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Nov 19, 2024 | 
pacificlegal.org | Ethan Blevins
Legend says the outlaw Butch Cassidy hid vast stashes of loot across the West. But those still hunting for Cassidy’s treasure could join the Wild Bunch in outlaw status. Hunting for buried treasure on federal lands, it turns out, is a federal crime, and almost all the West where Cassidy roamed is federal land. But that’s not all. If you were to commit the federal crime of using too much firewood on your campfire while scouring the rugged West for Cassidy’s treasure, that would make you an outlaw.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
nationalreview.com | Ethan Blevins
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
yieldpro.com | Ethan Blevins
The San Francisco city council is smashing the mirror because it doesn’t like the face staring back at it. The council just approved a ban on websites that offer data about local rental markets and help landlords set their rents. The council blames these tools for exploding housing costs. It’s a classic case of killing the messenger that will do nothing to fix a problem of the city council’s own creation—and it violates the First Amendment.
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Aug 14, 2024 | 
reason.com | Ethan Blevins
Free Speech Desperate to control soaring rents, the city council bans rental data tools while ignoring its own role in the housing crisis. | (Illustration: Lex Villena.
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Aug 14, 2024 | 
issuesinsights.com | Ethan Blevins
For months, skeptics of DEI mandates have celebrated as Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and even the Ivy League have rolled back DEI programs. The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against affirmative action appeared to cool Americans’ re-infatuation with treating people differently according to race. But history should temper our optimism. Some recent policy changes look less like a full-fledged rout and more like a strategic maneuver.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
pacificlegal.org | Ethan Blevins
Democracy has sprung a leak. While the American public’s eyes are trained on political pageantry, our pockets are being picked. Pundits scream about political candidates as if they alone can destroy or save democracy as we know it. Beneath this high drama, however, is a quieter but more insidious threat to democracy than any one election. That threat is the unrelenting growth of the administrative state.
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Jul 17, 2024 | 
pacificlegal.org | Ethan Blevins
There comes a time in a politician’s campaign when the most he can muster is to throw candy into the crowd. President Biden has reached that time. The candy, in this case, is the daft proposal unveiled by the president during a speech this week to foist federal rent control on the country. Like most candy, the wrapping is tawdry and the flavor fades fast, but the empty calories will stick around. Rent control is a sure way to worsen our housing crisis.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
pacificlegal.org | Ethan Blevins
Individual rights are the answer to a just society. But individualism—the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of each person—is more than a policy solution. It’s a way of life. We who advocate for individual liberty in the political arena will become better advocates for freedom when we embrace individualism, not only in white papers, legal briefs, and speeches, but also in the way we treat each other—especially our opponents.
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Jun 10, 2024 | 
americanhabits.org | Ethan Blevins |Ray Nothstine
Democracy has sprung a leak. While the American public’s eyes are trained on political pageantry, our pockets are being picked. Pundits scream about political candidates as if they alone can destroy or save democracy as we know it. Beneath this high drama, however, is a quieter but more insidious threat to democracy than any one election. That threat is the unrelenting growth of the administrative state.
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Apr 16, 2024 | 
reason.com | Ethan Blevins
Social Media The push to regulate social media content infringes on rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
