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The measure proposes that local governments need only claim that fracking might somehow harm someone—under the so-called “precautionary principle,” they need not offer any evidence, much less prove anything—to trample the rights of energy producers and of the property owners with whom those producers contract.

Government funds its schools by forcibly confiscating wealth from individuals, in violation of their moral right to decide for themselves how to use their money. An inevitable consequence is that government seizes wealth from many people who do not benefit from or approve of the government schools they are forced to finance.

Pharmacist Philip Hall is suing Walgreens, alleging that the company violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it fired him for refusing, on religious grounds, to sell the birth-control drug Plan B. But Walgreens is a pharmacy; the notion that it should be forbidden to require its employees who are hired to sell pharmaceuticals to actually sell pharmaceuticals is absurd.

As a chapter of the NAACP once concluded, “the ready access to a lifetime of welfare and free social service programs is a major contributory factor to the crime problems we face today.” The same holds for the related problems usually associated with high-crime neighborhoods, including high rates of absentee fathers, rampant drug abuse, gang violence, and the like.

Despite federal controls, American energy producers have dramatically expanded the production of domestic oil and natural gas, keeping consumer prices relatively low and providing work for millions of Americans. Cruz is right that restraining the federal government’s power to throttle energy producers will substantially free them to continue and expand their work.

The fundamental problem is that the government is unlawfully maintaining possession of the lands in question and failing to recognize legitimate property rights over those lands. Because the federal government “owns” the wilderness lands in question, in practice no one truly owns them; their control is at the mercy of political factions.

What do you get when one of the world’s great classical guitarists, Thomas Valeur, teams up with the “Queen of Shred” heavy-metal guitarist, The Commander in Chief? Last year, the two collaborated on a reorchestration of Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeuenerweisen. The result is an excellent performance by two talented musicians.

Legally mandated sick pay violates the moral rights of employers and employees to mutually agree to terms of employment. Government’s only proper role in this area is to protect the rights of employers and job seekers to contract voluntarily so that they can live their lives in accordance with their own judgment.

Especially encouraging is that George Will attempts to come to grips with the question of why individuals have rights. As Craig Biddle and Stephen Bourque write in response to an earlier article by Will in which he wrestles with the issue of rights, “rights are recognitions of certain factual requirements of human life and prosperity on earth.”

"Deeply held" irrational beliefs are still irrational, whether those beliefs call for handling dangerous snakes or burning “witches” or flying airplanes into buildings. Integrity does not consist in loyalty to irrational principles or beliefs; it consists in loyalty to rational principles—principles based in observation and logic and in service of human life.

The Obama administration is “putting off its decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, likely until after the November elections,” the Associated Press reports, illustrating how leftist political maneuvering continues to delay this vital project. The developers have a moral right to use their minds, to develop technologies, and to offer their products in the marketplace.

In terms of politics, the fundamental issue is not whether and in what ways individuals are willing to voluntarily share their wealth. The fundamental issue is whether individuals have a moral right to decide how to use their wealth. Real (classical) liberals hold that individuals have such a right; modern (leftist) “liberals” hold that individuals have no such right.

I'm delighted to announce the launch of TOS’s new website. Our staff and developers have worked hard toward making the site easy to navigate and a pleasure to use. I hope you find it so. A number of tasks and improvements remain to be done, and we will be working on these over the next few weeks.

Slade Mendenhall reviews The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty, by Timothy Sandefur.

Ari Armstrong reviews Responsibility & Luck: A Defense of Praise and Blame, by Diana Hsieh.