Walter Olson

East Coast United States

Senior Fellow at Cato Institute

Writer on law etc.; @CatoInstitute. See you where the skies are bluer.

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Articles

Carousel of Contempt

1 week ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Two federal judges in high-profile deportation cases have asked the Trump administration to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of court over its appointees’ refusal to follow court orders. Are we finally getting some sort of pushback on the administration’s seemingly calculated strategy of moving fast and breaking so many laws that it’s hard for opponents to keep up?
100 Days of Testing the Limits of Presidential Power

2 weeks ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Cato asked many of its scholars to evaluate Trump’s first 100 days. I wrote about the constitutional and legal dimensions. Trump has systematically overstepped the constitutional and legal constraints on his power and then attacked the legitimacy of the courts when they’ve moved to stop him.
Feds Can’t Regulate "Ideological Diversity" at Schools Like Harvard by Walter Olson

2 weeks ago | capitalismmagazine.com | Walter Olson

No civil rights law on the books requires “viewpoint diversity” in university admissions or hiring or creates a protected class of students or faculty based on ideological views.
Presidents Can't Overhaul Election Law by Decree

1 month ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

On March 25, President Donald Trump published an executive order purporting to overhaul the nation’s election system. Among its contents: requiring voters who use the federal registration form to furnish documentary proof of citizenship, preparing the way for decertifying commonly used voting equipment, and nullifying state laws that accept as valid some military and other mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day.
Lawyers Who Anger the Feds Face New Penalties by Decree

1 month ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. The Trump administration’s assault on lawyers that represent its perceived adversaries has so far targeted by decree three major firms and quickly taken down one of them, the venerable Paul, Weiss.
Law Firm Paul, Weiss Capitulates

1 month ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology. Lawyers in a free society must not be subjected to official punishment in retaliation for representing causes adverse to those in power. Nor should authorities apply coercive pressure to get them to brand as wrongdoers colleagues whom no court or bar authority has found to have committed misconduct. Nor should they come under coercive pressure to represent clients and causes favored by those authorities. But all of that has just happened.
What Can the Feds Legally Demand of Columbia University?

1 month ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Generated with ElevenLabs AI technology.
Trump's Vengeful Moves Are Chilling the Bar's Independence

2 months ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

President Donald Trump has now made clear that his attack on the independence of the bar is not going to stop with Covington & Burling. His latest escalation was a sinister if absurd vengeance decree (executive order) last week against the law firm Perkins Coie. Yesterday, Perkins struck back with a complaint and memorandum of law in support of a temporary restraining order in federal court.
DOGE's Elusive Organizational Chart

2 months ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

Only days ago Trump administration lawyers were unable to tell a judge who was the administrator of DOGE, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which by slashing agency outlays and personnel around the federal government has stirred broad national controversy.
Trump: Independent Agencies Must Submit Regs, Legal Opinions for Our Review

2 months ago | cato.org | Walter Olson

The February 18 executive order moving to assert White House supremacy over federal regulation is momentous, but not for the reason mistakenly surmised in some early reports. In declaring a general presidential authority to pronounce on legal interpretation, in particular, the order does not aim to aggress against the role of the courts in saying what the law is.

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