Equality and Opportunity

New York recently legalized the sale of cannabis, and entrepreneurs looking to get in on the green rush are now free to submit license applications. But, because of their race, some applicants will find it harder than others to obtain a license. New York requires “priority licensing” to individuals on the basis of race and … ...

The box-office hit Wonka is a wild flight of imagination, but within the glamor and fantasy lies a hard truth: The mighty often manipulate government power to shut out competitors, stifling innovation and individual rights. The regulatory barriers manipulated by Willy Wonka’s powerful rivals to stymie entrepreneurs are all too real. In the fi ...

Your gender shouldn’t disqualify you from a public position: That’s the key takeaway from Pacific Legal Foundation’s district court victory in Hurley v. Gast in Iowa.   In the late 1980s, the Iowa state legislature passed several bills requiring state boards and commissions to be gender balanced. The move was part of a larger, w ...

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a critical case about homelessness called City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. I wrote about this last week, and Fox News published my opinion. In this op-ed, I write: The plight of the homeless calls out to anyone with a heart. Drug and alcohol addiction, mental … ...

“In 2009, I began treating a 9-year-old from New Jersey,” oncologist Shannon MacDonald recalls in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the awful consequences of telehealth restrictions.   The 9-year-old had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. His New Jersey doctors referred him to Dr. MacDonald, who works at Mass General and is an expert  ...

It is understandable that given the status of the gymnastics lawsuit, the shool district finds itself in a tough spot. But the District should not invite a second lawsuit by singling out boys in an effort to comply with a misguided understanding of Title IX. … ...

GOP governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Alabama’s Kay Ivey have been making splashy headlines for attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards at companies like BlackRock and Disney. But the laws of their own states allow racial preferences in education, employme ...

This article first appeared in the wall 2023 edition of Sword&Scales. This year California legislators tried to create new criminal penalties for parents who “harass” school board officials or disrupt school board meetings. The legislators drafted a vague bill that defined harassment as two or more acts directed at an education offi ...

This article first appeared in the winter 2023 edition of Sword&Scales. The birth of a child is a sacred experience in a mother’s life. How and where she chooses to bring her baby into the world is a deeply personal decision that should be free from government interference. Yet in some states, certificate-of-need (CON) laws … ...