Civil forfeiture has become a significant government intrusion in recent years. While it remains a viable instrument for federal agents enforcing customs laws and fighting international crime, misguided policies and misaligned incentives foster abuses and raise grave constitutional concerns.
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Blog
Some thoughts on Constitution Day
As I drove into work today, it occurred to me: we so often take for granted the extraordinary power that the automobile gives us. Once…
Fox News
Federal judge rules that 156-year-old ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional
Fox News cites CEI’s Devin Watkins and Dan Greenberg on Hobby Distillers Association v. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau et al: Devin Watkins,…
Blog
Sunshine in Wyoming’s civil forfeiture
Transparency in civil forfeiture took a small step forward last week when the Wyoming Liberty Group published its latest report. One difficulty in writing about…
Search Posts
Op-Eds
Obama’s Own Economic Advisor Criticizes Budget Plans
Martin Feldstein, an economic advisor to Obama, criticized “ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits” in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, noting that “the higher taxes, debt payments and…
Citation
Nomination of Junk Science Advocate and Anti-gun Activist David Michaels to Head OSHA
Newsletter
EPA’s Economists, Healthcare Rallies and the Cash for Clunkers Crash
Environmental Protection Agency officials consider scrapping the agency’s economics office after receiving a report critical of current global warming policy. Democrats plan public rallies to…
Op-Eds
Obama Should Stay Mum on Cambridge Arrest
One lingering question surrounding the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. by the Cambridge (Mass.) Police and the subsequent White House “beer summit”…
Citation
Prof. Gates’ Arrest Unjustified
Newsletter
Google Book Search, FCC Comments and the Minimum Wage
The Justice Department investigates Google’s legal settlement over its Book Search service. Federal Communications Commission broadband coordinator Blair Levin accuses recent comments from the public…
Newsletter
Chevron in Court, Health Care in Congress and California’s Budget in Crisis
Chevron continues to fight a lawsuit alleging environmental damage done in Ecuador. Republicans go on the offensive against President Obama’s proposed health care plan. Governor…
Op-Eds
Obama Administration = Waste, Corruption, Corporate Welfare
Rapidly-rising Medicare spending already threatens “to crush the federal budget,” and much Medicare spending is wasteful, yet the Obama Administration claims it can somehow…
Newsletter
Sotomayor in the Senate, The New GM and State Farm in Florida
Judge Sonia Sotomayor prepares for her confirmation hearings in the Senate. A slimmed-down General Motors emerges from bankruptcy. Florida’s insurance commissioner claims to have “a…
Op-Eds
Standing Athwart Nationalization
My organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has frequently been accused of being "in denial" regarding important issues. It’s a charge we most often wear…
Citation
Case of Denial
Op-Eds
Nationalization Review
Given the Obama administration’s rapid takeovers of General Motors and Chrysler, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to conservatives that, in the…
Op-Eds
Obama’s Latest Economic Overhaul Calls for More Risky Loans
The President has just announced proposals for a massive overhaul of the financial system. The proposals would force banks to make even MORE risky…
News Release
New Ideas for World Oceans Day
This week the United Nations is observing World Oceans Day. The Competitive Enterprise Institute believes this makes it an appropriate time to think about realistic…
Newsletter
Justice Souter, Global Warming Negotiations and Florida Insurance Reform
Justice David Souter announces his retirement from the Supreme Court. Leading up to global warming negotiations in Copenhagen, a new study calls for the elimination…
Human Events
Horse Corral
Newsletter
Somali Pirates, GM Executives and FDA Regulators
The U.S. military considers attacking Somali pirate bases. Treasury officials instruct General Motors to plan for bankruptcy. The Food and Drug Administration reconsiders its ban…
Family Security Matters
Holdren as White House Science Advisor
News Release
Maryland’s March Madness: First Baltimore Colts, Now Maryland Preakness
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Family Security Matters
The Constitutional Answer to the Pirate Problem
Letters
Bipartisan Civil Liberties Coalition Letter Against New Federal Crimes in Omnibus Land Managment Bill
Dear Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader Boehner, Our respective organizations have diverse viewpoints, but we share a deep and abiding belief in due…
Hot Air
The Omnibus Land Bill
Hot Air quotes Iain Murray's National Review article on Congress strategy that shields legislation from amendment. Iain Murray at The Corner provides us…
Newsletter
Stocks Rise, Fossil Felonies and Reforming Online Gambling
Stock values make their biggest one-day gains since last November. Congress considers a land management bill that could punish paleontologists and rock collectors with arrest…
Hot Air
Don’t Let Judges Tear Up Mortgage Contracts
The nation faces a foreclosure crisis of historic proportions, and there is an understandable desire on the part of the federal government to “do something”…
News Release
CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate are…
Newsletter
Steven Chu for Energy Secretary, Financial Scandal in New Mexico and Shaun Donovan for HUD
Dr. Steven Chu, nominated to be the next Secretary of Energy, prepares for confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate. The financial scandal that started with…
News Release
Statement on the Nomination of Shaun Donovan to Be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Shaun Donovan is a distinguished public servant and, under Mayor Bloomberg, has made a difficult government-run housing agency work better. Unlike a lot of…
News Release
Senate Land Grab Bill Would Lower Energy Production
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Newsletter
Endangered Species, International Trade and the Auto Bailout
President Bush pardons a Missouri farmer found guilty of accidently causing the deaths of bald eagles under the Endangered Species Act. Barack Obama considers Rep.
Newsletter
Voter Fraud, Disability Law and Green Hypocrisy
Republican House Leader John Boehner (R-OH) calls for an end to federal support for leftist activist group ACORN. President Bush signs into law new amendments…
Newsletter
Internet Radio, Mark-to-Market Accounting and Private Mortgage Insurance
The Senate approves a bill to regulate royalties for web-based radio services. The Security and Exchanges Commission relaxes accounting rules that may have worsened current…
Hot Air
sports stadiums and taxpayer subsidies
Op-Eds
The Conscientious Objector
Pete Eyre has a shaved head and six tattoos, including two tattooed quotes: one from Thomas Jefferson—“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”—on his stomach…
Hot Air
The Conscientious Objector
Hot Air
Calif. Lawmakers Ban Workplace Bias Against Medical-Pot Users
Newsletter
Economic Projections, Comcast Sues the FCC and Cholesterol Drugs
A new report from the Federal Reserve projects continued slow growth and a weak business climate. Comcast sues the Federal Communications Commission over…
Newsletter
Fewer New Laws, Disability Regulations and Bottled Water Bans
The current Congress has passed the fewest number of new laws in twenty years. The U.S. Justice Department finds that more than 100,000 apartments in…
Newsletter
Renewable Energy, Anti-Whaling Protesters, and Fed Chairman Bernanke
The state of Colorado expands requirements for the use of renewable power. Japanese authorities plan to arrest anti-whaling protesters from the group Sea Shepherd. Federal…
Newsletter
Day Laborers in LA, Nuclear Power and Corporate Finance
Los Angeles lawmakers require home improvement stores to construct shelters for day laborers who wait for work in their parking lots. Electricity provider Constellation Energy…
Op-Eds
Bailing Out Kelo
Of all the unintended consequences of the housing bill that passed the House on Wednesday, the most ironic and far-reaching may be this:…
Newsletter
Oil Prices, Housing Markets and Power Plants
The president of OPEC predicts even higher oil prices in the near future. Washington, D.C. suburb Fairfax County, Virginia plans to spend $10 million to…
Newsletter
Gun Rights, the Fairness Doctrine and Internet Gambling
The Supreme Court strikes down the Washington, D.C. ban on handgun ownership. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces support for the “Fairness Doctrine” in broadcast regulation.
Letters
Open letter to Congress on Dodd-Frank mortgage housing bill
Open letter to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives As groups representing millions of taxpayers nationwide, we are writing to respectfully urge you to…
Newsletter
Spaniards Sue Greenpeace, Judge Orders His Salary Raised and New Hampshire’s Symbolic Initiative
Coastal residents in Spain threaten to sue Greenpeace after the group’s predictions of sea level rise from global warming cause local real estate prices to…
Newsletter
Green Jobs, Eminent Domain and New Oil Refineries
A new report by unions and environmental groups predicts a rosy future for “green collar” jobs. The American Civil Liberties Union campaigns against reform of…
Hot Air
Too Fat to Fire?
Newsletter
Green Homes, Free Trade and Housing Discrimination
Multi-million dollar homes raise controversy for claiming “green” building credentials. Congress prepares to consider a new trade agreement with Colombia. An appeals court rules apartment…
Op-Eds
Follies of the FHA: Another subprime idea
“How could they have been so stupid?” That's the million-dollar question being asked as mortgage defaults have increased on loans that carried much more…
Study
Regulatory Competition: A Primer
Full Document Available in PDF Government regulation is often perceived as a good way to…
Op-Eds
Opposing view: Plan Hurts Future Borrowers
The government sure has a funny prescription for restoring confidence in America's credit markets. It purports to solve the nation's credit crunch — a…
Newsletter
CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENVIRONMENT House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell proposes new energy taxes…
Study
The Law of the Sea Treaty
The genesis of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), widely known as the “constitution of the oceans,” runs back more than 60 years. The…
Op-Eds
Tax hike ahead
USA TODAY's debate on private equity taxation raised important points but overlooked a key fact (“Decoy on tax fairness,” Our view; “…
Op-Eds
Bush’s Credit Issues
In the midst of what’s called the subprime mortgage “contagion,” President Bush seems to have caught a virus of his own: Potomac paternalism syndrome.
Study
A Village’s Travail
Full Document Available in PDF Rosia Montana, a poor mining town in the Transylvanian…
Op-Eds
Bankrupting Florida
If a catastrophic Katrina-like hurricane sweeps through the state of Florida, it may leave behind more than wrecked houses, damaged shops, and ruined roads:…
News Release
New Study Charts the Growth of Environmental Law
Washington, D.C., July 17, 2007—According to a new study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the conventional idea that progressive environmental causes suffer under conservative…
Letters
A Letter Urging Congress to Reject Capital Gains Tax Hikes
Dear Representative, On behalf of the millions of grassroots investors who are members of our organizations, we strongly urge you to reject any increase…
Op-Eds
Chuck Schumer Thinks You’re Stupid
In his new book, entitled “Positively American,” Chuck Schumer wants you to know that he has a vision. Yes, in between leading efforts…
Op-Eds
Hurricane Eye on Insurers
Throughout the hurricane zone that follows <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America's Atlantic coastline from Texas to North Carolina, a populist…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Issues in the News 1. ENERGY Consumers nationwide…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. REGULATION Maryland lawmakers approve a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.
Op-Eds
Unsustainable Environmentalism
Environmental activists use the term “sustainable development” to convey the notion that they’re not merely knee-jerk anti-business zealots and that they are all in…
Op-Eds
Free the Eagle: The bird will do fine off the endangered list
T he bald eagle was supposed to be taken off the Endangered Species list in 48 states on February 16, but environmental pressure groups and…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Issues in the News 1. ENVIRONMENT…
Study
A Free Market Agenda for the 110th Congress
Washington, D.C., January 10, 2007—Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute releases its policy recommendations for the new leadership on Capitol Hill: This Liberal Congress Went to…
Study
This Liberal Congress Went to Market: a Bipartisan Policy Agenda for the 110th Congress
DO…
News Release
A Free Market Agenda for the 110th Congress
Contact: Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 Washington, D.C., January 10, 2007—Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute releases its policy recommendations for the new leadership…
Op-Eds
Junk Cinema
Fast Food Nation kicks off with a suit-clad fast food chain boss telling one of his executives to investigate a meat packing plant rumored to…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. TECHNOLOGY The White House appoints a new “Cybersecurity Czar” to oversee federal computer security…
News Release
New ‘Center for Entrepreneurship’ to Examine Financial Regulation
Contact: Christine Hall, 202.331.2258 Washington, D.C., August 24, 2006— The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce the launch of a new…
Letters
Letter to the FCC regarding “must carry” laws for cable operators
Full Document Available in PDF The undersigned organizations would…
News Release
Trouble at Treasury: Paulson Wrong Choice for Secretary
Washington, D.C., May 30, 2006—The White House made an unfortunate mistake in nominating Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to be the next Secretary of the Treasury, according…
Letters
Letter to Congress in Support of Sugar Reform Amendment
Full Document Available in PDF…
Products
CEI Planet: March – April 2006
Full Document Available in PDF New Era, or ‘Ancien Régime,’…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ECONOMY The White House announces a federal investigation into the causes behind current high gas prices.
Op-Eds
Careful What You Wish For
If you wanted to lower electric energy prices in the US, what would you do? If you answered, “Cripple the domestic railroad industry,” you'd…
Letters
ESA Coalition Letter to Senator James M. Inhofe
Full Document Available in PDF…
News Release
Supreme Court Reviews Water Quality Regulations
The U.S. Supreme Court today hears arguments over the reach and constitutionality of the Clean Water Act, setting the stage for a potentially…
Op-Eds
Our Miserly Uncle
Although it may be heresy for a libertarian or a conservative to say, I really like living in Washington. I try to be grateful every…
Op-Eds
Starborn Society
Science fiction has long been stereotyped as a hardware-obsessed, techno-jargon laden refuge for computer nerds and outcasts. Especially on television, which lacks the geek…
Study
MSA Opposition Brief
Full Document Available in PDF…
Op-Eds
A Windfall of Bad Ideas
In the third-quarter of 2005, the major U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Shell Oil Company—collectively earned almost $26 billion in profits, an…
News Release
Supreme Court Nominee Alito Good News
Washington, D.C., October 31, 2005—The President's nomination of Third Circuit Judge Sam Alito to serve on the Supreme Court is good news.<?xml:namespace prefix…
News Release
Trade Liberalization Again Threatened by Agricultural Special Interests
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., October 20, 2005— The world's best hope for eliminating poverty – the continued liberalization…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. PROPERTY RIGHTS City officials in Washington, D.C. plan to use eminent domain to acquire land…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
1. CONSTITUTIONAL & LEGAL CEI launches a lawsuit challenging the government-sponsored tobacco cartel created by the 1998 multi-state tobacco settlement. CEI…
Op-Eds
Property Rights Yield to Corporate Welfare, by Hans Bader
Americans can wave goodbye to constitutional property rights protections, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 that a Connecticut city could condemn the homes…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. LEGAL & CONSTITUTIONAL Property rights activists organize and a Montana Congressman introduces legislation to counter the Supreme…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENVIRONMENT The White House is backing a bill that would allow for offshore fish farms in…
News Release
Career Scientist Nominated as EPA Head
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
News Release
UN Sea Treaty Brings ‘Tragedy of the Commons’
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
News Release
Alien Torts: The Risks of Allowing Foreign Citizens to Sue U.S. Companies
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />June 25, 2003…
News Release
CEI Joins Center for Private Conservation, Heritage Foundation to Celebrate ‘Private Conservation Day’
Video of the event is available online. Contact: Judy Kent 202-331-2266 On April 14, 2003, the nation’s top land management…
News Release
The Blueprint for Building A New Iraq
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., April 15, 2003—As U.S. and British forces begin to wrap up their mission in…
CEI Planet
February Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition:…
News Release
Boost Your Environmental IQ Online
Washington, D.C., February 7, 2003—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is launching a new online feature, the "e-class" quiz, this week. The quiz, developed by CEI’s…
News Release
Success Of New Book Shows: Many Americans Don’t Believe Gloom And Doom Theories
Washington, D.C., January 14, 2003—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is celebrating the success of its latest book on environmental issues,…
Products
January Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “The Grim Green…
Products
November/December 2002 Edition of CEI Update
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “FDA’s Pediatric Rule…