Politics & Rights

If you have the right to do something, you shouldn’t need to provide the government with a “good and substantial reason” to exercise that right. You shouldn’t need to plead with bureaucrats to publish the book of your choice, marry the consenting spouse of your choice, or pursue the career…

Welfare recipients are spending our money at strip clubs, liquor stores, casinos, and amusement parks. Granted, this is outrageous, but it is not the fundamental injustice at hand. Colorado’s 9News recently published a report detailing unorthodox uses of the state’s welfare system. The station investigated transactions “involving Colorado Quest cards,…

A criminal trial stemming from a 2010 incident that drew national attention began in New Brunswick, NJ on February 24, 2012. The defendant, Dharun Ravi, allegedly spied on his Rutgers college roommate Tyler Clementi with another man via webcam, and subsequently distributed the recordings via Twitter. The prosecution claims that Ravi…

The Supreme Court slapped the faces of property owners in its 2005 Kelo v. New London decision. As the Institute for Justice (IJ) reviews: Susette Kelo dreamed of owning a home that looked out over the water. She purchased and lovingly restored her little pink house [in a neighborhood of…

In a brief video, constitutional law professor Elizabeth Price Foley discusses the Institute for Justice’s amicus brief, which she co-authored, on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s an excerpt: It’s always been the case under Anglo-American law that contracts have to be…

Frequent and prolonged use of cigarettes has been conclusively linked to significantly increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and a host of other dangerous and unseemly health problems. Governments have seized on this fact as a license to tax, regulate, and slowly criminalize tobacco. Some argue that government is justified…

Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke advocated the federal government’s requirement that insurance companies provide “free” birth control, arguing that, without it, women "struggle financially" and feel “powerless.” In response, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut,” the New York Daily News reports. Fluke fired back, saying Limbaugh’s “language…

The Founders did not say that Americans have the “privilege” of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the Founders recognized that Americans have an inalienable right to those things. Yet Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner claims the federal government should forcibly confiscate more wealth from some citizens, as this is…

Every adult knows that smoking too many cigarettes can lead to serious health consequences (as can over-consumption of countless other things). Adults, however, have a right to make decisions for themselves, and businessmen have a right to market their products as they see fit, so long as they do not…

In his latest email to subscribers, Jason Calacanis pondered: Anyone who . . . used Groupon, Farmville, Facebook, Angry Birds or LinkedIn in the first year knew they were good investments and should have been allowed to invest. Only the rich were allowed to invest. How is that fair? It’s…