Of all the modern technological advances, the internet is certainly one of the most impressive. For most consumers, it went from an inscrutable concept to a ubiquitous presence within a quarter of a century. We owe much of that explosive growth to the freedom and openness that early internet adopters enjoyed thanks to minimal government regulation. This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will likely reinstate net neutrality rules to promote fairness in internet access. But these rules seem less and less necessary all the time, while threatening the very openness that built the ..read more

In P.D. v. Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.), plaintiff alleges: New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.39 is used to admit individuals to a hospital solely for emergency observation and evaluation as a person "alleged" to have a mental illness. An admission under MHL 9.39 is not a formal adjudication that an individual suffers from a mental disease or defect. NYS Office of Mental Health Transmission of Mental Health Records to NICS. New York Mental Hygiene Law 7.094 authorizes the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to collect, retain, modify, or transmit data or records for inclusion in the NICS system ..read more

A bipartisan bill would give the secretary of the treasury unilateral power to classify any charity as a terrorist-supporting organization, automatically stripping away its nonprofit status. The bill H.R.6408 already passed the House of Representatives in November, and a companion bill S.4136 was introduced to the Senate by Sen. John Cornyn (R–Texas) and Sen. Angus King (I–Maine) last week. In theory, the bill is a measure to fight terrorism financing. At least, that's what sponsor Rep. David Kustoff (R–Tenn.) claimed. "I urge the swift passage of this legislation that will significantly dimi ..read more

More than 30 million Americans have signed employment contracts that limit their ability to switch jobs to a competing company, and those contracts are regulated by laws in 47 states. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) swept all of that aside in one fell swoop this week, as the commission voted down party lines to ban future noncompete agreements and to block the enforcement of many of those existing contracts. (The retroactive ban on noncompete agreements does not apply to senior-level employees.) Even for an agency that has sought in recent years to stretch its regulatory reach, the new FTC ..read more

How at risk must a pregnant woman be before she's allowed to get an abortion? That's the issue underlying a case before the U.S. Supreme Court today, though the central question before the court is whether a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) preempts state abortion bans like one passed in Idaho in 2020. The federal government says that under the EMTALA, hospitals have a duty to provide abortions to patients whose health is threatened, even in states where abortion bans only leave exceptions for life-threatening emergencies. Cruel and Dangerous Bans ..read more

You've probably seen footage and images of the January 6 riot at the Capitol captured by today's guest, videographer Ford Fischer. A decade ago, Fischer cofounded New2Share, a radical experiment in decentralized video journalism. He and his colleagues gather long-form footage from all sorts of breaking news events, including protests organized by radicals across the political spectrum. They upload it to YouTube and elsewhere, and then let viewers draw their own conclusions. His coverage has been licensed worldwide and appears regularly on networks ranging from CNN to Fox News to NBC. Fischer ..read more

4/24/1963: Sherbert v. Verner argued. The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 24, 1963 appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

Can the government regulate objects that resemble unfinished firearm parts as if they are guns because, with tools and effort, they might be turned into working components? More specifically, can a federal agency start doing that via a reinterpretation of the law, and threaten noncompliant people with prosecution on its own initiative, without an act of Congress? The Supreme Court has now agreed to weigh in on those issues after lower courts rejected federal efforts to turn many Americans into felons by reinterpreting established legislation. The Supreme Court's announcement that it will cons ..read more

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