Minnesota curbs asset forfeiture abuse by preventing law enforcement agencies from using forfeiture to confiscate property unless the owner has actually been convicted of a crime, or a close equivalent.
A Scintillating Summer Seminar on Political Economy
The city only allowed advertisements that "adequately display[]" a proposal for a commercial transaction. The court held that the gun training ad -- which had both political and commercial elements -- was wrongly rejected under this policy.
The Slaughterhouse Cases is one of the most despised decisions in American constitutional law. Scholars commonly describe the case as eviscerating the Privileges or Immunities Clause and closing the door on incorporating the Bill of Rights against the states. Neither assertion is true. In fact, Justice Miller’s opinion is remarkably consistent with the original understanding […]
"It is time to let that beacon of freedom shine brighter on all our brothers and sisters."
The video of yesterday’s Cato Institute panel on the Origination Clause challenge to the Obamacare individual health insurance mandate is now available. The participants are Timothy Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation (who had just argued the case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals), Simon Lazarus of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center, and myself. […]
The court says the inclusion of "under God" in the (voluntary) school pledge doesn't violate the Massachusetts Constitution's equal protection provision. Other courts had said the same about the federal Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses.
Louisiana has an unusually strongly worded right to bear arms provision in its Constitution, which expressly mandates "strict scrutiny" of "[a]ny restriction of this right."
Today is F.A. Hayek's 115th birthday. Hayek was a Nobel Prize-winning economist and highly influential libertarian political theorist. Many of his ideas remain relevant to modern policy debates.
"[F]or a year no lawyer was prepared to take up the case because of fear of reprisals from extremist religious groups.... Mr Rehman [the murdered lawyer] ... [had] decided to defend Mr Hafeez despite reportedly receiving death threats."
