Federal Agencies and Administrative Law

Biden Is Transformational, and Not in a Good Way

By Phil Gramm and Pat Toomey - April 24, 2023

Principles of Government · April 30, 2023 ·

His regulatory barrage and failed Progressive-era policies imperil economic exceptionalism in the U.S.

From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, from the Permian Basin to the Chicago Loop, an iron net of regulation has descended across the American economy. Churchill’s metaphor conveys the magnitude of the onslaught and the peril it poses to the American economy and our freedom. We face not an errant regulator or an officious bureaucrat, but a sea change in the economy’s regulatory ecosystem. The executive branch and its regulatory agencies are unbound by the laws they are supposed to uphold and hostile to the industries they regulate, undermining the political accountability at the heart of our republican government. Read More

Congress Must Halt Big Tech’s Power Grab

By William P. Barr - Jan. 22, 2023

Principles of Government · February 8, 2023 ·

All these dominant platforms, though distinctive, pose the same threefold danger. First, they have a chokehold over essential channels of communication and commerce, allowing them to be gatekeepers to the digital world. Second, they vacuum up a trove of personal information about users—what they see, hear, read, think and buy. This raises profound privacy concerns and permits these companies to manipulate users’ beliefs and behavior. Third, they distort the “marketplace of ideas.” The gatekeepers can shape the flow of information to advance their own economic and political agendas. Read More

The Partisan Bureaucracy

By Kimberly A, Strassel - May 11, 2021

Principles of Government · June 12, 2021 ·

Would the IRS violate your privacy to further Democratic policy objectives?….The lesson is that Republicans must realize that Democrats are no longer their only political foe. They face an equally potent and dangerous federal bureaucracy—committed to destroying GOP officials and propelling a liberal agenda. Read More

America Needs a New Civil Rights Act

By Philip Hamburger - Oct. 16, 2022

Principles of Government · November 27, 2022 ·

The 1964 law targeted racial discrimination. Today’s problem is the suppression of dissent.

It is time for a new civil-rights act that addresses the dangers of our time, not merely those of the 1960s.

The threat again comes from discrimination, but now by the federal government as well as states and private organizations. Most worrisome is federal and state encouragement for private entities to discriminate against Americans with dissenting views. Also significant is discrimination that bars Americans from participating in services ordinarily open to the public. Read More

The New Woke Discrimination Demands a New Law

By Vivek Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld - Nov. 15, 2022

Principles of Government · November 27, 2022 ·

Republican politicians often ask what they can do in office to combat “wokeness.” The best approach is to amend state and federal civil-rights laws to protect employees from discrimination on the basis of political beliefs. Corporate viewpoint discrimination is unfair and widespread, a driver of polarization, and a direct consequence of the way existing civil-rights laws have been interpreted—a legal mistake that demands a legal solution. Read More

Break Up the ESG Investing Giants

By Dan Morenoff - Aug. 31, 2022

Principles of Government · September 4, 2022 ·

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street effectively control each other—and their market competitors. The Clayton Act was made for situations like this.

Three of the largest investment shops in the U.S.—BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street—have long used their dominance in passive-investment funds to force corporations to comply with their preferred set of environmental, social and governance policies.