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It was the data center election after all.  In 2026, we witnessed a stunning, rapid turn in public opinion against data centers. A practical non-issue as early as last year turned into a high-salience moral panic, as voters everywhere said they did not want a data center in their backyard.  As the midterms approached, many commenters (including this one) argued that the data center backlash was also helping to give Democrats an edge in places like Texas.  Just before election night, data center

A nice post title from Prof. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit), linking to the article "Drones built to look like birds evaded detection at Air Force tech exercise" (Task & Purpose [Patty Nieberg]). The post "The 'Birds Aren't Real' Guy Was Just a Little Ahead of the Curve" appeared first on Reason Magazine.

From Doe v. Roe, decided today by Fifth Circuit Judges Jennifer Walker Elrod, Carolyn Dineen King, and Carl Stewart: After receiving notice of Jane Roe's impending California lawsuit involving allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment, John Doe sued Roe in the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that Roe was attempting to extort and defame him. Roe moved to proceed pseudonymously in the Mississippi lawsuit. The district court denied her permission to do so. Roe appeals that deci

The U.S. Senate race in Texas was by far the most expensive contest in this year's midterm elections. In fact, according to AdImpact, it was the "most expensive non-presidential race on record," prompting ad spending that totaled $573 million as of October 30. But although Republican nominee Ken Paxton had a sizable financial advantage over his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, he nevertheless lost the election by 12 points. That conspicuous example is one of several reminders from Tuesday's

On this special edition of The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss the sweeping Democratic victory in the midterm elections and what it means for the future of MAGA. With Republicans suffering major losses across the country, the editors debate whether the party can break from President Donald Trump after a decade of embracing his agenda. They examine how the war with Iran, tariffs, immigration enforcement, and corruption contri

My Stanford law school colleagues Nora and David Engstrom, as well as Berkeley law professor Jonah Gelbach and others, have asked the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules recommend a new Rule of Civil Procedure (5.3) governing the sealing of court records. I think this is an excellent idea: While there is a good deal of precedent on the question, distilling it into a rule that can easily be consulted by judges, lawyers, law clerks, and pro se litigants would be very helpful. Just today, Third Circu

For a drug that has been essentially dead in the United States for four decades, the Quaalude has maintained an impressive cultural presence. Quaaludes were a staple of the leisure suit/disco era. Anyone who lived through the 1970s probably remembers them. Anyone who didn't may remember Leonardo DiCaprio's extraordinary performance in The Wolf of Wall Street: After swallowing several 15-year-old, supposedly ineffective Quaaludes, his character discovers that the pills aren't quite as ineffective

Yesterday's events put me in mind (as I have been on other occasions) of Kipling's The Lesson; it was discussing England's very poor performance in the Boer War (though after England ultimately won that nasty conflict), but it applies to many other contexts as well. Its opening and closing stanzas seem especially apt: Let us admit it fairly, as a business people should, We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good. Not on a single issue, or in one direction or twain, But conclusi

There is an oft-repeated political cliché that says tariffs are bad economics but good politics—the logic being: They might be costly, but they allow politicians to look like they are prioritizing domestic jobs and workers over foreign trade. That line turned out to be only half right. Voters turned decisively against President Donald Trump and Republicans in Tuesday's elections, delivering a historic beatdown that was the most lopsided midterm result since the post-Watergate wipeout of 1974. Th

Virginia voters passed a ballot initiative Tuesday night ending the state's lifetime voting ban for felony offenders and scrapping one of the harshest such restrictions in the country. Virginia's Question 3 asked voters to restore voting rights to those convicted of felonies upon their release from prison. The legislatively referred constitutional amendment, which passed by a margin of 56 percent to 43 percent, repeals a provision of the state's 1902 constitution that imposed a lifetime voting b

One of the most remarkable—if predictable—stories of the 2024 election was the Arab swing in Michigan. The state's Palestinian- and Lebanese-American communities organized a dissent campaign in the Democratic primary against President Joe Biden's support for Israeli wars. Biden responded by mocking the idea that Republicans would be better for Arab Americans, and Vice President Kamala Harris made a hawkish pro-war closing pitch in Michigan. Republican candidate Donald Trump, meanwhile, courted M

Democrats took the House of Representatives and Senate Tuesday night in large part thanks to voter backlash against President Donald Trump's disastrous war of choice against Iran. When the House returns for the lame-duck session, one of the first items of business—whether outgoing Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) likes it or not—will be revisiting the articles of impeachment lodged against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for "high crimes and misdemeanors" related to that war. Johnson rushed the House

The words vibe shift entered American political discourse in the early months of 2022. The transmission belt was an article in The Cut about Sean Monahan, a professional trendspotter with a fondness for the phrase. Monahan's beat is culture, not politics, and his rundown of what he meant by it involved sneakers and music more than any candidate for office, but the term acquired a political resonance as the Great Awokening wound down and the COVID lockdowns came to an end. Again: It was 2022. Not

Reproductive freedom was popular in yesterday's midterm elections. Data centers were not. Nor were automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems like Flock or the idea of letting transgender girls play on girls' sports teams in schools. Let's take a closer look at how state and local ballot initiatives related to sex, tech, and gender fared among voters in 2026. Pro-Choice Wins In 3 Out of 4 States With Abortion-Related Ballot Initiatives Measures related to abortion and broader reproductive fre

Today's guest is Virginia Postrel, former editor in chief of Reason, former New York Times columnist, and author of The Future and Its Enemies. She currently co-hosts Everyday Abundance with Charles C. Mann, a podcast exploring the hidden histories of everyday technologies and activities. Postrel examines how innovations driven by the pursuit of profit have transformed ordinary life, often with unexpected social benefits. Nick Gillespie talks with Postrel about how self-service supermarkets help

On Tuesday, voters took to the ballot box to weigh in on the future of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers (ALPRs), adding to a growing nationwide backlash against mass government surveillance and mounting privacy concerns.  Although Flock cameras are just over a year old in York, Maine, residents have decided to join other Maine communities and ditch the controversial surveillance technology. York voted to pass a citizen-led initiative, effective immediately, that bans ALPRs

Arizona voted to block government agencies from installing new photo-enforced traffic cameras in the state, pushing back against increased fines through automated enforcement and perceived "taxation by citation."  Proposition 319 prohibits state and local governments from installing new photo-enforcement systems, such as red-light and speed cameras, after December 31, 2026. Municipalities already using the technology can continue doing so, but must obtain voter approval at the next general elect

Vice President J.D. Vance has made it clear that he will happily spread rumors about the malicious misdeeds of unauthorized immigrants even when they have no basis in fact. Vance was at it again on Monday, when he told the crowd at a campaign stop in Swanton, Ohio, that he "saw a story" about "illegal immigrant Somalis who are coordinating to flood the polls and drown out your vote." NewsGuard's Sam Howard could not find any such story. The closest thing he came across was an October 30 post on

Ten states considered 41 data center–related ballot measures on Tuesday.* Over half of these were in Ohio—21 measures in 18 jurisdictions. While some ballot measures included carveouts for smaller facilities, it appears voters overwhelmingly chose to oppose the development of so-called hyperscalers—data centers with an aggregate monthly demand or peak load greater than 25 megawatts. Even when they weren't on the ballot, they may have been a factor in the elections: NBC's exit polls report that a

The blue wave materialized last night, with Democrats winning solid majorities in both the House and the Senate.  Elon Musk, who frittered away $446 million this cycle, is handling it all well: Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2026 I'm looking at these results primarily as a repudiation of President Donald Trump and his party; overextrapolating—and believing last night's wins are indicative of a paradigm shift—is unwise, especia