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Pearce v. Acosta
A class member contacted me to complain about the settlement in Pearce v. Acosta. At first glance, it seems troubling: as described to me, the…
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Update On D.C.’s Driverless Car Legalization Legislation
In November, I noted in The Washington Post and here on Open Market that a bill introduced in the D.C. Council contained two dangerously flawed provisions and…
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Not So Rosey Facts About Green Schools
It is amazing how public officials will blindly pass mandates even when evidence is abundant to show their policies will prove costly and counterproductive. My…
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Mice Study Questions BPA-Obesity Link
Science is a long-term process that only brings meaning when numerous, scientifically robust studies produce consistent results. But when it comes to politically loaded issues…
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The Constitution And Broad First Amendment Freedoms Are Obsolete, Say Left-Leaning Judges And Constitutional Law Professors
The progressive Georgetown University constitutional law professor Louis Michael Seidman argued Monday in The New York Times that we should just ignore the Constitution and…
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Settlement: FTC Ends Google Antitrust Investigation
Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared Google of accusations of "Search Bias," and inappropriately harming rivals. The investigation lasted nearly…
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CEI Podcast For January 3, 2013: The Fiscal Cliff Meets The Costberg
Congress made an unsatisfying compromise deal this week to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff. But Vice President for policy Wayne Crews thinks this is…
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Other December doings
In addition to the objection to the Citigroup Securities settlement, we were busy in December: Another bad coupon settlement: …
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New Year, New Laws
More than 400 new laws came into effect today.
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Chicago Voters Reelect Legally Insane Judge
In November, Chicago voters re-elected a legally insane judge charged with a crime of violence. "The Cook County Democratic Party…
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2012’s Year-End Regulatory Report Card
Both 2011 and 2010 finished with over 81,000 pages in the Federal Register, as tallied in Ten Thousand Commandments. These were the highest page counts…
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Southern District of New York assistance?
I’ve filed an objection in the Southern District of New York to an attorney-fee request that is excessive by tens of millions of dollars, and…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
54 new regulations, from handling spearmint oil to drug testing railroad workers.
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Europe 2013: A Primer
As the New Year approaches, many challenges loom for Europe. Here’s a quick list of the toughest hurdles for 2013: 1. Implementing the Single…
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EPA Regulations Cost How Much?!
Over at the Daily Caller, I summarize my recent CEI Regulatory Report Card on the EPA. Recommended if you don't feel like reading the entire…
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Community Reinvestment Act Induced Banks To Take Bad Risks, Economic Study Finds
The Community Reinvestment Act, which "prods banks to make loans in low-income communities,” encouraged banks to make riskier loans, concludes a recent study…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
68 new regulations, from summer flounder fishing to switching contractors.
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GM Stock Sale Doesn’t End Damage Of Government Motors
Below is my statement released today on the government’s planned 15-month sale of its remaining General Motors stock: On Wednesday, the government announced a plan to sell its…
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France’s Anti-Business Orthodoxy
In France, running a productive business is not important. Simply creating jobs -- not wealth or innovation -- is the sole purpose of enterprise. At…
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Fear The Regulatory Cliff, Not The Fiscal Cliff
Economist Bruce Bartlett notes that by cutting the federal budget deficit, the much-feared fiscal cliff will actually increase the size of the economy in the…
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Free Speech, The Disfavored Stepchild Of The Law
In a recent column, George Will discussed how college students have been disciplined for racial or discriminatory "harassment" for constitutionally protected expression, such as…
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The Great California Government Union Swindle
Are government employees overpaid? A six-part Bloomberg report answers that question with a resounding "Yes." It also singles out one state as the biggest spender…
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CEI Podcast For December 19, 2012: The EPA Regulatory Report Card
Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young talks about the need for more transparency in the world of regulation, as well as CEI's new EPA Regulatory…
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Stuck in Time: Italy’s Politics
Things have a way of repeating themselves. This is especially true in Italy, where politics have been stuck in a time loop for the…
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Appeals Court Overturns Dismissal Of Challenge To Obamacare Contraception Mandate By Religious Colleges
According to law professor Jonathan Adler, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit effectively overturned a district court’s dismissal of a challenge…
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Expert On Gun Regulation Says “Assault Weapons” Bans Are Useless
President Obama is backing a revival of the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, perhaps the leading…
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Path To Transparency: The EPA Regulatory Report Card
Transparency is in short supply in the world of regulation. How many rules does an agency have in the pipeline? How much will they cost?…
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Panel Discussion: The State Of Labor
Michigan's new right-to-work law and the state of organized labor in both the private and public sectors dominated discussion Thursday at "The State of…
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The Regulatory Reduction Commission
In today's Washington Times, Wayne Crews and I write about a reform that has nearly two decades of bipartisan support, has a proven track record…
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Green Building: More Expensive And Less Efficient
Washington, D.C., lawmakers are preparing to pass a tough new “green building” code, which supposedly will make our buildings more energy efficient and save…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
69 new regulations, from Spanish translations of used car buyers guides to shortnose suckers.
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Wheels In Motion To Crush Chemical Innovation
Chemical industry groups say they want to "modernize" the nation's chemical law by applying reasonable reforms that would prevent states from passing a patchwork…
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Regulation Roundup
Montreal mulls requiring dogs to be bilingual, USDA regulates polydactyl cats, plus more.
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PolitiFact Is The Liar Of The Year
PolitiFact falsely depicted Michael Cannon, the director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, as suggesting that state law overrides federal law, erroneously…
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Birthday wishes
Frank Bednarz, who was with CCAF in the early going, and has since moved on to more lucrative intellectual property litigation, wins the Internet…
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CEI Podcast For December 12, 2012: Ending The Beer Monopoly
Fellow in Consumer policy Studies Michelle Minton argues that the beer industry in America is essentially a monopoly. In her new paper "Avoid a Monopoly…
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Right-To-Work Laws Aren’t Perfect, But They’re Better Than The Likely Alternative
On more than one occasion, I’ve heard some libertarians object to right-to-work laws on the grounds that they undermine freedom of contract by barring employers…
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Obama’s Low-Quality College Bailout Will Fuel Skyrocketing Tuition
We wrote earlier about perverse federal financial aid policies that encourage colleges to jack up tuition. Recently, the Obama administration came up with something even worse.
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Sierra Club Transportation Report Unsurprisingly Trashes (Some Bad) Road Projects, Praises Transit And Bike Waste
The Sierra Club's Beyond Oil Campaign recently released a report [PDF] highlighting what the environmentalist group claims to be the 50 best and worst…
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Today’s Links: December 11, 2012
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Obama’s Dangerous Italian Labor Rhetoric
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="260"] President Obama spoke in Detroit on Monday[/caption] President Obama condemned yesterday Michigan’s forthcoming transition to a right-to-work state. He claimed,…
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Big Labor’s Choice: Improve And Evolve, or Perish
Over the past year, the Midwest has had a pro-worker epiphany, a movement now reaching its crescendo with the imminent passage of right-to-work legislation in…
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Big Labor’s Choice: Improve And Evolve, or Perish
Openmarket.org Over the past year, the Midwest has had a pro-worker epiphany, a movement now reaching its crescendo with the imminent passage of right-to-work…
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October and November doings
In addition to our Supreme Court amicus and our MagSafe appellate brief, we’ve kept busy over the last two months. We…
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CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
94 new regulations, from apricots to civilian flights in Iraq.
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Anti-Immigration Group FAIR: Market Is Like “A Mob Without Reason, Irrational and Immoral”
Last week, Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) denounced CEI’s position on immigration. Mehlman argued new foreign workers would degrade wages…
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Catching The Chimera: Right-To-Work In Michigan
Openmarket.org Labor leaders have seen the writing on the wall for their movement for a while now. But that writing just got bolder and more ominous…
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Catching The Chimera: Right-To-Work In Michigan
Labor leaders have seen the writing on the wall for their movement for a while now. But that writing just got bolder and more ominous for…
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Researchers Repudiate BPA Junk Science
The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) -- which is used to make hard, clear plastics and resins that line food containers -- regularly appears in news…
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CEI Podcast For December 6, 2012: Rising Public Sector Pay
Senior Fellow Matt Patterson discusses why public sector workers make substantially more money than their private sector counterparts.