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Tariffs are taxes and must be legislatively accountable
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has delivered a decisive rebuke to the new presidential reciprocal and trafficking tariffs. It ruled that a president…
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The harm is the process: Unconstitutional NLRB proceedings halted
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals threw a wrench into the gears of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week, and for good reason.
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Victory for liberty: 11th Circuit vacates SEC’s unjust CAT funding rule
In a decisive blow to regulatory overreach, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last week vacated a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that…
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Two courts, one message: Tariffs need congressional backing
Within the last few days, two courts have enjoined President Trump’s tariffs under International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) finding them unlawful. First, the US…
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Presidential discretion allowed by the Impoundment Control Act
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) publishing my paper this week about the possible constitutional arguments against the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This…
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CEI to Supreme Court: Please don’t let executive branch set tax rates
Yesterday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to recognize that only Congress has the authority to write the…
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Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals finds FCC’s universal service fee unconstitutional under the nondelegation doctrine
Late yesterday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Consumer Research v. FCC that breathes new life into the nondelegation doctrine. This…
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Supreme Court protects the right to a jury trial – and the public from lawless agency fines
Today the Supreme Court issued a decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, one of the most significant civil rights cases in decades. This case is about…
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CEI sues to end federal at-home distilling ban
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which regularly litigates against federal overreach, represents the Hobby Distillers Association and its members in a lawsuit seeking an end…
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Appeals court rejects DOE’s attempt to eliminate fast dishwashers
The days of dishwashers with four-hour cleaning cycles may be coming to an end. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals repudiated the Biden administration’s…
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A Jury Trial Must Precede Fines and Occupational Banishment
Imagine that the government has accused you of wrongdoing that you didn’t commit. You would expect a jury of your peers to recognize your innocence.
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22 months after we asked, the Food and Drug Administration answered!
Finally! Nearly two years after we asked, the government has finally told us what it was doing! Here’s what happened: We asked the Food and…
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CEI asks Supreme Court to overturn Chevron deference to regulators
Earlier today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed an amicus brief at the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to overturn Chevron. Our brief…
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Moore good news? CEI responds to government in landmark tax case
Earlier today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a reply brief in the Moores’ case. A few weeks ago, the government argued that the Supreme…
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Eight Groups Support Supreme Court Consideration of Moore v. United States
The Moores’ Supreme Court challenge to an unprecedented tax—a tax which the government labels a income tax, but is actually a property tax—received a…
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Congress Should Appropriate Money for the CFPB Through the Congressional Appropriation Process
Last week, I had the honor of testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy on how Congress should…
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Agencies Are Limited in Which Congressional Power They Can Exercise
Can unelected federal bureaucrats force people to hire police to ensure that the law is complied with—even if Congress never said anything about hiring cops…
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More on Moore: A History of Direct Taxes and their Application to Moore v. United States
Many politicians, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), advocate taxes on wealth. These taxes are easy to abuse, which is why the Founders placed…
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Ninth Circuit Refuses to Reconsider Allowing Wealth Taxes
Moore v. United States—a case in which CEI represents the Moore family—is likely to be the most important tax case of the 21st century. Yesterday’s…
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Government May Not Avoid Just Compensation in Debt Seizures
Some state governments have been acting as if the Fifth Amendment’s requirement of just compensation doesn’t apply in the course of collection of government debts.
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Congress Must Decide How to Choose Between Courts and Agency Adjudication
For some time, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had a choice of prosecutorial forums. It has been able to choose between prosecuting violators…
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Fifth Circuit Upholds the Right to A Jury Trial Against the SEC
John Thomas Financial CEO Thomas Belesis was riding high, having been awarded the 2011 Businessman of the Year Award from the New York Republicans. While…
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Peer Review for Thee but Not for Me
In February 2017, the Competitive Enterprise Institute petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. CEI explained in detail…
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Federal Judge Invalidates Federal Mask Mandate
For over a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has threatened criminal and civil penalties and mandatory removal for not wearing a…
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CEI Submits Appeal of Lack of Peer Review for EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse Gases on procedural grounds. This is the document which supposedly…
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Judge Cain’s Injunction Concerning Social Cost of Carbon Is Reasonable
Jonathan Adler’s recent article on a preliminary injunction by Judge James D. Cain makes it sound like it’s crazy, but I’m afraid that…
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CEI in Amicus Brief Asks Supreme Court to Block the Clean Power Plan that Congress Rejected
People often talk about the undemocratic and illegitimate administrative state, of which the Clean Power Plan (CPP) is the perfect example. The Supreme Court will…
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Request to OIRA to Ensure Peer Review of Agency’s Medical Marijuana Claims
For two years, CEI has been trying to get the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to conduct…
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Another Court Rejects Federal Attempt to Impose a Vaccine Mandate
Shortly following the Fifth Circuit blocking the private employer mandate from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Judge Matthew Schelp of the Eastern…
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CDC’s Eviction Moratorium Extension Another Example of Ends-Justify-the-Means Policy
The Constitution requires all of Congress and the president to swear to uphold the Constitution. Yet, too often today, public officials of both parties ignore…
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Supreme Court Requires Involvement of Principal Officers Before Final Decisions
Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision in United States v. Arthrex that has massive implications for the limits on the administrative state. It…
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Judge Rules in Favor of Retroactive Unapportioned Tax
In 2006, Charles and Kathleen Moore invested in a business aimed at providing affordable equipment to small-scale Indian farmers. No dividends have been returned to…
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Government Is Asking if We Want Faster and More Effective Appliances. Say Yes!
For more than 50 years, Americans have used washing machines to clean their clothes and dryers to dry them. Manufacturers built highly effective products that…
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CEI Opposes Federal Government Coercing a State into Assisting with Federal Law Enforcement
Last Friday, CEI took a stand for federalism and separation of powers through an amicus brief. These constitutional principles are critical to the constitutionally limited…
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DEREGULATION IN AN EMERGENCY: The President’s Emergency Powers Include Not Just Imposing Regulations on Industry, but also Suspending Regulations
Across the country, governors have suspended harmful regulations on an emergency basis due to the COVID-19 crisis. The improvements that have resulted have got people…
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Year in Review 2019: Supreme Court
The nature of the term ending in June 2019 was set at the end of 2018 when the cases were selected. When the term opened…
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Best Books of 2019: A Republic, If You Can Keep It
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch explains in vivid detail the purpose of the separation of powers in his 2019 book "A Republic, If You Can…
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‘Gundy’ Decision Could Signal Fundamental Reform of Administrative State
It is hard to describe how important the Supreme Court decision last week in Gundy v. United States is. In one sense, nothing changed—no case…
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Support Builds for EPA to Reconsider Endangerment Finding
In the 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that Environmental Protection Agency had the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant…
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Supreme Court Likely to Limit Administrative State’s Ability to Interpret Rules
Last week the Supreme Court heard a case on limiting the powers of the administrative state that could be one of the most important this…
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News Media Go Along with Greenpeace’s Attempt to Pretend Patrick Moore Not a Founder
For years Greenpeace has pretended that Patrick Moore was not one of the original co-founders of the radical environmental pressure group. More recently, a number of…
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Agencies Failing to Follow Law on Key Financial Regulation
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 is one of the worst pieces of legislation to have become law in recent history. It created the Consumer Financial…
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Confusing Poll Clouds Public Perception of Trump Emergency Declaration
President Trump’s national emergency declaration is constitutional, as I explained in a recent op-ed in the Washington Examiner. That’s an important fact, because we trust…
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Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Soda Labeling Ban for Wrong Reasons
This week the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held unconstitutional the size requirement in San Francisco’s soda warning labeling regulation. However, there are broader…
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Warren Wealth Tax Proposal Raises Constitutional Questions
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has proposed a new wealth tax. We don’t know a lot of details on what is being proposed, but what little…
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Courts Should Protect Economic Liberty Rights As Originally Understood
The prohibition on taking a person’s liberty without due process of law is enshrined in the Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. But what does this…
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Supreme Court Should Review Oregon’s Discriminatory Fuel Pricing Rules
Last week, American fuel manufactures filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to review a lower court decision upholding an Oregon law…
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Looking Back at the Success of ‘Free Enterprise Fund’
In the last decade there has been a kind of separation of powers renaissance in the courts. Previously, separation-of-powers cases were rare and usually occurred…
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Tell the Energy Department What You Think about Your Dishwasher
Thirty-five years ago, dishwashers cleaned dishes in about an hour. Sadly today, due to federal regulations, there are no dishwashers that do so. This isn’t progress—it’s…
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Liberate Dishwashers from Federal Efficiency Mandates
Thirty-five years ago dishwashers cleaned dishes in about an hour. Sadly, today there are no dishwashers that do so due to federal government regulations. This…