Articles

Senator Mike Lee stepped onto a political land mine when he proposed the federal government sell a tiny pinch of the 640 million acres that it owns, most of it west of the Rockies. Politicos from left and right condemned the proposal as a betrayal of a grand heritage. I too have an issue with Senator Lee's proposal: It doesn't go far enough. Not on ...

Money talks, and the government listens. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, federal authorities can turn any bank account into a window on our private spending. But that may soon change. A family business in Texas, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, has just sued to restore financial privacy. The Bank Secrecy Act authorizes the Treasury Departmen ...

DOGE has grand plans to shrink bureaucracy, but the ride has been bumpy. Those bumps include court decisions that have slowed the president's efforts to cut government waste. But frustrated DOGE fans should not forget that courts play a vital role in achieving DOGE's goal of limited government. For now, there is no love lost between DOGE and som ...

If the government severely restricts your use of your property, should you receive "just compensation," as promised in the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause? That's the question presented in regulatory takings cases, in which the property owner still owns the property but cannot make full use of it. In Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's well-worn words ...

Legend says the outlaw Butch Cassidy hid vast stashes of loot across the West. But those still hunting for Cassidy's treasure could join the Wild Bunch in outlaw status. Hunting for buried treasure on federal lands, it turns out, is a federal crime, and almost all the West where Cassidy roamed is federal land. But that's not all. If you were to ...

There comes a time in a politician's campaign when the most he can muster is to throw candy into the crowd. President Biden has reached that time. The candy, in this case, is the daft proposal unveiled by the president during a speech this week to foist federal rent control on the country. Like most candy, the wrapping is tawdry and the flavor fade ...

Individual rights are the answer to a just society. But individualism—the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of each person—is more than a policy solution. It's a way of life. We who advocate for individual liberty in the political arena will become better advocates for freedom when we embrace individualism, not only in white papers, lega ...

Democracy has sprung a leak. While the American public's eyes are trained on political pageantry, our pockets are being picked. Pundits scream about political candidates as if they alone can destroy or save democracy as we know it. Beneath this high drama, however, is a quieter but more insidious threat to democracy than any one election. That t ...

School segregation has risen from the grave—disguised under a different name. An increasing number of school districts are offering "affinity classes" that cater to specific racial groups. Schools have long offered racially segregated options for electives such as African American history or mentorship programs. But the idea has begun to expan ...