Foundations of Liberty: Individual Liberty 
Essential
On Liberty
By John Stuart Mill. "The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection."
Vices Are Not Crimes
By Lysander Spooner: "Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property."
On Property and Government
By John Locke: "Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself."
An Arrow Against All Tyrants
By Richard Overton: "To every individual in nature is given an individual property by nature not to be invaded or usurped by any."
Declaration of the National Anti-Slavery Convention
By William Lloyd Garrison: "Every man has a right to his own body—to the products of his own labor—to the protection of law—and to the common advantages of society."
The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns
By Benjamin Constant: "The danger of modern liberty is that, absorbed in the enjoyment of our private independence, and in the pursuit of our particular interests, we should surrender our right to share in political power too easily."
The Freedom Philosophy
This anthology includes 14 essays on the political, economic, and moral foundations of a free society. These classic writings by Leonard E. Read, Frank Chodorov, Benjamin Rogge, F. A. Harper, among others, demonstrate the superiority of individual choice and capitalism over any forms of collectivism.
Defending Civil Society
By Edward Crane: "Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to stand up to the statists in both parties. America should be leading the worldwide market-liberal revolution, not pulling in the other direction."
The Declaration of Independence
As one of America's founding documents, the Declaration is one of the most influential pieces of libertarian thought ever written
The Constitution of the United States of America
As the supreme law of the land, the American Constitution acts to limit the role of government to the defense of our rights against foreign and domestic threat.
The Philosophy of Liberty
A video explaining libertarianism based on the principle of self-ownership.
Freedom and the Law
By Bruno Leoni: "The greatest obstacle to rule of law in our time, contends the author of this thought-provoking work, is the problem of overlegislation. In modern democratic societies, legislative bodies are increasingly usurping functions that were and should be exercised by individuals or groups rather than government."
Associations in Civil Life
By Alexis de Tocqueville. "Thus the most democratic country on the face of the earth is that in which men have, in our time, carried to the highest perfection the art of pursuing in common the object of their common desires and have applied this new science to the greatest number of purposes."
What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have To Fear
By Alexis de Tocqueville. "It would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them."
Areopagitica
By John Milton: "Milton’s famous defense of freedom of speech. It was a protest against Parliament’s ordinance to further restrict the freedom of print. Milton issued his oration in an unlicensed form and courageously put his own name, but not that of his printer, on the cover."
Recommended
Fairness, Idealism and Other Atrocities
By P.J. O'Rourke: "Well, here you are at your college graduation. And I know what you're thinking: 'Gimme the sheepskin and get me outta here!' But not so fast. First you have to listen to a commencement speech."
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Hounded to Death
By David Boaz: "Faced with the prospect of years in prison, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam,” committed suicide on Thursday. Her pursuers and prosecutors should be ashamed of themselves."
Battle Over Eminent Domain Is Another Civil Rights Issue
By David T. Beito and Ilya Somin: "Few policies have done more to destroy community and opportunity for minorities than eminent domain. Some 3 to 4 million Americans, most of them ethnic minorities, have been forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of urban renewal takings since World War II."
America on drugs
"In the Los Angeles Times, Jacob Sullum debates Cully Stimson about drug policy in a back-and-forth argument that's wraps up today."
Milton Friedman Prize Selection Committee Member Arrested
The Ugandan government has arrested Andrew Mwenda, a member of the 2008 International Selection Committee for the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with his fellow journalists Odobo Bichachi and John Njoroge. Andrew Mwenda is a brave journalist who tells it like he sees it. He is well known for standing up for the rights of others; his involvement in the Milton Friedman Prize is only one element of his long commitment to human rights.
Venezuelan Student Movement Leader Awarded $500,000 Milton Friedman Liberty Prize
Yon Goicoechea, leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela, has been awarded the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Under Goicoechea's leadership, the student movement organized mass opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in Venezuela and played the key role in defeating Hugo Chávez's bid for a constitutional reform that would have turned the country into a dictatorship.
Employers Must Pull the Trigger
By Robert A. Levy: "The owner of the property should be able to determine — for good reasons, bad reasons, or no reason at all — whether to admit gun owners, non-gun owners, neither or both. Customers, employees and guests who object may go elsewhere. That's the controlling principle."
The Dance, Dance Revolution Will Be Televised After All
By Julian Sanchez: "The plan had been to celebrate the birth of the author of the Declaration of Independence by congregating, flashmob style, for ten minutes of quiet iPod-fueled dancing, then repair to a pub nearby. Instead, park police brought the party to an abrupt halt, arresting 28-year-old Brooke Oberwetter and leading her away in handcuffs, while chasing the rest of the group off."
Inequality and Excess
By Arnold Kling: "What the American people really should feel awkward and defensive about is the level of inequality and excess of political power. Instead of asking ourselves what we can do about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, we should be asking ourselves about what we can do about the Clintons and the Spitzers. Those who want more and more power should be our biggest concern."
Real ID Act Has Been a Real Fiasco
"The big trouble is that there’s no evidence that this Draconian act, even if fully implemented, would be more than a minor inconvenience for a determined terrorist. But having all that information – including copies of birth certificates and Social Security cards – available in one database would make an irresistible target for identity thieves. And it would be a major inconvenience for millions of innocent Americans and a major expense for state governments – meaning taxpayers."
Immigration: The Beckham Factor
"As soccer superstar David Beckham kicks off the Los Angeles Galaxy's 2008 season, Drew Carey asks what this says about immigration in the U.S. in a new reason.tv video."
The Long Fall of Robert G. Mugabe
By Marian L. Tupy: "Mugabe is in this position primarily because he has turned Zimbabwe into one of the world's poorest countries--the result of his worsening political repression, frontal attack on the independence of the judiciary, confiscation of property, and evisceration of the once-thriving private sector. With health, education, and incomes in freefall, Zimbabweans are ready for change."
FISA Funny Business
By Julian Sanchez: " The terrorist attack had been as devastating as it was unexpected. Convinced that better intelligence was the key to preventing fresh attacks, the president resolved to seek legislation granting the executive branch broad new wiretapping powers. But he had a problem: The opposition party, which controlled Congress, was equally determined to block provisions that they saw as an affront to privacy."
Armed for Liberty
By Alan Gura and Robert A. Levy: "Imagine a right — intended, in part, as a deterrent to oppressive government — that can be exercised only when, where, and in the manner that government directs. "
Wiretapping's True Danger
By Julian Sanchez: "Without meaningful oversight, presidents and intelligence agencies can -- and repeatedly have -- abused their surveillance authority to spy on political enemies and dissenters."
The D.C. Gun Ban Supreme Court Case
Tom Palmer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, talks about the DC gun ban on Reporter's Roundtable.
Spitzer's Hypocrisy: Worse Than You Think
By Paul Karl Lukacs: "Libertarians are understandably of two minds about L’Affaire Spitzer. On the one hand, a dedicated public servant will probably lose his job, and may be indicted, due to consensual liaisons and payments that should be a private matter completely outside the ambit of Justice Department wiretaps. On the other hand, Spitzer’s been hoisted by the moralistic petard that he can regulate any and all sexual behavior with which he disagrees, wherever it occurs. As Barabash said Monday, 'It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.'"
The Five Dumbest Product Bans
By Eli Lehrer: "Even as the array of consumer products available to the average American expands each day, a bewildering variety of government regulations serve to limit consumer choice. From the aircraft on which Americans fly to the food they buy in the grocery store, government regulation limits product choice at every turn."
The Wire's War on the Drug War
By Ed Burns, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon: "If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun's manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens."
Orders and Organizations
By Don Boudreaux: "More generally, it seems difficult for some people to grasp the fact that society and government are not identical -- or, more precisely, to grasp the fact that civil society can and does often thrive outside of government influence and, indeed, very often (I would say most often) in spite of such influence."
Atlas Hugged
Brian Doherty: "As executive vice president of the Cato Institute, Boaz is one of the media's primary go-to guys on libertarian thought and policy. And in his new book, "The Politics of Freedom," a collection of his short-form journalism from the past 25 years, Boaz pushes an interesting and counterintuitive belief about American politics. The political spectrum, he argues, contains a lot more libertarians than the two major party's stances would lead you to believe."
Limits on Eavesdropping Need to Stay
By Timothy B. Lee and Gene Healy: "Modern computer technology makes the potential for the abuse of unfettered executive power much greater today. Judicial oversight is at least as important in the 21st century as it was in the 20th, and Congress should resist Bush's demand for unchecked spying powers."
No, a President Can't Do as He Pleases
By Edward H. Crane and Robert A. Levy: "For many years, we were at risk of losing important civil liberties through unchecked transgressions by the executive branch. Maybe we are still at risk. But thanks to the media, the courts and — belatedly — an energized opposition in Congress, the administration has finally resigned itself to a semblance of congressional oversight, even if judicial scrutiny remains inadequate."
Sanctimony's Turn at Bat
By Colman McCarthy: "I see steroids, and all drugs, as an issue of personal freedom. Is there a difference between fans at big-league baseball games stoned on alcohol while cheering athletes on the base paths juiced with steroids? What's the difference between scoring with Viagra and scoring with steroids? What's the difference between people freely abusing their bodies with one drug but not another, as long as no one else is harmed and the consequences are self-sustained?"
Freedom Properly Understood
By Tom G. Palmer: "Let us hold up a standard of freedom, expressed in clear and precise terms, not modified by misleading adjectives, and promote that standard to the public, in the knowledge that with freedom – because of freedom – we enjoy prosperity, peace, dignity, knowledge, health, and so many other benefits. But as we enjoy the blessings of freedom, let us not confuse those blessings with freedom itself, for on that path we are led to lose both freedom and its blessings."
Government, Bound or Unbound?
By Anthony de Jasay: "Collective choice starts where unanimity ends, and involves some deciding for all, where the “some” control the apparatus of government. It is the potential for some to benefit morally and materially at the expense of others that creates the bone of contention and that limits on government are meant to move out of reach."
The Surveillance Scam
By Timothy B. Lee: "In his State of the Union address, President Bush pressed Congress to quickly pass legislation to make permanent the sweeping spying powers that Congress granted last August. Those powers, which include the ability to eavesdrop on foreign-to-domestic communications without meaningful judicial oversight, were due to expire last week. Congress has passed a two-week extension of the law, but that barely gives Congress time to catch its breath before the White House resumes its campaign to make it permanent."
Atlas Shrugged and Public Choice: The Obvious Parallels
By Bryan Caplan: "Though there is little evidence of mutual influence, Ayn Rand and public choice converge on a strikingly similar vision of the political process. Both emphasize the contradiction between the propaganda of government intervention and the reality. Government supposedly intervenes to advance the interests of the majority. In reality, however, its goal to advance the interests of political insiders at the expense of everyone else."
Super Tuesday Winners and Losers
Michael D. Tanner: "A few thoughts in the wake of last nights elections:"
The Whys of Spies
By Jacob Sullum: "Last August, panicked at the prospect of an imminent terrorist attack that could be averted only by granting the executive branch new surveillance powers, Congress passed the Protect America Act. With the law scheduled to expire this month, the Bush administration is trying to scare Congress into making the powers permanent."
U.S.-Imposed Border Bedlam Will Hurt Michigan
By Jim Harper: "Nobody imagined when Congress created the Department of Homeland Security that the department itself would mount the next attack on American transportation, travel and trade. But the department begins an assault this week that will do billions of dollars in damage if it is not stopped."
The False Promise of Real ID
By Jon Healey: "Thanks to the efforts of the federal government, it may soon be quite a bit harder to forge a driver's license. But that doesn't necessarily mean we'll be any less vulnerable to terrorist attacks, particularly not the kind carried out on Sept. 11, 2001."
Congress Strong-Arming Baseball? That's Foul.
By Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch: "First, Major League Baseball, along with other sports leagues and private-sector ventures, simply should not be required to submit their business plans -- much less blood and urine samples -- to Congress or any other government body."
The Real Key to Development
By Mary Anastasia O'Grady: "The Index [of Economic Freedom] also reports that the freest 20% of the world's economies have twice the per capita income of those in the second quintile and five times that of the least-free 20%. In other words, freedom and prosperity are highly correlated."
Drug Use and the Candidates
By Stanton Peele: "There has been massive drug and underage alcohol use by Americans over the years -- more than 110 million Americans, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, have used illicit drugs. Yet the overwhelming majority of them -- like Messrs. Bush, Clinton and Obama -- have grown up to be productive citizens. Some believe there's no need to know about their youthful misconduct."
Laws Against Reason
By Jennifer Rosen: "Ever since the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol laws in this country have been a bit nutty. Take the business of bars. Some states mandate sitting, while others require standing at the bar to drink. Texans may take up to but not more than three sips of beer while standing. Some jurisdictions require the interior of public drinking establishments to be visible from the street; others specifically prohibit that."
Flunking Free Speech: The persistent threat to liberty on college campuses
By Michael C. Moynihan: "According to a dossier compiled by FIRE, incoming freshman were required to undergo "treatment" (the university's word) by residence hall apparatchiks, and forced "to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism." These young scholar-scamps in Wilmington are told solemnly that they are, according to the precepts of the university, carriers of racist original sin: '[A] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.'"
What to Be Thankful For
By David Boaz: "Not long ago a journalist asked me what freedoms we take for granted in America. Now, I spend most of my time sounding the alarm about the freedoms we're losing. But this was a good opportunity to step back and consider how America is different from much of world history -- and why immigrants still flock here."
Guests in the Machine
By Kerry Howley: "Guest worker programs may be the best hope many of the world's poorest people have for improving their lives."
Iraqi Allies Deserve Better than Red Tape
By Malou Innocent: "Many Iraqis, desperate to earn decent wages and bring stability to their country, support American forces by working as Arabic interpreters. "Terps" are paid a modest sum, and they enable soldiers to communicate with Iraqi civilians and track down insurgents. But working with the Americans can come at a high cost."
Government Power Grabs: 'Predicting' 2008
By Radley Balko: "As the end of the year approaches, it's time for another column of government overreach predictions for the New Year. What outrageous, beyond-parody grabs at power and erosions of civil liberties will transpire in 2008?"
Sweet Land of Liberty?
By Donald J. Boudreaux: "In this sweet land of liberty it is surprising how readily we modern Americans let others rule us. I'm not talking about Americans letting some foreign government rule us. That won't happen anytime soon. There's no risk that, say, we will quietly surrender to an invading army sent from the likes of Moscow or Beijing. I'm talking about being ruled by homegrown politicians and petty tyrants who butt their noses into the sizes of our toilets, the amount of salt we consume and countless other provinces of our daily lives."
Clinton and Giuliani Would Grab Even More Power Than Bush Did
By David Boaz: "Clinton calls herself a 'government junkie.' She says, 'There is no such thing as other people's children' and promises to work on 'redefining who we are as human beings in the post-modern age.'"
Mugabe's Apologists
By Marian Tupy: "Robert Mugabe's participation in the European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon over the weekend was a triumph of Zimbabwean diplomacy. Both African and EU leaders must share the blame for this farce. Zimbabwe's foreign ministry managed to portray the octogenarian dictator, who has presided over widespread violations of human rights and an astonishing economic collapse, as the victim of a Western conspiracy."
Free to Booze
With Brandon Arnold: "Cheers! Today is the 74th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, thereby repealing the 18th Amendment and ending our 13 years as a dry nation."
Carefully Plotted Course Propels Gun Case to Top
By Adam Liptak: "Robert A. Levy, a rich libertarian lawyer who has never owned a gun, helped create and single-handedly financed the case that may finally resolve the meaning of the Second Amendment."
Big Ideas Need Small Places
By Jesse Walker: "The desert republic of Molossia doesn’t appear on many maps, and it doesn’t have a seat in the United Nations. But if you drive about 18 miles northeast from Carson City, Nevada, you’ll find it."
Is Feminism on the Wane?
Feminism has come to mean many things to many people. Carrie Lukas, Vice President of the Independent Women's Forum, argues that feminism was once a movement of equality under the law and equality of opportunity. She says it now often represents expansion of government to achieve dubious ends.
Taking Marriage Private
By Stephanie Coontz: "Why do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity."
Kurt Loder on Technology and Freedom
"A legend for his work in Rolling Stone and at MTV, Loder is an outspoken libertarian--and a harsh critic of the nanny state in all its manifestations. In this wide-ranging conversation, Loder discusses technology, freedom, the coming collapse of traditional news media (and why that's a good thing), the misguided (and ultimately ineffective) attempt to shut down free expression, and much more."
National City: Eminent Domain Gone Wild
Reason.tv host Drew Carey visits National City, California, where the local government is taking eminent domain abuse to new lows.
Unholster the 2nd Amendment
By Robert A. Levy: "Later this month, the Supreme Court will decide whether to review the circuit court's blockbuster opinion in Parker vs. District of Columbia, the first federal appellate opinion to overturn a gun control law on the ground that the 2nd Amendment protects the rights of individuals."
Free Kareem!
Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Cato's Vice President for International Programs, speaks out against the imprisonment of a young Egyptian blogger. November 9th marks the one year anniversary of Kareem's incarceration. For more information about the global effort to free Kareem, and about rallies in your area, visit www.freekareem.org .
The Dogma of our Times
By Frank Chodorov: "Collectivism is more than an idea. In itself, an idea is nothing but a toy of speculation, a mental idol. Since, as the myth holds, the suprapersonal society is replete with possibilities, the profitable thing to do is to put the myth to work, to energize its virtue. The instrument at hand is the state, throbbing with political energy and quite willing to expend it on this glorious adventure."
What FDR Had In Common With the Other Charismatic Collectivists of the 30s
By David Boaz: "When economic crisis hit — in Italy and Germany after World War I, in the United States with the Great Depression — the anti-liberals seized the opportunity, arguing that the market had failed and that the time for bold experimentation had arrived."
China's Legacy: The Thoughts of Lao Tzu
By James Dorn: "China's present leaders are calling for a "harmonious society", but this is impossible without widespread freedom and a rule of law that limits the power of government to the protection of people and property. "
Libertarianism in the Crosshairs
In this essay, Tom Palmer, Cato Vice President for Student Programs, discusses several critiques on libertarianism, addressing popular as well as academic works.
South Park Libertarians
Reason Magazine interviews Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-creators of South Park, the highly controversial and massively successful TV show South Park, now in its 10th season on Comedy Central.
Two Kinds of Order
John Marks suggests "that the fundamental differences between liberal and socialist societies arise because liberal societies depend primarily on evolutionary rationalism and spontaneous order, whereas the structures of socialist societies take constructive rationalism and designated order as their model."
The Institution of Property
David Schmidtz discusses the institutional history of property as the right to exclude others from using one's possession.
A Constitution for Liberty
Prof. Kenneth Minogue interviews contemporary authors in his investigation on the principles that can constitute a free society.
A Reading List on the Principles of Liberty
Looking to understand the basics of libertarianism? This reading list offers books and articles that are central to the libertarian movement. Learn about the aims and contributions of libertarian thought in modern political life.
The Nanny State
"Today, conservatives on the right tend to want to pass laws regarding which drugs we ingest, what we do in our bedrooms, which pictures we look at, which movies we watch, and which music we listen to. At the same time, modern liberal public health advocates on the left want to heavily regulate what we eat; how food is grown, manufactured, marketed, and sold; our alcohol intake; which prescription drugs we should have access to; and what products are safe enough for us to use. Neither side has much respect for the idea that most Americans are capable of making these kinds of decisions for themselves."