After the California Assembly's Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee recently voted 11-0 to support a far-reaching, speech-quelling, lawsuit-promoting bill in the name of protecting "the children," Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R–Rocklin) posted this on X: "The most simple bill ever and I was pleased to support it after a lot of heartburn. All the bill says is companies are liable if they don't 'exercise ordinary care or skill towards a child.' Do you disagree?" Well, yes, I disagree, but more on that in a moment. When asked by a reporter about his gut reaction, Patterson doubl ..read more

4/26/1995: U.S. v. Lopez decided. The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 26, 1995 appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

You have to respect anybody willing to tell powerful government officials to get stuffed, and tech titan Elon Musk is pretty good at doing exactly that. While sometimes thin-skinned himself and not always consistent in his free speech principles, the head of social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is the best of the bunch among his peers when it comes to facing down censors. His latest battle is with Australian officials who want to restrict the entire world's access to recordings of a crime. The dispute involves video of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at Good Shepherd Church in ..read more

A mysterious album filled with photos of smiling happy Nazis picnicking and partying shows up at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007. The first page is inscribed, "Auschwitz, June 21, 1944." Where did it come from, and how should archivists dedicated to preserving the memory of the millions killed in Nazi death camps handle it? Tight and exquisitely staged, the play Here There Are Blueberries (based on actual events) answers those questions in a riveting 90 minutes. Developed by the Tectonic Theater Project, it is being staged at the New York Theatre Workshop from April 17 un ..read more

Littleton, Colorado, police have arrested Kiarra Jones on charges of third-degree assault for crimes against an at-risk juvenile. Video captured Jones, a paraprofessional with Littleton Public Schools, slapping a 10-year-old boy with autism in the face, stomping his feet, and elbowing him in the stomach as they rode a school bus to a school for students with autism. The parents of that boy and two other students who rode that bus said they have complained for months about injuries to their children. The post Brickbat: Bus Stopped appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

Today the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Trump v. United States, the presidential immunity case. Much of the argument concerned issues left unresolved during the Trump presidency.  First, during the Mueller investigation, it was alleged that Trump violated the federal obstruction of justice statute. I, and others, countered that a criminal statute should only apply to the President if there is a "clear statement" to that effect. In other words, a general criminal statute should not be read to apply to the President.  Second, it is true that in 1995, the Office of Legal Counsel ..read more

Without "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution for their "official acts," Donald Trump's lawyer told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, presidents will be afraid to do their jobs. "If a president can be charged, put on trial, and imprisoned for his most controversial decisions as soon as he leaves office, that looming threat will distort the president's decision making precisely when bold and fearless action is most needed," D. John Sauer warned the justices during oral arguments in Trump v. United States. "Prosecuting the president for his official acts is an innovation with no footh ..read more

As pro-Palestine demonstrations erupt at college campuses across the nation, several public colleges in Texas have come under fire for cracking down on peaceful protests. While public universities are bound by the First Amendment, a March executive order by Gov. Greg Abbot forces colleges to suppress antisemitic speech, seemingly motivating some of the universities' responses this month. Following the arrests of over 100 students at a tent encampment at Columbia University, pro-Palestine, anti-Israel protests in solidarity with the Columbia protesters have sprung up at colleges across the cou ..read more

(Miguel Juarez Lugo/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom) I and others have long argued that making legal migration easier is the best way to reduce disorder at the border. To a large extent, this basic Economics 101: if a much-coveted good or service is banned or severely restricted, that predictably creates a large black market. Thus, just as alcohol prohibition led to widespread bootlegging and illegal purchases from the likes of Al Capone, so severe migration restrictions predictably incentivize illegal migration. In a new paper for the Peterson Institute for International Economics, my George Mason Univers ..read more

"Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters broke U.S. record in 2023, NOAA says,"  reported PBS earlier this year. "NOAA: US sees record number of billion-dollar weather, climate disasters in 2023," observed Fox Weather. "U.S. Hit by Record Number of High-Cost Disasters in 2023," declared The New York Times. These and many more headlines were based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) January press release reporting the agency's annual tally of weather disasters. It states: The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has released the fina ..read more