follow wherever the truth may lead, even when that offends people.
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Powerful Officials, Like the Director of the CFPB, Should Be Democratically Accountable
While a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled against the CFPB’s constitutionality, the full appeals court will re-hear arguments in the case on May…
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Left-wing Groups Attack Civil Rights Official for Enforcing Civil Rights Act
Civil rights laws do not contain exceptions for particular races, much less countenance segregation.
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Justice Department Disability Demands Raise Serious Free Speech Issues
The Justice Department’s demands exceeded its authority under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Legal Reformers Call for Repeal of Race-Based School Discipline Guidance
Two legal foundations are calling for an end to federal pressure on school districts to adopt racial quotas in suspensions. And rightly so: It…
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Appeals Court Revives Fair Housing Act ‘Blog Post Harassment’ Lawsuit
A recent ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals menaces free speech in condominiums, apartment buildings, and the Internet.
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White House Should Expand Budget Cuts to Additional Agencies
President Trump’s proposed budget blueprint rightly eliminates funding for many agencies, but there are additional candidates for cuts.
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Manhattan Institute Study of NYC Schools Shows Harm from Flawed Legal Standards
The Manhattan Institute's Max Eden examines the flawed legal standards used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in a new study.
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Federal Disability Order Limits Public Access to Educational Content
A demand from the Justice Department over disability access means that the public will soon lose access to thousands of college lectures.
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Congress Should Rein in Free Speech Violations with Budget Cuts
Congress should trim the budget of rogue agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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California Supreme Court Quotes CEI Victory in Government Transparency Decision
The California Supreme Court has just ruled that when a government employee uses a personal email account to communicate about public business, those emails “may be subject…
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Trump Budget Cuts Encouraging, Pentagon Increases Questionable
President Trump should reduce expecting spending on defense in order to boost long-term economic growth.
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Federal Workplace Officials Using Un-‘Reasonable’ Legal Standard on Harassment
The primary winners from defining harassment very broadly are trial lawyers, not minority employees.
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Education Department Should Reassert Proper Scope for Title IX Discrimination Rules
Under President Obama, the U.S. Department of Education illegitimately stretched its legal authority to police gender inequality on college campuses.
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Dept. of Education Should End ‘Double Jeopardy’ Complaint Provision
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights should end complaint procedures that violate an accused individual's right against double jeopardy.
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End Federal Micromanagement of College Discipline Under Title IX
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Economic Freedom in the U.S. Fell Last Year Due to Rising Regulatory and Tax Burdens
The United States recently slipped to its lowest level yet in world rankings of economic freedom compiled by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall…
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Trump May Suspend Obama-era Rules on Conflict Minerals
The Dodd-Frank Act’s conflict-minerals rules backfired, and caused malnutrition, misery, and violence in the eastern Congo.
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Hans Rosling, Antidote to Pessimism, Dies at 68
Hans Rosling, the Swedish doctor and professor who saved countless lives in the world’s poorest countries (and gave TED talks), has died of pancreatic cancer.
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False Claim about Nominee Gorsuch Highlights Need for Rigorous Fact-Checking
People will believe silly things when it fits their ideological preconceptions, as in the case this week of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
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Nestlé, Other Businesses Flee California
Poor economic policy is negatively impacting job prospects in the Golden State.
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Trump ‘2-for-1’ Executive Order Could Save Lives
Many federal regulations harm health and safety, so President Trump’s executive order requiring “agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue”…
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DeVos Hearing Generates Misleading Attacks on Civil Liberties Group FIRE
Betsy DeVos, who was recently nominated to be the next Secretary of Education, has been attacked because she and her husband reportedly made donations to a civil-liberties…
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Wasteful Spending, Minimum Wage Hike Fuel California Budget Deficit
California’s projected budget deficit is rising, but that could have been avoided by curtailing wasteful spending.
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Death Rate Rose and Life Expectancy Recently Fell in America
The death rate increased 1.2% last year, and life expectancy fell in 2015, the most recent year for which data is available.
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Fidel Castro, Longtime Dictator of Cuba, Dies
The longtime dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, died Friday at the age of 90.
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Another Court Ruling Confirms IRS Illegally Targeted Tea Party and Conservative Groups
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Obamacare Policies Are Costly and Unpopular
Obamacare policies are unpopular, and people often dump them months later.
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Obamacare Punishes Hard Work
It’s perverse to drive up the costs of someone’s health insurance—and then punish them for working two jobs to pay for that health insurance. But…
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Obamacare Increases Premiums, Reduces Employment
Health care insurance premiums will increase significantly next year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and many consumers will be left with access…
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Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane Sentenced to Prison
ABC’s Channel 27 reports that “Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been sentenced to 10 to 23 months in prison for leaking grand jury…
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Due Process for My Cronies, But Not For You
The concept of “mens rea” – or requiring proof of a “guilty mind” – helps protect due process in a world where people are subject…
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Government’s Speech Double Standards
Thanks to overbearing government, there are huge double standards when it comes to free speech. Rulings of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) force employers…
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Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill, for the Fourth Time
Three times in the past, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have provided funding to fight Zika, and suspended certain regulations (it would have…
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Sexual Harassment Regulation Expands Federal Bureaucracy
Writing in the California Law Review, Harvard Law School professors Jeannie Suk and Jacob Gersen note that “Today we have an elaborate and growing federal…
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Obama Administration Attacks ‘Reasonableness’ and ‘Common Sense’ in Sex Harassment Investigations
The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that not all sexual flirtation or interaction constitutes sexual harassment, and that whether conduct is bad enough to amount…
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Destroying the Marketplace in Education
The federal government happily subsidizes awful state colleges that graduate few if any of their students.
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EEOC to Gadsden Flag Lovers: Shut Up or Face Costly Lawsuits
Libertarian think tanks have been known to distribute lapel pins that display the Gadsden flag, reading “Don’t Tread on Me.”…
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Senate Democrats Block Anti-Zika Bill Yet Again
Democrats in the Senate have blocked a bill that would have provided federal funds to combat the spread of the Zika virus, reports The Hill.
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Obamacare Shrinks Economy through Medicaid Expansion and Tax Credit Cliffs
Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid reduced employment in those states that participated in it by a statistically significant extent, according to a recent study by Georgetown’s…
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D.C. Government’s Transgender Guide Pressures Businesses to Violate Free Speech
The District of Columbia is now pressuring businesses to violate free speech in bizarre ways in the name of transgender rights.
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Democrats Block Zika Funding Bill
“Democrats block Zika funding bill, blame GOP,” reports Politico.
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Supreme Court Upholds Race-Based Social Engineering in Fisher v. University of Texas
Today, the Supreme Court upheld the University of Texas’s race-based admissions policy, which discriminates against white and Asian applicants.
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Climate Change Witch-Hunt Expands to Include More Innocent Victims, As Conservative AGs Object
A climate-change witchhunt is expanding to include conservative groups that have never received a penny from Exxon. Attorney General Maura Healey is part of a…
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Are Anti-Science Obama Administration Policies Fostering Zika?
Former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey, who chairs the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, says the Obama administration is fostering Zika’s spread through anti-science…
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Lawsuit Challenges Education Department Overreaching in College Discipline
A lawsuit was filed yesterday challenging a 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter in which the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights ordered many of the nation’s…
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Obama’s Central Planning for Preschools Is Overreaching
A June 13th Washington Post article touts a recent document issued jointly by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services that announcing that…
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Attorney General Schneiderman’s Lame Defense of Speech-Chilling Climate Change Investigation
When a government official quotes a dissenting opinion that was on the losing side of history to justify a speech-chilling investigation, that’s a pretty clear…
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Politically Correct Transgender Pronoun Mandates Violate First Amendment
The First Amendment is being violated by recent government demands that people use pronouns others than “he” and “she” to refer to their transgender peers.
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Obama Administration Fosters Zika through Red Tape
Zika’s spread is being aided by red tape the Obama administration left unchanged, even as it illegally diverted money needed to fight Zika to…
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Obama Illegally Diverts Money Needed to Fight Zika to UN
President Obama raided $500 million needed to fight the Zika virus, and instead illegally gave it to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund. Sen. James…
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First Amendment Forbids Ideological Discrimination in Protecting Rallies
Anti-Trump demonstrators beat up Trump supporters outside a Trump rally in San Jose, California this week, while police initially did nothing but watch. As Buzzfeed…
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Attorney General Lynch Refuses to Defend Law to Speedily Terminate Wrongdoers
Attorney General refuses to defend law passed by Congress to speedily terminate wrongdoers One of an Attorney General’s fundamental duties is to defend laws passed…
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Obama Administration Harms Students in Many Ways
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Appeals Court: Students Qualify for FOIA Fee Waivers
Under the Freedom of Information Act, you can obtain government records, but usually you have to pay for them. But the law limits the fees…
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Obama Administration Decree Usurps Control over Locker Rooms and Bathrooms
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Thomas Piketty’s False Argument for Expanding the Government
Left-wing economist Thomas Piketty is treated like a “rock star” by many progressives for giving a veneer of legitimacy to the economic myths they…
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Bureaucratic Double Jeopardy: Feds Order University of New Mexico to Restrict “Unwelcome” Speech
Even if you convince one bureaucratic agency to leave you alone, another may come along and harass you. The possibilities are endless in an age…
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Employment Lawsuits for Thee, But Not for Me
The New York Times loves legislation that restricts employment-at-will, and it loves to increase penalties for employers who don’t hire and promote in…
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Pay Gap Myths Spread Around Equal Pay Day
In the lead up to Equal Pay Day this month, supporters of more federal pay regulations promoted myths about the pay gap between men and…
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California Minimum Wage Hike Could Cost State Taxpayers $10 Billion
California’s legislative analyst projects that the recent increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour will cost taxpayers $3.6 billion more a year in…
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Attorneys General Launch Intimidation Campaign with Subpoena against CEI
Days after CEI criticized investigations of Exxon by State Attorneys General over its speech related to climate change, CEI was hit with a subpoena demanding…
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Senators Reward Agency Overreaching with Proposed Budget Increase for Office for Civil Rights
Twenty-two senators are proposing a nearly 30 percent budget increase for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. OCR is the agency that has pressured colleges and …
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President Obama Promotes Myth of Excellent Health Care and Education in Cuba
In his recent remarks in Cuba, President Obama offered glowing praise to institutions in that communist country that did not deserve it. The president called Cuba’s…
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Freedom of Contract at Risk in Carcano v. McCrory
Virginia’s Dillon rule prevents cities and counties from regulating the employment practices of private businesses. That bars them from setting minimum wages higher than…
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Free Speech Violation in St. Paul Schools Undermines Anti-Private Ideology
Leftists who seek to ban home schooling and school vouchers, and restrict private schools, argue that is needed to prevent “indoctrination” or “balkanization.” Rather than developing a…
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Judge Orders White House OSTP to Explain Why It Shouldn’t Be Sanctioned for Undisclosed Records
OSTP failed to disclose the existence of some records in response to a FOIA request until after a federal judge had already ruled in the…
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Does Global Warming Cause Severe Cold Spells? Court Orders Release of Concealed Records
On January 8, 2014, the White House posted a curious video claiming that global warming causes more severe winter cold. Called “The Polar Vortex Explained…
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Collusive Deals with Class Action Lawyers before the Supreme Court
Class-action lawsuits are commonly settled for things that benefit the lawyers bringing them, not the class of allegedly victimized people they are supposedly suing on…
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OCR’s Evasive Letter to Sen. Lankford about Colleges and Title IX
An agency can disregard logic and jump to conclusions when it imposes legal mandates outside the notice-and-comment rulemaking process, since it never has to address…
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State Attorney General Climate Change Investigations Are Unconstitutional
Should government officials be able to cut off donations to groups because they employ people disparaged as “climate change deniers,” even if the group in…
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Congress Rewards Education Department for Overreaching and Flouting Checks and Balances
At Powerline, lawyer Paul Mirengoff writes about one of the many disturbing provisions buried in the budget-busting omnibus spending bill currently being passed by Congress as…
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Pennsylvania Legislature Begins Process of Firing Attorney General Kathleen Kane
Last month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane stubbornly clung to office, refusing to resign even after she was suspended from practicing law for her alleged…
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Unconstitutional Sexual-Orientation Set-Asides in Massachusetts
Government contracts should go to the lowest bidder, not be set aside for a particular group. So it is unfortunate that Massachusetts’s governor is now…
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The Misguided Attempt to Censor Yik Yak
People often seek to restrict new means of communication in ways that would never be applied to older forms of communication, sometimes based on fear…
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More Affirmative-Action Red Tape for Contractors: Sexual Orientation Added in California
Governments impose a cobweb of complicated and confusing affirmative-action mandates on government contractors. That imposes billions of dollars in compliance costs on contractors. It also …
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Suspended from the Bar, Still Refuses to Quit
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was suspended from the bar on October 22 for apparent violations of the law by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A…
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Education Department Power Grabs Criticized in Congress
Yesterday, The College Fix published an interesting story titled “Department of Education shredded for lawless overreach in Senate hearing.” It was about Congress getting annoyed with…
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Education Department Harms Innocent Colleges and Students through Illegal Title IX Mandates
The Education Department, where I used to work, is becoming more and more extreme in how it interprets and applies federal law. Sometimes this comes…
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Cato, CEI File Amicus Brief to Protect Donor Confidentiality and Freedom of Association
The Cato Institute and CEI recently filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging it to stop California Attorney General Kamala Harris from making intrusive…
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More Punishment for Thrifty Seniors from Federal Medicare Laws
If two couples make almost the same amount of money, should one of them be charged $2,000 more in Medicare Part B premiums? Logically, no,…