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Regulation of the Day 145: Unregistered Chariots
King Tut's chariot is now on exhibit in New York, but not without incident. Officials demanded to see its VIN before Allowing it in the…
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Paycheck Fairness Act Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work
The Obama administration wants to force employers to pay some people equal amounts for doing unequal work, through a deceptive bill known as the Paycheck…
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Alcohol middle-men pay lawmakers to protect industry
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Judge Lets Virginia Challenge ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate, Refusing to Dismiss Lawsuit
A federal judge in Virginia has allowed the state’s lawsuit challenging the federal individual health care mandate to proceed: “A judge on Monday…
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In defending Kagan, Media Matters embraces Bush Justice Department
Well, who woulda thunk it?! George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at the liberal Media…
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Give & Take: Fifth Amendment Complicates Net Neutrality
Opponents of net neutrality, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, have pointed to numerous grounds upon which the detrimental scheme could be challenged. These…
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The Open Internet and Lessons from the Ma Bell Era
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CEI Weekly: The History of Environmentalism
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's RJ Smith in his own short film on the…
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Want to be a pro bono economic expert? In re Apple & ATTM Antitrust Litig.
When Apple introduced its iPhone into a smartphone market where it had 0% market share, it cut a deal with AT&T Mobility to make it…
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NOAA to Skeptics: We’re Right, You Can’t Deny It
A recent report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has received wide media attention, has come to the conclusion that evidence for anthropogenic…
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Understanding the Health Care System
Check out this flow chart of what the health care system will look like once Obamacare is implemented.
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Obama Hypocritically Embraces Legal Doctrine He Earlier Attacked
In response to a lawsuit by the Obama Justice Department, a federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton has enjoined parts of Arizona’s new law…
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A tort reform advocate’s dream, my article in Forbes.com
It’s a tort reform advocate’s dream–meaning a defendant’s worst nightmare. As I write in my Forbes.com article, “California Trial Lawyers Find A Geezer Goldmine,”…
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Dewey v. Volkswagen, Water Ingress Settlement fairness hearing
A tiny percentage of Volkswagen and Audi sunroofs will leak into the vehicle unless care is taken to keep the plenum clear of debris; a…
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History of Environmentalism
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Jim Hood: Another of the Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has a truly awful record, as today’s Wall Street Journal notes, citing his links to trial lawyers who tried…
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Bill to Regulate Political Speech Fails
It was mostly Democrats who favored the DISCLOSE Act. But Republicans are no heroes on this issue. Don't believe their posturing.
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Coalition Letter: Wine and Spirits Bill Affont to Consumer Choice
Today, CEI sent a letter to all members of Congress regarding H.R. 5034. This is the bill that would allow states to impose a…
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Chris Horner on the Politics of Cap and Trade
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Regulation of the Day 144: Underage Senior Citizens
Bob Russ is 66 years old. He was denied entry to the Oregon Brewer’s Festival because he lacked a valid photo ID to prove he…
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Hans Bader on the Nation’s Worst Attorneys General
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America’s Worst State Attorney Generals Exposed; Consumers and Businesses Ripped Off
The nation’s worst state attorney generals use lawsuits as a weapon to redistribute billions of dollars from businesses and consumers to their wealthy trial-lawyer friends…
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LibertyWeek 103: Katherine Mangu-Ward Edition
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What the Mad Men Tell Us
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Who is Elizabeth Warren and why does Big Labor Love Her?
The Dodd–Frank Financial Regulation Bill, which President Obama signed today, created yet another Czar to head yet another Executive Agency, the…
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Rockefeller Bill – Is It Good Enough?
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CEI Weekly: The Nation’s Worst Attorneys General
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Hans Bader's newest study on the worst attorneys general in…
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Automakers Face Potentially Massive Race-Discrimination Class-Action Lawsuit Thanks to Obama Administration
“Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout — closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler…
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Hopes for Federal Property Insurance Expansion: Gone with the Wind
Insurance industry members are wiping there collective brow after a bill was pulled from the floor of the House of Representatives before a vote.
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Senator Pat Leahy Doesn’t Even Read Supreme Court Decisions Before Blasting Them
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is fond of blasting Supreme Court decisions even before reading them. In his eyes, its decisions are all part of a…
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Jerry Brown Is the Nation’s Worst State Attorney General
California Attorney General Jerry Brown is the worst state attorney general in America, as I documented in a recent study. But how was…
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Wine in Grocery Stores, Still on the Table in New York
A proposal to allow New York State supermarkets sell wine might re-emerge this year if Governor David A. Patterson can break the state’s budgetary stalemate.
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The Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General
The nation’s worst state attorneys general abuse the power of their office for political ends, undermining the rule of law. In…
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Public’s confidence in institutions at odds with Administration’s and Congressional attacks
In a new Gallup poll on confidence in institutions, Congress ranked last out of 16 institutions consumers were asked to consider. Only 11…
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Richard Blumenthal Rated Second-Worst Attorney General in America
Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal has just been rated the second-worst state attorney general in America by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in its recent…
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Economists vs. Economics
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New Jersey’s Not-So-Palatial Xanadu
The retail and entertainment development formerly known as Xanadu Meadowlands—recently renamed The Meadowlands—has been plagued with problems since the planning stage. The East…
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Will the Party of No Foil the Half-Baked Greenhouse Machiavellis?
Many have already written the obituary for the Kerry-Lieberman bill and other cap-and-trade legislation in the current Congress. In today’s Politico, however, columnist Darren Samuelsohn…
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President Obama Signs Dodd-Frank Financial “Reform” Bill: 2315 Pages of Special-Interest Payoffs
President Obama today signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill, the “most sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial market regulations since the Great Depression.”…
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Phony “Toyota deaths database.” My article in Forbes magazine
In the Toyota witch hunt, nothing has been more damning than those deaths we’re told Toyota sudden acceleration “allegedly caused” or, depending on whom you…
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Ninth Circuit appeal over cy pres: Nachshin v. AOL
Tuesday, the Center filed its opening brief appealing the approval of a class action settlement against AOL. We focused our appeal on the…
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Judiciary Committee Approves Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court Nomination, 13-to-6
The Senate Judiciary Committee has just approved Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination by a vote of 13-to-6. You can find my personal assessment…
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Federal Register Hits 40,000 Pages
The Federal Register’s page growth has been accelerating as the year has progressed. It is currently on pace for 76,536 pages.
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854,000 People Have Top-Secret Security Clearances; Huge, Politically-Correct Security Apparatus Expands
The Washington Post reports that 854,000 people have top-secret security clearances. America’s security apparatus is huge and incredibly costly. Despite all these resources,…
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LibertyWeek 102: Collective Insanity
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Blowout Prevention Act – Will Rs Get Buyer’s Remorse? (Modified July 18, 2010)
Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved H.R. 5626, Chairman Henry Waxman’s Blowout Prevention Act. Here’s the version of the bill…
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Senate Passes Financial “Reform” That Leaves Corrupt Bailout Recipients Unreformed, While Harming the Public
Yesterday, the Senate passed a so-called financial reform bill by a vote of 60-to-38, making it all but certain to become law. The bill…
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Earthquake Hits Washington, D.C. Area; Politicians Seek to Expand Bailouts and Subsidize Earthquake Insurance
A mild earthquake hit the Washington, D.C. area this morning at around 5 a.m. It broke a jar of grapefruit marmalade that fell…
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No, NHTSA didn’t blame all Toyota’s troubles on driver error
I can’t count how many people sent me items about how NHTSA says the whole Toyota Tempest has now been determined by the government to…
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CEI Weekly: The Lady Gaga Economy
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Wayne Crews' op-ed in The Daily Caller entitled "The Lady…
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Dodd-Frank is not “financial reform,” it’s more Big Government lunacy
The 2,315 page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill should not be called “financial reform.” Instead, it should be called what for what it is: pages and…
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Abolish Law School, Keep the Bar Exam
Elizabeth Wurtzel argues that the bar exam should be abolished because many illustrious lawyer-politicians flunked it on their first try. I disagree. Passing the…
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EPA, Not Jones Act, Blocked Dutch Skimmers
It was apparently the EPA, not the Jones Act, that blocked Dutch skimmers from cleaning up the oil spill in Louisiana in late April:…
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Responding to Media Matters
This ad hominem attack deserves a rebuttal. The Daily Caller was kind enough to run mine this morning. I hope you will take a few…
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A post for Fed Jur buffs only
Parties in a class action agree to submit to the jurisdiction of an Article I magistrate under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c). Then they settle the…
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“[Cap-and-trade] is not in my vocabulary” — Reid
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring a sweeping energy and climate bill to the floor as early as the week of July 26, including…
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Mommy, Are We Beyond Petroleum Yet?
No, Sylvester, not even close! As noted in a previous post, on Earth Day (April 22), a Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet became the first…
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Bank Failures Rise; Banks Shuttered at a Faster Rate in 2010 Than in 2008 and 2009; Financial “Reform” Adds to Banks’ Woes
“This past Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shuttered another four US banks,” notes Neil Hrab in the Washington Examiner. “That makes 90…
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Heritage Foundation Wrong on Obama Immigration Enforcement
The Heritage Foundation’s Matt Meyer wrote here that the Obama administration’s year old worksite audit program is resulting in “far fewer deportations of illegal immigrants.” …
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Cell Phones Don’t Cause Cancer
Over at the Daily Caller, I debunk the fear that long-term cell phone use can cause brain tumors.
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Dewey v. Volkswagen, Water Ingress Settlement objection response briefing
Today we filed our response brief; plaintiffs largely ignored the arguments we made earlier and instead made ad hominem complaints about some quotes…
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LibertyWeek 101: Urban Beekeepers Unite!
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CEI Weekly: LibertyWeek Turns 100
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the 100th episode of CEI's podcast, LibertyWeek. CEI Founder Fred…
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Readers Contest Factcheck.Org’s “Oil Spill, Foreign Help, and the Jones Act”
FactCheck.org argued that the Jones Act, which ordinarily bans both foreign ships and foreign crews from working in U.S. waters, did not interfere with foreign…
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Robert Booth Trust v. William Crowley, Sears Holding Corporation shareholder derivative lawsuit
If you’re a Sears Holding Corporation (SHLD) shareholder like me, there’s a pretty big chance that you got a letter in the mail informing you…
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Federal Alcohol Bill Hits a Snag
Kane’s Beverage News Daily (need subscription) reports today that a “well-placed lobbyist” in the industry informed them that hearings on HR 5034 –the…
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Outlawing Pet Sales or Outlawing Pets?
The nanny statists not only want to to take care of you, they want to make sure every hamster in the world gets fair treatment. …
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New “stimulus plan” brewing in Congress
It is actually less of a “stimulus” plan and more of a “get government out of the way and stop inhibiting growth” plan. A bi-partisan…
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Ebell in NYT on new Climategate report — “Establishment circling the wagons and defending their position”
CEI’s Myron Ebell was quoted on the front page of the New York Times today – “above the fold” – discussing the University of…
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Unintended Consequences of Unemployment Benefits
This letter of mine ran in today's New York Times in response to Paul Krugman's July 4 column.
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In Defense of Urban Beekeeping
Beekeeping is an ancient human practice, with some anthropological evidence suggesting that primitive forms of honey bee domestication go back more than 4,000 years. Apiarists…
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“Cell Phone Fear in San Francisco,” my article in Forbes.com
The king is dead. More accurately, Larry King is hanging up his suspenders after 25 years on TV interviewing essentially everybody who was anybody. His…
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Automakers’ new problems – vampires and bears
Toyota complaints keep pouring in to the National Highway Safety Administration, and some are pretty darned bizarre. But most are less so than a Colorado…
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LibertyWeek 100: The Venerable Fred L. Smith, Jr.
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Greenhouse Protection Racket
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Enron & BP: Global Warming as the Great Distraction
In a three–part post over at MasterResource.Org, my colleague Robert L. Bradley, Jr. shows that BP has much in common with Enron. Both companies aggressively sought rents (politically-contrived…
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Friday Regulation Roundup
If you have ever been in a duel, you are ineligible to vote in Mississippi, plus more.
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Making a Difference – A Very Small Difference
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What’s ahead for free trade?
In her column today, Kimberley Strassel throws some light on what’s behind President Obama’s recent endorsement of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and…
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Fred L. Smith: Is Greed Good?
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CEI Weekly: The Supreme Court Rules Against PCAOB
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's Supreme Court against the burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley act.
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The Rahn Curve
A little government can do a lot of good. A lot of government can do little good.
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Blowout Prevention Act Would Blowout Domestic Oil Production
Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on H.R. 5626, the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010. Although…
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CEI in the News for July 1, 2010
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140 New Regulations in Florida
New labeling rules for horse meat intended for human consumption, plus more.
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California poker players: 1 – Free market opponents: 0
As I wrote yesterday, California was on the verge of passing a bill that would have allowed residents to play poker online at one…
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Liberal Senators Make False Claims About Supreme Court’s Ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, During Kagan Confirmation Hearings
Liberal Senators like Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) are peddling fables about a Supreme Court ruling, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
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Anti-stripper law could create more prostitution
As so many journalists have punned, recently passed anti-stripping legislation makes the “Don’t Show Me” state a far more appropriate nickname for Missouri. Yesterday, Gov.
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USA prevents effective oil spill cleanup
As readers may recall, a brouhaha erupted three summers ago concerning BP’s planned expansion of its Whiting Refinery near Chicago, Illinois. BP had…
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For Whom the Dell Tolls
Less than fifteen years ago, Dell computers were the hot desktop brand. In a rapidly growing market, Dell developed a unique business model which…
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Celebrating Bastiat
Economist Don Boudreaux reminds us that 209 years ago today, the great economic journalist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was born. F.A. Hayek in his introduction…
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Supreme Court Dooms Chicago Gun Ban; Obama Judicial Nominees Oppose Gun Rights; Religious Clubs Lose First Amendment Case; Removal of High-Ranking Bureaucrats Made Easier
The Supreme Court doomed Chicago’s handgun ban Monday by ruling 5-to-4 that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments…
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Wayne Crews on Cybersecurity and the Presidential “Kill Switch”
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Blowout Prevention Act — or Oil Production Prevention Act?
That’s the question I address today on the free-market energy blog, MasterResource.Org. This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is holding…
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Can Businessmen (and Women) Make Good Politicians
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CA to criminalize Internet poker?
That is, unless you play at one of the three state-sanctioned “hubs”. Much like other proposals to “legalize” online poker and other Internet gambling activities,…
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LibertyWeek 99: Sarbanes-Oxley Smackdown
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CEI’s Supreme Court Oscar Speech
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President Obama to push U.S.-Korea FTA
Economic reality is beginning to take the place of anti-trade rhetoric on the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which has been on hold since it…
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Bio Jet Fuel — the Real $600 Toilet Seat?
The custom-designed $600 toilet seat for P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft — often depicted as the epitome of government waste — is an urban legend.