Reason

Donald Trump and FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.   In today's decision in Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court ruled that laws protecting the heads of "independent" executive agencies from firing are unconstitutional, because they infringe on the president's constitutional removal authority. In my last post, I noted that the exact scope of this principle is unclear, given the exception the Court carved out for members of the Federal Reserve Board in Trump v. Cook, also issued today. Bu

This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss the growing influence of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and whether socialism is becoming a mainstream force within the Democratic Party. The panel examines what's driving the DSA's recent gains, whether President Donald Trump has accelerated the movement's rise, and what a more openly socialist Democratic Party could mean for American politics. Next, the editors discuss the DSA's policy a

I have a regular routine for Supreme Court decision days. On one monitor, I have the SCOTUSBlog liveblog. On a second monitor, I have the SupremeCourt.gov opinions page open. I keep Adobe Acrobat ready on a third screen. And the fourth screen is the FantasySCOTUS database, where I immediately score the cases. Usually SCOTUSBlog announces the case name and the authoring justice a few moments before the PDF link pops up on the website. (Circa 2010, the PDF links were simply the [docketnumber.pdf],

The Federal Reserve. (Steveheap/Dreamstime.com)   Today, the Supreme Court ruled that Slaughter gets slaughtered, but that Cook won't get cooked! In Trump v. Slaughter, a 6-3 Court divided along ideological lines ruled that the president generally has absolute power to remove the heads of executive branch agencies, even when Congress has enacted laws limiting that authority. At least as a general rule, those laws are - according to the Court - unconstitutional infringements on the pres

On Monday in Chatrie v. United States, the Supreme Court held that government-ordered analysis of data collected via Google's Location History feature, which tracks the whereabouts of cellphone users, qualifies as a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Justice Neil Gorsuch concurred in that judgment, but he wrote separately to reiterate his longstanding critique of two dubious concepts that have figured prominently in the Court's Fourth Amendment reasoning for half a century: the

Over the past year and a half, Trump administration officials have gone after protestors—and even apps—critical of the government's immigration policies. Now, federal agents are targeting individuals for constitutionally protected speech on social media. Last week, Syracuse resident Paigelynne Gonyea was approached by two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at her workplace and given a warning to remove a social media post on an Instagram account the agents believed was hers. In a l

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a far-reaching decision on the constitutionality of a law enforcement tool that allows police to access the location histories of millions of cell phone users. In a welcome result for civil libertarians, the Court ruled on Monday that "geofence warrants" count as a "search" under the Constitution and therefore trigger the Fourth Amendment's safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The geofence warrant at issue in this case, Chatrie v. United States

On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it's worth asking: What was the American Revolution actually about? We all remember the broad strokes we learned in school: Independence from the British crown. Taxes on tea. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But on a deeper level, the American Revolution was—and is—a revolution in political theory, reimagining what a legitimate government is and what its relationship to its citizens should be. Washington's troops won the gr

President Donald Trump has the power to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission but cannot give the boot to members of the Federal Reserve. So said the Supreme Court on Monday, in a pair of related decisions about the scope of executive power. The court ruled 6–3 in favor of the president in Trump v. Slaughter, which challenged his decision to fire Rebecca Slaughter from her position as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But in Trump v. Cook, the court sided with Lisa Coo

In May 1995, a supporters group associated with the English football club Stoke City FC launched a campaign demanding wholesale changes to their beloved team. At the time, Stoke City played in Division One, the competition just below the top tier, three-year-old English Premier League (EPL). At the conclusion of every season the best clubs in the First Division get bumped up to the EPL to compete against heavyweights like Manchester United and Liverpool. But Stoke City was languishing, and hope

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.) joins Free Media's Robby Soave to discuss the resurgence of democratic socialism, her friendship with Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), and where the Trump administration went wrong. Greene also argues that too many politicians simply refuse to listen to their constituents and would rather die in office than give up power. And Soave introduces her to a favorite Reason term: "total boomer luxury communism." 0:00–The resurgence of democratic socialism 2:17–Pres

The Question Presented from the petition, which the Court just granted: The "interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children[] is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court." Troxel v. Granville (2000). But that right is mere rhetoric if federal judges bar parents from court via a miserly interpretation of standing doctrine—a question, as three Justices recently recognized, that is of "great and growing national importance." Lee v. Po

My predictions from last Thursday panned out well. The Chief Justice wrote the majority opinion in both Cook and Slaughter. There was't much of a surprise here. Yet, I still cannot believe I lived to see the day that Humphrey's Executor was overruled. Somewhere, Justice Scalia is smiling. I predicted that Justice Kagan would write Chartie. Justice Alito still seems upset about Carpenter. I also predicted that Justice Barrett would write Watson, though I wasn't sure how she would vote. It turned

Today the Supreme Court issued its long awaited decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, two cases concerning the ability of the President to remove agency officials. The Chief Justice wrote for the Court in both cases, and the results in each case were what was generally expected. In Slaughter the Court overruled Humphrey's Executor, and held that the heads of agencies exercising significant executive power must be removable at-will by the President. This means the President can remov

From today's dissent from the denial of certiorari in Dershowitz v. CNN, Inc., written by Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch: Alan Dershowitz sued respondent, a major news network, alleging that it defamed him. Because Dershowitz is a "public person," our precedents required him to prove not only the elements of common-law defamation, but also that the network acted with "actual malice." See Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974). Predictably, Dershowitz did not prevail under that exacting st

The opinions are here. The post Congratulations to Orin Kerr, Whose Amicus Brief Was Twice Cited by the Court Today in <i>Chatrie v. U.S.</i> appeared first on Reason.com.

It was my luck that I arrived in Britain to pick up my master's degree just before a heat wave hit. The temperatures last week were reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day. That wouldn't normally be a problem. I was used to even higher temperatures growing up in New Jersey, working in D.C., and studying abroad in Jordan. But now I was without air conditioning. Every night was sweaty and sleepless, and every day was sluggish. And I wasn't suffering alone. Around 90 perc

As I noted this morning, on Wednesday the Ninth Circuit allowed a religious discrimination claim against Alaska Airlines to go forward. The plaintiffs (Marli Brown and Lacey Smith) were Christian flight attendants who were fired for objecting on a company-run intranet to the company's statement in favor of a federal ban on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. (The case is Brown v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., written by Judge Daniel Bress and joined by Judge Kenneth Lee and, in large

After a series of attacks that targeted civilian ships and military bases over the weekend, the U.S. and Iran may have reached yet another (possible, maybe) deal to stop fighting. Iran struck commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday and Saturday. After the U.S. retaliated, Iranian drones targeted American bases in the region. In the early hours of Monday, however, an unnamed American official told The New York Times that a new agreement to stop the fighting was in place. Later, Presi

ENRD at the Department of Justice is getting a new name. According to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by ENRD's Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson, the Environment and Natural Resources Division will be renamed the Energy and Natural Resources Division. From the op-ed: Over the past two decades, the division has played a central role in the responsible production and use of energy, driven by technological advances from the shale revolution to AI. To recognize this ev