By Ilya Shapiro
One of our oldest laws, the Alien Tort Statute (1789), grants federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits brought by aliens for actions “in violation of the law of nations.” Courts have differed in their method of interpreting this “law of nations” — an old way of saying “international law” – and thus in their decisions on what [...]
The ‘Law of Nations’ Is What It Was in 1789 is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
If the First Amendment means anything, then school officials cannot prohibit students from handing out gifts with Christmas messages due to the religious content of those messages. Nonetheless, the Fifth Circuit …
The First Amendment Protects Students’ Rights to Speak on Religious Subjects is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
Two weeks ago I wrote about the emergency appeal of Texas’s new redistricting maps that reached the Supreme Court last month and was argued early last week. The state argued that the interim maps a three-judge district court in San Antonio drew didn’t defer sufficiently to the maps passed by the Texas legislature (which could [...]
Supreme Court Rejects Texas Redistricting Maps, Showing That Modern Voting Rights Act Is Outmoded and Unworkable is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
Today Cato filed its second Supreme Court amicus brief in the Obamacare litigation, on the issue of whether the health care law’s Medicaid expansion is a proper exercise of the Constitution’s Spending Clause. That is, states must now accept a comprehensive reorganization of Medicaid or forfeit all federal Medicaid funding—even though the spending power is circumscribed [...]
Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Violates Federalism is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
The Obamacare litigation has arrived on the big stage: the Supreme Court. The first opportunity for those opposing the legislation to weigh in comes on the issue that will be the last one the Court considers, “severability.” That is, if the individual mandate is struck down as unconstitutional, what (if any) of the rest of [...]
Obamacare at the Supreme Court: Can the Individual Mandate Be Severed? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
Over the past decade, more than a dozen states have forced independent contractors who are paid through Medicaid to join public-sector unions.In 2003, Illinois unionized home healthcare workers and imbued the Service Employees International Union with the right to collect compulsory fees from the workers’ paychecks. Democracy is thus being turned on its head: the [...]
Against Forced Unionization of Independent Workers is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
The federal Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful “[t]o refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer . . . or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.” Magner v. Gallagher addresses the question of whether [...]
Enforcing Housing Codes Is Not Racist is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
The decennial redrawing of electoral districts consistently produces extensive litigation. The most notable cases this cycle come, as they often have, from Texas. A number of activist groups challenged the Texas legislature’s maps for state house, state senate, and congressional districts, alleging racial discrimination under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a special [...]
Supreme Court Should Use Texas Redistricting Case to Reconsider Voting Rights Act is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
Since the foundational administrative law case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984), courts have given significant deference to executive agency interpretations of federal law. United States v. Home Concrete & Supply tests whether there are any meaningful limits on such deference. The case involves a group of taxpayers who initiated a number of [...]
The IRS Can’t Overrule the Supreme Court is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Ilya Shapiro
Cato today filed an amicus brief supporting a request that the Supreme Court review Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States. Here’s the case: The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission owns and operates 23,000 acres of land as a wildlife refuge and recreational preserve; the preserve’s trees are essential to its use for these purposes. Clearwater [...]
The Government Must Compensate for Property Damage Even If Its Taking Was Only ‘Temporary’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
