The history of government price-control policies that seek to impose price ceilings on goods and services…
CFIF on X CFIF on YouTube
Ramirez Cartoon: Drug Price Control Poison

The history of government price-control policies that seek to impose price ceilings on goods and services is both long and replete with failure. That’s because price controls discourage innovation and investment, and lead to shortages in the marketplace, among other unintended consequences.

No targeted industry is immune from the predictable negative impacts of prices controls – not even prescription drugs, which seem to be a primary target in the price-control crosshairs of policymakers at all levels of government.

In his latest cartoon, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez sums up the negative consequences of prescription drug price control policies – whether they take the form of direct price caps, “negotiated” Medicare and other prices, or Most Favored Nation…[more]

May 28, 2025 • 01:05 PM

Liberty Update

CFIFs latest news, commentary and alerts delivered to your inbox.
Constitution & Legal
Title Filter     Display # 
# Article Title
121 Obama Administration Suffers "Significant Defeat" in Court

This week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued what even The New York Times acknowledged constitutes "a significant defeat for the Obama Administration."  Although liberal partisans immediately struggled to minimize its importance, the Times characterized the ruling as one "that poses a new legal threat to the health care…

122 Execrable ObamaCare Ruling Offers Important Corrective for Conservatives and Libertarians

This week, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy paradoxically discredited a Supreme Court whose legacy and popular standing they appear so desperate to sustain.  In King v. Burwell, they joined the Court's four leftists in preserving federal ObamaCare subsidies despite the law's plain text that only states opting to participate…

123 Second Amendment: Constitutional Rights Shouldn't Be Subject to "Good Cause" Government Approval

Can government officials require American citizens "to demonstrate and elaborate good cause" and "provide supporting documentation" before exercising, say, our First Amendment right to free speech or religious practice?  How about our Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures?  Or our Fifth…

124 IRS Tells Court: We Can Selectively Target Pro-Israel Group

Apparently incapable of shame as its days dwindle, the Obama Administration offered a novel legal theory to the nation's second-highest court this week.  Namely, that its Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can target a pro-Israel nonprofit on the basis of viewpoint.  The underlying facts of the case defy credulity, and are every bit as despicable…

125 Ten Years After Kelo, Supreme Court Can Make Property Rights Course Correction

"...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."  —United States Constitution, Amendment V  Can government confiscate, in the name of regulating prices and market micromanagement, up to half of a farmer's crops without providing just compensation?  The Fifth Amendment seems perfectly…

126 The 'Disparate Impact' Racket

The U.S. Department of Justice issued two reports last week, both growing out of the Ferguson, Missouri shooting of Michael Brown. The first report, about "the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson" ought to be read by every American. It says in plain English what facts have been established by…

127 Rand Paul Announces Judicial Policy That Should Alarm Conservatives and Libertarians

As his prospective 2016 presidential candidacy congeals, Senator Rand Paul's (R - Kentucky) discordant policy proclamations have so far tended toward the realm of foreign affairs.  In recent remarks before a Heritage audience, however, Paul announced a domestic judicial philosophy that will exacerbate concern among conservatives and libertarians…

128 Why Conservative Lawsuits Aren’t Examples of Judicial Activism

It’s January 2015, and liberal politicians in Washington are already making good on one of their resolutions – frame Republicans as hypocritical on judicial activism. Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, got the ball rolling when he said that Republican lawsuits challenging the legality of President Barack Obama’s…

129 Second Amendment Ends 2014 On a High Note

It's important for conservatives and libertarians, preternaturally pessimistic regarding societal drift from constitutional liberty, to acknowledge and savor positive milestones when passed.  In that vein, the year 2014 concluded on a positive note for Second Amendment rights advocates.  First came this December 10 release from the left…

130 Inside the Texas-Led, 20-State Lawsuit Challenging Obama’s Immigration Amnesty

With the additions of Arizona, Florida and Ohio, there are now twenty states suing the Obama administration over the president’s unilateral decision to grant temporary amnesty and work permits to as many as five million illegal immigrants. The Texas-led lawsuit is a textbook case of Constitutional Litigation 101. Brushing aside any notion that…

131 Is John Roberts Listening to Jonathan Gruber?

Is John Roberts listening to Jonathan Gruber? In a move that stunned Republicans and Democrats alike two years ago, Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, changed his mind and single-handedly rewrote ObamaCare in NFIB v. Sebelius to save it from its own unconstitutionality. A key ingredient in Roberts’ judicial about-face was his ability…

132 Move over Lois Lerner: Lawsuit Says IRS Destroying Evidence in Separate Case

Private lawsuits against the IRS are nothing new, but one claim against the tax-gathering agency should interest House Republicans investigating the possible willful destruction of evidence by former manager Lois Lerner and other employees.  According to federal court documents, the IRS “wiped clean a number of computer hard drives containing…

133 Humiliating New Legal Defeat for Obama Administration, but Rule of Law Remains in the Balance

You don't need a fancy legal degree to understand that Congress intended for every eligible American to have access to tax credits that would lower their healthcare costs, regardless of whether it was state officials or federal officials who were running the marketplace."  -White House spokesman Josh Earnest  "It is not our…

134 IRS and the Spoliation of Evidence Legal Standard

“Innocent until proven guilty” is an unconditional canon within our legal system, right?  Not always.  As a first-year associate fresh out of law school, my very first assignment centered on the legal issue known as “spoliation of evidence.”  Pronouncing the term correctly (spō-lē-Ā-shŭn)…

135 Don’t Conflate “Affirmative Action” with Alumni, Geographic or Athletic Preferences

“Does the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbid what its text plainly requires?  Needless to say (except that this case obliges us to say it), the question answers itself.”   -Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Clearly, no moral or political issue has divided and agonized America throughout its history…

136 Second Amendment: Justice Stevens’s Proposed Revision is an Admission of Defeat

If hyper-liberal retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gets his way, here’s how the Second Amendment would read:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, when serving in the militia, shall not be infringed.”  Consider it a liberal…

137 From the NAACP to Mozilla: Anonymity and First Amendment Freedom

“Petitioner has made an uncontroverted showing that on past occasions revelation of the identity of its rank-and-file members has exposed these members to economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility.  Under these circumstances, we think it apparent that compelled disclosure…

138 Will ObamaCare Die by Self-Implosion or Court Decision? The Race is On

Pop quiz:  The paramount principle that drew America’s first permanent settlers across the Atlantic, and upon which our nation was founded, was:  (a)  The freedom to practice one’s religion beyond government interference;  or (b) The right to force private employers to provide birth control and abortive drugs…

139 Gowdy’s ENFORCE Act: Obama’s Last Chance to Avoid Impeachment?

A new proposal by Trey Gowdy seems tailor-made to save Barack Obama from impeachment. But so far the president isn’t listening. Gowdy, a Republican, is a former federal prosecutor representing South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. He is also the author of H.R. 4138, better known as the “Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe…

140 Liberal 9th Circuit: Second Amendment Rights not Limited to One’s Home

One conspicuous casualty of the Obama Administration’s ongoing boondoggle of lawlessness and ideological fiat is something that was once a reliable conservative grievance.  Namely, the increasingly rare complaint of “judicial activism” – properly defined not as overturning democratically enacted statutes that happen to…

141 IRS, Obama Administration Suffer Unanimous New Legal Defeat

In a unanimous decision employing startling but justifiably harsh terms, the nation’s second-highest court handed the Obama Administration and its rogue Internal Revenue Service (IRS) an embarrassing new legal defeat this week:  “If we were to accept the IRS’s interpretation of Section 330, the IRS would be empowered for the…

142 Will the Supreme Court Rein in Obama’s Lawlessness?

History will not be kind to Barack Obama. Once the luster of his personality has receded into the past and his media disciples have all hung up their credentials, the only thing left will be his record. And it’s not pretty. Even now, with three years left in his tenure, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that his will be a presidency…

143 Federal Court Overturns Yet Another Chicago Gun Law

“Certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, put outside government’s reach, including the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense under the Second Amendment.  This right must also include the right to acquire a firearm, although that acquisition right is far from absolute:  there are many long-standing…

144 Groundhog Day? IRS Renews Targeting of Libertarian, Conservative Groups

Apparently, the Obama Administration either lacks any sense of irony whatsoever, or it simply maintains no interest in propriety or any appearance thereof.  The latest occasion for that observation comes from a new partisan stunt originating out of Obama’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  That’s not a misprint – the same…

145 “Affirmative” Action: Is Outlawing Discrimination Unconstitutional?

Does the Constitution prohibit states from outlawing the racial discrimination regime euphemistically known as “affirmative action?”  Stated differently, does the Equal Protection Clause prohibit laws requiring equal protection?  Believe it or not, the U.S. Supreme Court is actually being forced to answer that question. …

146 Another Embarrassing Judicial Defeat for the Obama Administration

“The Commission fundamentally miscalculated the scope of its discretion.”  These days, it seems the only thing rougher on Barack Obama than Russian President Vladimir Putin is our own judicial branch.  The quote above came from the written opinion of federal Judge John D. Bates, in vacating a Securities and Exchange Commission…

147 Two Humiliating New Judicial Defeats for Obama Administration, in Remarkably Harsh Language

“The President and federal agencies may not ignore statutory mandates or prohibitions merely because of policy disagreements with Congress.”  That rudimentary truth, familiar to any freshman political science major, should not be necessary instruction for a former professor of constitutional law like Barack Obama.  The fact…

148 Behind the Headlines: The Supreme Court and Vindication of George W. Bush

This month, America passed a surprising and significant milestone.  According to Gallup, George W. Bush now exceeds Barack Obama in public approval.  Looking back to four short years ago, how many would have predicted that reversal of fortunes?  Who expected that it would only take one term of getting to know Obama to reduce him from…

149 Good News From the Courts

Something is always boiling in the legal world. Sometimes so much boils at once that some worthy cases and stories don’t get the attention they deserve. Such is the situation in the past few weeks, with several cases about which I’ve written right here at CFIF, or thematically related to those cases, all seeing important developments in…

150 Civil Libertarians and Excessive Post-Boston Angst

Did America violate the due process rights of the murderous Boston terrorist – we won’t publicly recite his name – by interrogating him prior to itemizing his Miranda rights?  The straightforward answer is “no,” and claims to the contrary from some hand-wringing alarmists do not withstand legal or logical scrutiny…

 
Page 5 of 7
Notable Quote   
 
"Three years after 19 Americans died in a bombing at a Saudi Arabian apartment complex, then-President Bill Clinton sent a cable that told Iran's president a secret that the 42nd president wasn't even willing to tell the American public: U.S. intelligence had ample evidence that Tehran was behind the deadly Khobar Towers terror attack.'Message to President Khatami from President Clinton: The United…[more]
 
 
— John Solomon, Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News
 
Liberty Poll   

Is it even rational to believe that Iran's nuclear weapon ambitions can be conclusively ended without Iranian regime change?