In response to popular demand, The University of Chicago Federalist Society has posted a podcast of my recent debate on Kelo and post-Kelo eminent domain reform with former U of Chicago Law School Dean Saul Levmore. Current UC Dean Michael Schill moderated. The podcast is available here. A good tim ...

As a general rule, I avoid aggressive monitoring of comments. Megan McArdle explains my reasoning well in describing her own similar policy: As y’all know, I exercise a pretty light hand on the comments section. That’s a tough choice. I could probably have a more civil comments section if I were m ...

Cato Unbound has recently completed an interesting debate between several scholars on the strengths and weaknesses of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. All of the contributions are worth reading for those interested in the subject. But I agree most with University of Colorado political philosopher Michael Huem ...

With Nick Gillespie: Plus: Heritage has a panel discussion tomorrow in Washington, D.C. on "The Impact of the Citizens United Decision on Federal Elections." And Ilya Shapiro at Cato-at-Liberty explains why "When Individuals Form Corporations, They Don't Lose Their Rights."...

This Thursday from 12:15 to 1:30, I will be debating former University of Chicago Law School Dean Saul Levmore on Kelo v. New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform — the biggest political backlash generated by any Supreme Court decision in many decades. Current UC Dean Michael Schill will moder ...

In a recent LA Times op ed, David Boaz of the Cato Institute joins economist David Henderson in interpreting the blockbuster film Avatar as a defense of property rights: Conservatives have been very critical of the Golden Globe-winning film “Avatar” for its mystical melange of trite leftist themes. ...

Radley Balko has an interesting article in Reason detailing the many abuses of the asset forfeiture system, which often allows police to seize property without compensation — even in cases where the owners have not been convicted of any crime: Over the past three decades, it has become routine in t ...

My favorite recent political quote is this one by John Edwards: On many nights, my phone would ring and I would hear the senator [Edwards] on the other end. Sometimes he sounded petty and irritated by ordinary events. He especially hated making appearances at county fairs, where ‘fat rednecks try t ...

In the State of the Union, Obama continued to blame Bush and the Republicans for our current economic problems. This is understandable for two reasons. First,the GOP does deserve a good deal of blame, though my list of their misdeeds would probably look different from Obama’s. Second, pretty much an ...

There weren’t many surprises in the State of the Union. However, there were two interesting unexpected twists. First, Obama called for gays to be allowed to serve openly in the military. I’m not surprised that Obama supports this. But I am surprised that he has decided to make a push on that front ...