Articles

On June 27, the Supreme Court held in Janus v. AFSCME that workers' First Amendment rights prohibit states from authorizing public sector unions to take money from non-members without the workers' express and clear consent. In response, some advocates suggest that states could avoid the First Amendment issue by simply allocating tax dollars from th ...

Public employee unions and sympathetic legislatures in many states have combined to perpetuate union power. One way they do this is by getting government employers – like a school district – to pay union leaders to work for the union. They negotiate a contract that gives certain teachers "release time" – basically, excusing them from teaching class ...

The Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), added to the State constitution by the voters in 1992, requires that voters approve all state and local tax increases. To avoid TABOR's requirement of voter approval, state and local governments oftentimes characterize a charge as a fee, because TABOR does not require fees to be approved by the voters ...

When the green grass has been freshly cut, each piece of gravel in the infield is in place, and the pitcher's mound is perfectly raised, it can mean only one thing. It's baseball season. The New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals are set to open the 2016 Major League Baseball season this Sunday in a rematch of last season's Fall Classic. And as y ...

This morning the Federalist Society published my blog post regarding the recent announcement of the the St. Louis Rams moving to Los Angeles, their home for 49 years. In the post I discuss why taxpayer and property rights advocates should be excited about the move. In the post, I explain: There is a long history of cities subsidizing expensive spo ...

People support school choice for many reasons. Most support it because it's the last best hope for their children to get a decent education. Some hope that it is a means to mitigate the impacts of racial and income segregation. Still others support it as an alternative to the highly-politicized resolution of sensitive religious and philosophical co ...