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November 29, 2018|Betsy DeVos, colleges, Heather Mac Donald, Obama administration, sexual misconduct

The Feds Should Not Regulate Colleges’ Policing of Student Misconduct

by John O. McGinnis|

Department of Education Building in Washington, DC (Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com).
Liberty is lost in moral panics: we ought to remember this when we ask the federal government to offer rules for handling campus sexual misconduct.

August 15, 2018|Brett Kavanaugh, Bush Administration, Jim Jeffords, judicial confirmation, Neil Gorsuch, Obama administration, Supreme Court

Confirmation Wars and Constitutional Authority, Part I

by James Wallner|

Judge Neil Gorsuch testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2017 (Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock Photo).
Senators should remember that the purpose of the confirmation process is not to confirm the president's nominee: it is to protect the judiciary.

January 15, 2018|DACA, Donald Trump, Dream Act, Executive Power, Judge William Alsup, Marbury v. Madison, Ninth Circuit, Obama administration, Rule of Law

The Constitutionalism of Caprice

by Greg Weiner|

Presidents come and go but so, as defenders of DACA ought also to know, do judges.

October 5, 2016|Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, National Labor Relations Act, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB v. Noel Canning, Obama administration, Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

Labor Pains

by Mark Pulliam|

When thinking about the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, most observers recall the 2014 decision in NLRB v. Noel Canning, in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Obama’s kangaroo-court “recess appointments”—made when the Senate was not actually in recess—were invalid.

Noel Canning was a huge setback for the administration, requiring the NLRB to reconsider 700 decisions rendered during the period in which it lacked a legitimate quorum.

Few have noticed, however, that the Board has not altered its course since that defeat.

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September 23, 2016|airline mergers, Antitrust, David Henderson, deregulation, Obama administration, second best

Deregulation Is Best for Competition, but Antitrust Can Be Second-Best

by John O. McGinnis|

Over at our sister site, the Library of Economics and Liberty, David Henderson has a post taking some issue with my view that the Obama administration’s antitrust division should not have agreed to the US Airways/American Airlines merger. He argues that the better course is not to block the merger and instead to permit the building of more airport landing slots and allow foreign airlines to fly between U.S. cities.

I agree entirely with these deregulatory measures. Indeed in prior posts, I have called for some of them. But the soundness of such policy proposals does not advance the case for this merger. The Justice Department has no power to deregulate airport construction; such zoning is controlled by state and local authorities. Even foreign airline entry is controlled by another agency: the Department of Transportation. By law and competition theory, the Department should take the world as it finds it.

As a matter of law, the antitrust merger guidelines tell competition regulators to consider ease of entry as part of assessing whether an industry is too concentrated to permit a given merger. And these guidelines make sense. If entry is easy, concentration of incumbents becomes less relevant, because they remain price takers, deterred by fear of new competitors from raising prices above competitive levels. But when entry is difficult, that crucial discipline is absent.

More generally, antitrust regulators cannot assume a world that does not exist, because that premise makes the perfect the enemy of the good. 

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September 7, 2016|American Airlines, Antitrust, Obama administration, Oligopoly, unions, United

The Obama Administration Is Helping Raise Your Airfares

by John O. McGinnis|

Last week American Airlines took two extraordinary actions that confirm that the airline industry has become an entrenched oligopoly.  First, American Airlines began a bizarre new advertising campaign. Its message: be a good flyer by showing consideration to your seatmates and maintain equanimity in the air. This advertisement makes little sense in a competitive industry. It does not tout low prices or any distinctive amenities of American that might help it gain market share.   An industry that implicitly coordinates on price and amenities, however, might benefit from the such an advertisement, if it got more people to fly generally.

Second, American Airlines gave a $13 million severance payment to its President even though he was joining a rival, United Airlines.  And the severance was not a matter of legal obligation but at its discretion. It is wholly against usual business practices to give gifts to a high level executive who goes to work for a rival. The more frequent reaction is to sue the official for endangering trade secrets. But again this course of action makes sense if American, United and other airlines are engaging in the implicit coordination made possible by oligopoly.  The President of American would then still working for a common cause. Why not maintain goodwill in those circumstances?

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February 10, 2015|Bush Administration, College Loan Funding, Obama administration

First Came Bush, Then Came Obama: The Case of College Funding

by Mike Rappaport|

My coblogger, John McGinnis, recently had a great post about the new programs for forgiving college loans for certain students.  John was responding to this article in the New York Times about the programs. John had three complaints about the program, all of which I agree with: First, differential forgiveness [which forgives loans for people who work in the so called public interest sector but not the private sector] could distort choices in the labor market, to the disadvantage of the private sector. .  . .  Second, more favorable terms for student borrowing takes away pressure on educational institutions to cut costs. …

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August 28, 2013|Faisal Shahzad, Nidal Hassan, Obama administration, Overseas Contingency Operation, War of Terror

A Security Policy That George Costanza Would Be Proud Of

by Stephen F. Knott|

Nidal Hasan

George W. Bush’s presidency had its problems, but Bush’s “Trumanesque,” plain-speaking style provided a certain clarity to American foreign policy. Granted, Bush had a propensity to mangle the English language, but generally speaking the American public and foreign leaders knew where he stood. His penchant for plain speaking occasionally got him into trouble, for in as much as Bush’s macho swagger turned off the more sensitive among us, his boasting about “bring ’em on” (regarding attacks on American forces in Iraq) or “there’s an old poster out West… that said, ‘Wanted, Dead or Alive’” (regarding the fate of Osama Bin Laden), was seen as positively imbecilic.

Mimicking the antics of George Costanza, the Obama team seems to think that by doing the opposite of George Bush they will usher in an era of universal peace and happiness.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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