Today the Senate joined the House of Representatives in repealing the ban against homosexuals serving in the military.  In 1993 Congress enacted 10 U.S.C. § 654, which effectively prohibits homosexuals from serving in the armed forces. The statute demands immediate separation from the armed forces of a person who (1) engages in or attempts...
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Right now the score card is 2 judges in favor and one against the insurance mandate. According to reports, it might soon be 2-2. This report is from the New York Times: In a three-hour hearing, the judge, Roger Vinson of Federal District Court, said the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance, a...
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Despite the nation finding itself in a very slow recovery, one part of the country is doing very well. Newsweek reports that seven of the nation’s ten highest-income counties are in the Washington, D.C., area. Four of the highest-income counties are in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland and three are in Virginia. Also in...
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Encountering a mad dog one day, the cat inquired of this menace: Republican or Democrat? The dog’s mouth foamed freely with cash and honey, and he said: “Who cares? It’s all about the money.”  – He then led the cat down a garden path, all smiles and promises, till he turned in his wrath....
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I’ve been watching the negotiations on extending the Bush tax cuts take shape, and in the compromise shaping up between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress, nobody will get exactly what they want. But, I was surprised to read Fareed Zakaria’s assessment in the Washington Post, because I think of him as a...
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U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson’s ruling today affirms that there are limits to Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause. Congress’s attempt to force Americans to participate in the market for health insurance is a bridge too far under current precedent. Judge Hudson rightly recognized that requiring Americans to participate in commerce to is...
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You probably have seen stories like this about student riots in Britain last week protesting tuition hikes. The hikes are fairly substantial, roughly tripling the tuition students will be asked to pay. What I find unsettling about this is that people in what we think of as a very civilized country that recognizes individual...
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C-SPAN2′s Book TV will air the Independent Institute’s Policy Forum, “Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion in America,” that was held in Washington, D.C., and features Senior Fellow Robert H. Nelson and his new Institute book, The New Holy Wars. Dr. Nelson is joined by Steven F. Hayward (F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow, American Enterprise Institute) and...
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Plato supposed communism — not only of property, but also of wives and children — to be an ideal social arrangement. Jesus told his disciples to sell all that they owned and give the proceeds to the poor. Through the ages, little sects more numerous than anyone can count have embraced some form of...
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Independent Institute Research Fellow Edward Lopéz, Associate Professor of Law and Economics at San Jose State University and editor of the new Institute book The Pursuit of Justice, talks with Institute President David Theroux about the faulty incentives at the heart of government legal failures and whether market-based alternatives can provide viable solutions to...
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