politics | Learn Liberty

Huge net costs from Trump’s new executive order cutting refugees

March 11, 2017 | Post

President Trump earlier this week issued a revised version of his infamous executive order to temporarily ban the issuance of new green cards and visas for nationals from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. The new order dropped Iraq, which eviscerated Trump’s argument that the list of banned countries is based on an existing list […]

In praise of safe spaces on campus

March 9, 2017 | Post

I want to come out in favor of safe spaces. Not everywhere, or for all purposes, but in general I think there should be a strong presumption in favor of limited and exclusive safe spaces for any group that wants to establish one. Of course, the group would need to have the ability and legal […]

Turn off the rage machine: Stop reading the news

March 9, 2017 | Post

We’re consuming entertainment, not insight, when we keep up with the news.

The revised “travel ban” is much better legally

March 8, 2017 | Post

If this new executive order had been what was was signed initially—combined with the normal interagency process and briefing of border officials as to how to implement it—President Trump wouldn’t have provoked the type of political response he did or the legal quagmire he entered. This order is much more narrowly tailored, providing exemptions not […]

The battle to make America wet again

March 8, 2017 | Post

The forgotten story of how American women turned the tide against Prohibition and reclaimed the moral high ground from the dry movement.

The less work required, the happier we’ll be

March 8, 2017 | Post

Jobs are the means, not the ends in themselves.

42 percent of “terrorism-related” convictions aren’t for terrorism

March 7, 2017 | Post

The administration’s revised travel ban still misses the mark.

Anonymity and doxing in the 1787 ratification debates

March 7, 2017 | Post

The American founding generation had this crazy idea that ideas mattered more than who espoused them.

The business case for supersonic overland

March 7, 2017 | Post

Wouldn’t a fleet of supersonic aircraft overland create intolerable sonic booms that would rattle windows and scare livestock?

Why sex work should be legal

March 6, 2017 | Post

The most straightforward reason to oppose the criminalization of the sex industry is that trading sex for money is not wrong.

Here are 10 classic films that will make you question government

March 5, 2017 | Post

Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or a diehard cinephile, you will learn a lot about government from watching these ten great movies, all of which are rated as being some of the best of all time by IMDb and the American Film Institute.

Refugees, immigration, and the trolley problem

March 5, 2017 | Post

During the presidential campaign Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, tweeted a picture of a bowl of Skittles candies along with the caption: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.” Trump’s tweet generated backlash from many corners but […]

The key questions any Obamacare replacement must answer

March 4, 2017 | Post

What does it really mean to “repeal and replace” Obamacare?

Why congressional term limits could limit presidential power

March 3, 2017 | Post

The incentive structure of the federal government needs adjusting.

The right to hope for jury nullification

March 2, 2017 | Post

Jae Lee came to the United States legally as a child but never became a citizen. In 2009, he pled guilty to a drug crime after his lawyer assured him that he could not be deported as a result. The lawyer was wrong, because the conviction made Lee subject to mandatory removal. When Lee learned […]

Why can’t you pay for sex?

March 1, 2017 | Post

Consensual sex is legal. But as soon as one party offers cash to another in exchange for sex and that money is voluntarily accepted, it’s considered prostitution, and that is illegal.

What federalism does for individual liberty

March 1, 2017 | Post

The state’s comprise the federal government; not the other way around.

Was Marbury v. Madison a judicial power grab?

February 28, 2017 | Post

Judges’ duty is to interpret the law, discover the facts, and apply the Constitution — no exceptions.

Individual liberty for a diverse society: Public reason liberalism

February 27, 2017 | Post

Even well informed people of good will have very different religious, moral, and philosophic views.

Was Obamacare truly evil, or just a missed opportunity?

February 26, 2017 | Post

I do favor some role for the government. One idea for overcoming the free rider problem is mandatory health saving accounts and catastrophic insurance. (The alternative is letting people who choose not to be insured simply die when they are sick. Even if that’s the right policy, society is not willing to adopt it—so health savings accounts seem like a good second best policy.)