You Should Be Able to Challenge the IRS in Court
Ilya Shapiro andJames KnightAlthough the Internal Revenue Service is responsible for collecting taxes, the power to write tax law is a legislative one, held by Congress. In certain cases, however, Congress has delegated to the IRS limited authority to fill in the gaps of tax laws through regulation. The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) lays out the processes that agencies like the IRS must follow when promulgating regulations, such as allowing for a period of public comment on proposed regulations. Unfortunately, the IRS has habitually refused to comply with the APA absent the intervention of the courts. The AP...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 22, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Shapiro, James Knight Source Type: blogs
Portland and the Paramilitarization of the Border Patrol
Paul MatzkoUnidentified, camouflage ‐wearing federal agents carrying military‐style equipment have been caught onvideoabducting people in Portland, Oregon. They do not bother to make formal arrests, read the captured their rights, or even announce the reason for detainment. The fact that the number of those abducted thus far appears small and that they have later been released without charges being filed does not make the abuse of basic civil liberties less shocking.The deployment was ordered by Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, who has said he is willing to send similar units to other cities that ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 21, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Paul Matzko Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Should Get Into Some #GoodTrouble
By KIM BELLARD
As hopefully most of you know, Rep. John Lewis, civil right icon and longtime member of Congress, died this past Friday. Rep. Lewis was often described the “conscience of Congress” – perhaps a low bar in today’s Congress but important nonetheless — for his unwavering commitment to social justice. I have always been struck in particular by one of his quotes:
Rep. Lewis must have been heartened by the fact that, in 2020, plenty of people are, indeed, making noise and getting into good trouble, necessary trouble over issues that he cared deeply about, like Blac...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 21, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy John Lewis Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
The Trump COVID Legacy: Bad Timing. Lots of Questions. Few Answers.
By MIKE MAGEE, MD
What a strange irony. Trump decides, full-bravado, to challenge China to a trade war just months before China unwittingly hatches a virulent pandemic that collapses our deeply segmented health care system and our economy simultaneously. And rather than cry “Uncle”, our President then fires the WHO just as their experts are heading to China to attempt to unravel the mystery of COVID-19.
With the ongoing, cascading catastrophe of Trump’s mishandling of COVID-19, it is easy to lose sight that the next pandemic (fueled by global warming, global trade, and human and animal migration) is just around...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 16, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Politics Mike Magee Trump Source Type: blogs
Texas Beer Should Be Sold as Freely as Tennessee Whiskey
Ilya Shapiro andJames KnightThe Constitution guarantees the right to engage in commerce within the United States free from interstate trade wars through what ’s known as the “dormant” Commerce Clause, which stops protectionist state regulations. Last year, the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking opinion inTennessee Wine& Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas reaffirmed this principle, holding Tennessee ’s durational residency requirements for retail liquor licenses unconstitutional. (Cato fileda brief in that case and publishedan article on the ruling in theCato Supreme Court Review.)As the Court discu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 14, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Shapiro, James Knight Source Type: blogs
A Twitter Alternative, If They Can Keep It
Will DuffieldAfter an influx of new users, Parler, a social media platform offered as liberally governed alternative to Twitter, implemented a few basic rules. These rules prompted frustration and gloating from the platform’s respective fans and skeptics, but Parler is simply advancing along a seemingly inevitable content moderation curve. Parle r’s attempt to create a more liberal social media platform is commendable, but the natural demands of moderation at scale will make this commitment difficult to keep.Parler was initially advertised as moderated in line with First Amendment precedent and Federal Communicati...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 7, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
North Carolina Hospital Sued for Unilateral DNR Order
Before undergoing a procedure at Alamance Regional Medical Center in central North Carolina, Henry Wyer was “full code/CPR.”
But in a new lawsuit his family alleges that the hospital directed a DNR for Wyer without “adequate signed paperwork.” (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - July 1, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Unwanted Life-Sustaining Treatment Lawsuit – California Appeals Court Briefed
Patricia Melton directed clinicians at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital and its affiliated long-term care facility (CHA Health Systems) to stop ventilatory support for her critically ill husband actor Dennis Lipscomb. But the facility delayed complying ... (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - June 29, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
FLEOA Wants to Know How Officers Will Escape Lawsuits without Qualified Immunity
James CravenThe Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association put forward a nonsensical defense of qualified immunity onThe Hill Monday. The article starts tamely enough, with a classic misexplanation of the doctrine.When determining whether [a law has been clearly established], courts consider whether a hypothetical reasonable official would have known that the defendant ’s conduct violated the plaintiff’s rights.Nope. Courtsnever use a reasonable person test to determine if a law was clearly established: they consider whether a previous case already held near ‐identical conduct uncon...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 24, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: James Craven Source Type: blogs
The Most Common Defenses of Qualified Immunity, and Why They ’re Wrong
Jay SchweikertIn the continuing aftermath of George Floyd ’s death at the hands of Minnesota police,qualified immunity hascome to the forefront. By protecting police officers from liability, even when they violate people ’s constitutional rights, this doctrine has become the cornerstone of our near‐zero accountability policy for law enforcement. Shamefully, theSupreme Court recently declined the perfect opportunity to address the mess that it made by inventing this doctrine. But Congress has also turned its attention to the issue, and there are nowseveral pending legislative proposals to abolish qualified immunity...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 19, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jay Schweikert Source Type: blogs
Rebutting the IACP ’s Spurious Defense of Qualified Immunity
In conclusion, the IACP ’s defense of qualified immunity is, at best, misleading, counter‐productive, and short‐sighted, and at worst, full of outright misrepresentations. Nevertheless, I can’t help but pity whatever poor soul was charged with the task of actually writing that statement — it’s hard to de fend the indefensible. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 11, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jay Schweikert Source Type: blogs
Details of 155 Immigration Detainers for U.S. Citizens
David J. BierImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) routinely requests that local law enforcement detain U.S. citizens to allow it to pick them up. ICE ’s recordslist 3,158 U.S. citizens as targets of ICE detainers from October 2002 to September 2019. Another 1.6 percent of actual ICEarrests through Secure Communities —the targeting system that ICE uses to issue detainers—were U.S. citizens from October 2008 to April 2011—or 3,627 citizens. Immigration courts—again with incomplete records—show 2,549 removal proceedings terminated in the favor of U.S. citizens from 2002 to June 9, 2017.These totals undercount...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 4, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Trump ’s Social Media Order Rewrites Internet Law by Decree
Will DuffieldPresident Trump has escalated his war of words with America ’s leading technology firms. Afterthreatening to “close down” social media platforms, he announced that he would issue an executive order concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a bedrock intermediary liability protection for internet platforms. However, a draft of the forthcoming executive order seems to slyly misunderstand Section 230, reading contingency into its protections. Let ’s take a look at thestatute and the relevant sections of the proposedexecutive order to see how its interpretation errs.(c) Prote...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 28, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
