Law: Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement 
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U.S. Needs to Let More Workers In
Immigration reform is a hot topic in today’s political climate, but Dan Griswold, the director of Cato’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, claims that this issue doesn’t have to fall on party lines; the existing evidence demonstrates that true reform could lead to gains on all sides. Griswold notes that as Americans’ standard of living increases, low-skilled jobs become less desirable and higher-skilled jobs more available; however, our current immigration system “offers no means for a sufficient number of foreign-born workers to enter the country legally and fill that gap. So they enter illegally.” To produce a win-win for immigrants and Americans alike, a robust temporary-worker program should be adopted. This would provide an economic boost and save millions of the tax dollars currently going to costly border protection.
21: Is It Time to Lower the Drinking Age?
Today, we all take the drinking age for granted, but should we? In fact, the US is one of only four countries in the world with a drinking age as high as 21—the other three are Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau. Is the policy working to reduce health and safety issues related to youthful alcohol abuse? What are the unintended consequences of alcohol prohibition for 18-20 year olds? Reason.tv went to the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin to get a first-hand look at the war on underage drinking.
Police Department goes Pre-Crime
Move over Minority Report, there's a new pre-crime division in town. Reason's Radley Balko describes a situation in Medford, Oregon on March 8th when David Pyles woke up to a phone call from the police and SWAT team in his front yard. Pyles was taken to the station and given a mental evaluation on grounds that he was "disgruntled" from his job and had recently purchased several firearms (legally, and with money from his recent tax return). "Instead of being reactive, we took a proactive approach," said one officer. The problem is, the police had no warrant, had talked to no judge, and Pyles had committed no crime. After being released, Pyles commented, "If something like this can happen here, where just about everyone owns a gun, it can happen anywhere."
Drug Czar Should Go
By Tim Lynch: "Voters are disgusted by the reckless spending of politicians in Washington. The backlash is coming, so policymakers are now scrambling to do something, or at least be seen as doing something, about the enormous federal debt. Now is a good time for Congress to abolish government agencies that are outdated, dysfunctional or just unnecessary.
"A prime candidate for abolition is the office of the so-called 'drug czar.'"
'Thought Crimes' Bill Advances
Cato's new senior fellow, Nat Hentoff, takes a look at the recent passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed in the House of Representatives on April 29, and notes the bill's various violations of the U.S. Constitution, including the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
I Smoke Pot, and I Like It
By Will Wilkinson: "If we're to begin to roll back our stupid and deadly drug war, the stigma of responsible drug use has got to end, and marijuana is the best place to start. The super-savvy Barack Obama managed to turn a buck by coming out of the cannabis (and cocaine) closet in a bestselling memoir. That's progress. But his admission came with the politicians' caveat of regret. We'll make real progress when solid, upstanding folk come out of the cannabis closet, heads held high."
Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies
By Glenn Greenwald: "While other states in the European Union have developed various forms of de facto decriminalization — whereby substances perceived to be less serious (such as cannabis) rarely lead to criminal prosecution — Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be "decriminalized." Because more than seven years have now elapsed since enactment of Portugal's decriminalization system, there are ample data enabling its effects to be assessed."
Ilya Shapiro: "Libel Tourism: The Next Front in the War on Terror"
Where: North Coast, CA Host: North Coast Federalist Society Lawyers Chapter
The House of Death
By Radley Balko: "Three years ago, Sandalio 'Sandy' Gonzalez's 32-year career with the Drug Enforcement Agency came to an abrupt end after he blew the whistle in a horrifying case now known as the 'House of Death,' in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stand accused of looking the other way while one of their drug informants participated in torturing and murdering at least a dozen people in an abandoned house near the Texas-Mexico border."
Bottoms Up!
By Will Wilkinson: "A hundred and thirty college presidents and chancellors have signed a controversial statement calling for a new debate about the legal drinking age; their notion is to lower it from 21 to 18. Alas, college presidents are politicians of a sort, so none will take the reopened debate where it needs to go. There should be no drinking age at all."
Responsible Drug Use
"Those who support drug prohibition often do so with the premise, implicit or explicit, that life without prohibition would be marked by vastly more irresponsibility, addiction, accidents, health problems, and death. Those who favor ending drug prohibition are forced to argue, not only for an unfamiliar policy, but also against this parade of horribles. Yet are we not able to think about and manage these substances rationally and responsibly?"
Amethyst Initiative's Debate on Drinking a Welcome Alternative to Fanaticism
By Radley Balko: "It's been nearly 25 years since Congress blackmailed the states to raise the minimum drinking age to 21 or lose federal highway funding. Supporters of the law have hailed it as an unqualified success, and until recently, they've met little resistance."
Drinking Age Revisited
By Brandon Arnold: "Yesterday, over a hundred college presidents called for a reexamination of the current minimum drinking age and suggested it should be lowered. This is great news and could serve as an opportunity to begin an intelligent national dialogue on improving alcohol policies."
C.S.Oy
By Radley Balko and Roger Koppl: "But as forensic evidence becomes more and more important in securing convictions, the need for monitoring and oversight grows exponentially. Every other scientific field properly requires peer review, statistical analysis, and redundancy to ensure quality and accuracy. It's past time we applied the same quality-control measures to criminal forensics, particularly given the fundamental nature of what's at stake."
Why California Medical Marijuana Dispensary Owner Charlie Lynch Was Found Guilty in Federal Court of Selling Drugs
"In this latest reason.tv video, we talk to Lynch's lawyers and the forewoman of the jury to find out precisely how Lynch got convicted and what happens next. It's a disturbing, provocative video that should make even the hardiest drug warrior wonder just what the hell we're doing locking up businessmen who play by the rules and give aid and comfort to sick people."
Elevator Arguments for Drug Policy Reform
By Pete Guither: "So you’ve been studying hard and you’re starting to amass an incredible amount of data supporting drug policy reform. You’re ready to make a difference.
And then opportunity presents itself. Somebody actually asks you a question about drugs... just as you get on the elevator. But here’s the problem — he’s getting off at the 12th floor and you’re going to 14. What do you do?"
Consenting to Be Abused
By Steve Chapman: "In a nation founded on respect for the rights of every person, these searches give all priority to the power and convenience of the government, while mocking the liberties we are supposed to have. Why would we consent to that?"
Criminal Justice Unfairly Ignored on Trail
By Radley Balko: Given that enforcing federal law is one of the few presidential powers explicitly prescribed the Constitution, here are some criminal justice policy questions for John McCain and Barack Obama:
The Second Amendment Goes to Court
Alan Gura, Glenn Reynolds, Randy Barnett, Brian Doherty, Sanford Levinson, Jacob Sullum, and Dave Kopel respond to D.C. v. Heller
Democrats Capitulate on FISA
By Julian Sanchez: "Democrats are trying to rationalize capitulating on surveillance and telecom immunity in the new FISA bill by calling it a compromise. It isn't."
Commie Ball: A Journey to the End of a Revolution
By Michael Lewis: "Some of the greatest baseball players the world has never seen are in Cuba, where their talent is government property, and their only chance of turning pro is the risky boat ride to Florida. Gus Dominguez, an L.A. sports agent, has done more than anyone to help escaped players join major-league U.S. teams, but now he sits in a California jail, convicted of smuggling athletes."
Raiding California—Drew Carey on Medical Marijuana and Minors
"Should medical marijuana be kept from minors at all costs? Why is it that pharmacists can dispense amphetamines without getting busted, but legal operators who dispense medical marijuana face prison time? Why do armed federal agents persist in raiding California?"
Texas Supreme Court: Return the Children
By Tim Lynch: "[T]he Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Child Protective Services (CPS) abused its discretion by seizing 468 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints ranch in Eldorado."
Drew Carey Reports on the Tragically High Cost of Building a Border Wall
"At a time when pundits and politicians of all stripes endorse securing the border between the United States and Mexico, reason.tv travels south to see what's really going on—and what the human and monetary costs are of amping up border patrols."
Mississippi Drug War Blues—the Case of Cory Maye
The latest Drew Carey Project video for reason.tv tells "a story about the intersection of race, the war on drugs, the disturbing increase in the militarization of police tactics, and systemic flaws in the criminal justice system. It is a tragedy in which one man is dead and another may spend his life in prison without possibility of parole."
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."
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."
Bail Bondsmen, Bounty Hunters and Private Prisons
"America’s free enterprise system is at work in many aspects of the criminal justice system. Profit-making bail bondsmen who help defendants post the money needed for their freedom pending trial are common in the U.S. but virtually unheard of across the rest of the world. Bounty hunters lured by big payouts find criminals who have previously eluded the police. And private companies are building and operating prisons and detention facilities."
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."
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 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."
I'd rather be Hanged for a Sheep than a Lamb: The Unintended Consequences of 'Three-Strikes' Laws
By Radha Iyengar: "Using criminal records data, I estimate that Three Strikes reduced participation in criminal activity by 20 percent for second-strike eligible offenders and a 28 percent decline for third-strike eligible offenders. However, I find two unintended consequences of the law. First, because Three Strikes flattened the penalty gradient with respect to severity, criminals were more likely to commit more violent crimes. Among third-strike eligible offenders, the probability of committing violent crimes increased by 9 percentage points. Second, because California's law was more harsh than the laws of other nearby states, Three Strikes had a "beggar-thy-neighbor" effect increasing the migration of criminals with second and third-strike eligibility to commit crimes in neighboring states."
Gun Buybacks a Noble Idea That Always Misfires
By Alex Tabarrok: "Did no one running the program think to look at the price of a new gun? In fact, the first two people in line at one of the three buyback locations were gun dealers with 60 firearms packed in the trunk of their car. One wonders why the police even bothered to buy the guns from Oakland residents. Why not buy directly from gun manufacturers?"
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."
The Bite-Marks Men
By Radley Balko: "These may turn out to be the first in a string of exonerations we'll see coming out of Mississippi. For the last 20 years, the state's criminal autopsy system has been in disrepair. Nearly every institution in the state has failed to do anything about it."
An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution
By Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh: "Unlike most other crimes, prostitution is based on markets, and thus potentially of special interest to economists. It is thus surprising that amidst the burgeoning literature on the economics of crime, there is little analysis of prostitution."
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?"
Bill of Rights Day
By Tim Lynch: "Since today is Bill of Rights Day, it seems like an appropriate time to pause and consider the condition of the safeguards set forth in our fundamental legal charter."
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.
Do More Cops Equal Less Crime?
By Steve Chapman: "If more cops really translate into safer streets, you would think local taxpayers would be more than willing to bear the expense. But if they don't think their safety is worth what it costs, why should the rest of us foot the bill?"
Is Pornography a Catalyst of Sexual Violence?
By Steve Chapman: "In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women." Recent research suggests the opposite is true.
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Justice
Radley Balko "looks at three criminal justice reforms passed by the California legislature that shouldn't have been all that controversial, and that would have done quite a bit to help prevent wrongful convictions. Unfortunately, the Governator vetoed all three of them."
Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana
"I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it – safely and easily," says The Price Is Right and Power of 10 host Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining medical marijuana and the war on drugs.
Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
By Radley Balko: "Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing."
The Truth About Medical Marijuana
By Steve Chapman: "The mystery is not why anyone believes cannabis can be safe and effective therapy. The mystery is why so many politicians, particularly Republican presidential candidates—Ron Paul, a physician, being the heroic exception—are unwilling to consider the possibility, or to leave the matter up to the states."
CSI: Mississippi - A case study in expert testimony gone horribly wrong
By Radley Balko: "During the last two decades, there have been more than a dozen high-profile cases in which dubious forensic witnesses conned state and federal courts, sometimes for many years and in hundreds of cases."