239 years later, the Constitution still depends on the people
On September 17, 1787, delegates in Philadelphia signed the finalized U.S. Constitution. Two hundred thirty-nine years later, Constitution Day seems to hit a little harder than it has before. Perhaps it's because we just celebrated America's 250th birthday two months ago. Or maybe it's because we lost constitutional scholar Gordon S. Wood a few wee ...
USA Today : Medicare now covers CBD, but Congress wants to ban it
A new Medicare pilot program covers hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products to treat certain patients, even as Congress is moving forward with a law that will effectively wipe those same products off the market. The resulting policy quagmire threatens patient access, undermines the work of entrepreneurs and highlights a deeper truth: Hemp alread ...
The Hill : More discrimination among expectant moms is a bad prescription
Weeks before her due date, first-time mother Erica Jimenez sought help with her pregnancy. Yet Jimenez was excluded from California's Black Infant Health Program because she was not the right race. When Jimenez attempted to access the program, a representative told her that the program was not for her and offered to show her other resources. Exc ...
The making of John Locke—and the ideas that made America
America's 250th birthday has provided plenty of reasons to revisit the men and ideas behind the country's Founding. But another birthday passed at the end of August with considerably less fanfare, despite belonging to a man without whom the American experiment might have looked very different. On August 29, 1632, English philosopher John Locke w ...
Austin American-Statesman : Yes to women in sports. No to rigid quotas in Title IX enforcement
A recent piece in the Austin American-Statesman asked: "Who decided girls don't really want to compete?" But no serious commentator disputes that plenty of women enjoy competing, even at the highest levels of sport. The real policy question is: Who should decide how athletic opportunities are allocated? Should federal bureaucrats impose a stifli ...
Wall Street Journal : Don’t Write Plymouth’s History by Ancestry
Millions visit Plymouth, Mass., to see the birthplace of American self-government. Yet today the town decides who participates in that government based on their ancestry. Plymouth occupies a singular place in the American story, with a rich history of the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag people and their complicated relationship. The town has chosen to p ...
Reason : SCOTUS Said You Can’t Lose Gun Rights for Smoking Pot. But You Could Still Lose a Government License To Work.
In June, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Hemani that the government can't strip your right to possess a firearm just because you smoke marijuana. Yet an old drug conviction could still stop you from waxing eyebrows, cutting hair, or giving massages. Hemani highlights a double standard in constitutional law: Courts roll out th ...
CON Quarterly : New research, a state legislative round-up, and CON news coverage
Welcome back to your quarterly dose of Certificate of Need news— As a reminder, in markets where the government requires a certificate of need or CON, those who wish to offer a new service or expand an existing service must first prove to a regulator that the service is needed. As the name suggests, the regulator's primary task is to determine i ...
National Review : A Colorblind Constitution Is Not Just a Partisan Pet Project
"Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens," Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan famously wrote in his dissent in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. It would take decades to dismantle the Jim Crow system of racial segregation challenged in that case. Through those years, Harlan's vision of colorbl ...