The CCLA welcomes the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in R v. Hills and R. v. Hilbach, both of which consider the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences. The mandatory minimum at issue in Hills was struck down as a violation of section 12 of the Charter, while a majority of the Court upheld the mandatory minimum sentences that were at issue in Hilbach. Although not relevant to the Court’s decisions, it is worth noting that the mandatory minimum sentences at issue in both of these cases have been repealed by Parliament.
When these cases were before the
Debunking the Myth: Clearing Up Misconceptions About Machine Gun Conversion Devices
You may have heard about a device that can be attached to handguns to turn them into rapid-fire automatic pistols. Called “machine gun conversion devices” or “switches,” they definitely make handguns more dangerous. After the first round is fired, recoil from that and subsequent rounds make such a gun difficult to control. Absent a skilled shooter, rounds are likely to strike targets they were not intended to hit.
I don’t want to minimize the potential danger of these devices. Still, at the same time, there is no reason to exaggerate their capabilities either, as this and other news stories have done. The headline
The WEF’s War on Your Words and Your Wheels
As we noted, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has plans for your automobile. In the style of Josef Stalin, who pulled The Grapes of Wrath from Soviet theatres, WEF bosses dislike the concept of people owning cars and driving wherever they want. Now from the same quarters comes strange ideas about what people should be able to say.
In a recent WEF panel titled “The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation,” Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said the United States would “soon” have laws against “what qualifies as hate speech, as illegal hate speech.”
Commissioner Jourova did
Economics Isn’t
Legend has it that an art collector once asked Michaelangelo to describe the challenges he faced in sculpting one of his most iconic works.
“It was actually quite easy,” Michaelangelo drolly replied, “I just chipped away the parts of the stone that didn’t look like David.”
The story may be apocryphal, but we’ve found the great artist’s strategy helpful in communicating the essence of economics to our freshman students.
Much of the learning in Econ 101 is subtractive. It consists in removing false notions about what economics is and the sorts of claims economists can make. By gradually chiseling away the things that
The Chaplain of Kyiv: From Russian Torture to Ukrainian Freedom
Thirty-five-year-old Viktor Cherniivaskyi is no stranger to pain. In August 2014, he was helping citizens escape a militarized zone, the product of mass Ukrainian protests, the ousting of Ukraine’s president, and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Continue Reading…
Testimony: North Dakota’s HB 1040 would address many challenges facing NDPERS
A version of the following testimony was originally given to the North Dakota House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee on January 13, 2023.
Thank you for inviting me to provide our technical analysis of House Bill 1040 based on our experience evaluating pension solvency and design quality nationally, as well as answer any questions the committee may have. Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project operated as pro-bono technical assistants during the interim committee process that led to this bill, building an actuarial model for the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System (NDPERS) to help inform the process. We’ve thoroughly examined the details
Amicus Brief: Gonzalez v. Google
No. 21-1333
In the Supreme Court of the United States
REYNALDO GONZALEZ, ET AL., Petitioners,
v.
GOOGLE LLC.
On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Brief for Reason Foundation as Amicus Curiae supporting respondent
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
I. For nearly three decades, Section 230 has served as the backbone of the Internet, precisely as Congress correctly anticipated and intended. The legislatively enacted congressional findings and purpose favor an expansive reading of Section 230’s protections in the event of any uncertainty or perceived ambiguity in the language of Section 230(c)(1).
A. Section 230’s benefits were by design, even if Congress
FDA needs a new approach to e-cigarettes and other safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes
Last month, the Reagan-Udall Foundation delivered a damning review of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) performance as a tobacco regulator. Reagan-Udall, an independent body responsible for helping the FDA advance its mission, was tasked by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf with investigating what is going wrong at the agency after a series of embarrassing missteps concerning the regulation of safer nicotine alternatives, like e-cigarettes, to traditional cigarettes. Reagan-Udall convened an expert panel and received input from an array of stakeholders and scholars, including Michelle Minton, a senior fellow at Reason Foundation.
The final report, which found FDA “struggled to function
Examining the pension reform benefits of North Dakota House Bill 1040
Download PDF — Pension Reform Alert: The Benefits of House Bill 1040Download
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Does North Dakota House Bill 1040 meet the objectives for good pension reform?
Download PDF: Does North Dakota House Bill 1040 meet the objectives for good pension reform?Download
The post Does North Dakota House Bill 1040 meet the objectives for good pension reform? appeared first on Reason Foundation.
Does the defined contribution plan in North Dakota’s HB 1040 meet gold standards?
Download PDF: Does the defined contribution plan in North Dakota’s HB 1040 meet gold standards?Download
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Public education funding without boundaries: How to get K-12 dollars to follow open enrollment students
Introduction
States are increasingly enacting open enrollment policies that give students options across school district boundaries. But this is only half the equation. Policymakers must also ensure that education dollars follow the child to the school of their choice, a concept referred to as funding portability. Without sufficient portability, school districts have weak financial incentives to enroll transfer students and may limit opportunities for families. Non-portable dollars also reinforce district boundaries, which lock families into public schools based on where they can afford to live, not what is necessarily best for their children.
The primary culprits inhibiting funding portability are districts that
