Law professor Rebecca Tushnet surveys the legal scene for authors writing, or rewriting, their favorite tales: Originally posted on 7.30.12 at Daily Adams.
Liberty
America, Liberty, Local Government
The Municipal War Against…Vegetable Gardens
by JOHN ADAMS •
In America, and places beyond, homeowners’ vegetable gardens have become a target of municipal officials. They’re beautiful, offer fresh food, conserve water, and are peaceful uses of homeowners’ private property: yet for it all, vegetable gardens still offend officials’ laughable sense of what’s appropriate. That appropriateness in this case is little more than a dull…
Animals, City, Liberty
What is Whitewater?
by JOHN ADAMS •
One hears much about the city, of serving the city, and public service. Yet, for all one hears, what is Whitewater? It’s every resident, of a number now nearly fifteen-thousand. That’s a number far larger than those in city government, those working for the city, or those few who are quite sure that all the…
Law, Libertarians, Liberty
Justice Kennedy the….Libertarian
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Cato Institute’s David Boaz teases the venerable Time magazine about its cover story on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s supposedly inscrutable jurisprudence. (Time is a survivor – it’s really the only remaining newsmagazine of its kind; it’s fared far better than rival publications.) Massimo Calabresi and David Von Drehle write in that magazine that Efforts to…
Drink, Food, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
The War on Really Big Cups of Cola
by JOHN ADAMS •
Liberty
The Right to Bargain with Government
by JOHN ADAMS •
It is a simple principle of liberty that any person, in any employ, should have the right to bargain peacefully with, and even against, his or her own government. No worldly thing is as powerful as the state: it alone possesses the right to tax and to arrest. No matter how influential other institutions may…
City, Elections, Liberty, Wisconsin
The Secular Call
by JOHN ADAMS •
Liberty, Military, Police
Domestic drones as a threat to liberty
by JOHN ADAMS •
America’s use of drones against her foreign enemies, for surveillance and lethal strikes, has been notably successful. We are sure to build new and more advanced drones for similar uses, and to expand our naval power without placing aviators at risk. Yet, something that has served so well in combat was sure to be proposed…
Libertarians, Liberty, Unions
A Libertarian Case for Organized Labor…
by JOHN ADAMS •
…from Herbert Spencer. As a balance of power: “Everywhere aggression begets resistance and counter-aggression; and in our present transitional state, semi-militant and semi-industrial, trespasses have to be kept in check by the fear of retaliatory trespasses.” Via Reason (originally appearing in The Freeman). Generations later, we’re still in that transitional state. There are other justifications,…
Farming, Food, Liberty
Supporting food freedom, and agriculture without government subsidies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Reason interviewed free-market farmer Joel Salatin in an article published on 5.5.12. Two of Salatin’s observations stand out. On deciding what to eat: I think the government should allow this debate to flourish in the marketplace of ideas. The government entered this debate in the early 1970s by publishing the first food pyramid, a guide…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Elections, Law, Liberty
Beautiful Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Reason’s April 2012 ‘Nanny of the Month’
by JOHN ADAMS •
The accompanying narrative from Reason: We’ve got Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal demanding clean urine in exchange for welfare benefits (a bad idea that also doesn’t work as advertised, but hey, at least the boozers are safe!), North Carolina regulators busting a blogger for praising the paleo diet (an offense that can get you tossed in…
Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
The Place of Peace and Honesty
by JOHN ADAMS •
Is there a place where hundreds of thousands have protested, packed their Capitol building, nearly a million later signing election petitions, without violence, at limited public costs, and without fraud? What spot of peace and honesty, integrity and democracy, is like that? Could there even be such a place, in all the world? There is.…
Libertarians, Liberty, Presidential race 2012
Not fear, but principled opposition, from libertarians to Rick Santorum
by JOHN ADAMS •
Smart, conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin asks Why are libertarians afraid of Santorum? Our resolute opposition to his conservatism comes not from fear, as though irrational, but instead from our own liberty-oriented principles. (Rubin crafts her post title carefully to frame the discussion most favorably to Santorum.) David Boaz of Cato answers her question in the…