Can political arrangements be dissolved peacefully? Legally? At the ballot box? By referendum? Or by any other mechanism short of outright violence and civil war?

According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the answer to these questions is no. Speaking in California yesterday on the subject of immigration and sanctuary cities, he issued this remarkable statement that manages to upend the entire concept of federalism in just a few short sentences:   

I’ve written recently about the Fed tightening the True Money Supply and that a cleansing may be approaching. However, Kasey Buckles, Daniel Hungerman, and Steven Lugauer tell us in their National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that we shouldn’t be just focusing on monetary aggregates but conceptions.

​Orgaworld is a company which operates a waste treatment facility in London, Ontario, but it also emits offensive odours which affect residents and businesses in the surrounding community. This has been an ongoing problem since 2007 when the plant opened.

The Mises Institute has been doing some grounds work the past few weeks, and we had a special visitor today as we planted a new tree: Auburn football legend Pat Dye. 

A player at the University of Georgia, Dye served as both head football coach and athletic director from 1981-1992. He was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005,  and the playing field in the football stadium is named “Pat Dye Field” in his honor.

Much has been said about the proposed steel and aluminum tariffs proposed by President Trump. It will likely usher in a trade war the US is ill-equipped to fight. Tariffs are just another tax. In general, tariffs are an all-around bad idea.

[Excerpted from Murray Rothbard, The Progressive Era, Patrick Newman, ed. (Auburn, Al.: Mises Institute, 2016), chap. 11.]

Andy Duncan of Mises UK interviews Ryan McMaken on tariffs, income taxes, and the importance of free trade [20 minutes]:

President Trump declared last week that the law enforcement should “take the guns first, go through due process second.” But the history of federal firearms enforcement shows that due process is often a mirage when federal bureaucrats drop their hammer. Before enacting sweeping new gun prohibitions, we should remember the collateral damage and constitutional absurdities from previous federal crackdowns.

There is an old lawyering adage that says “If the law is on your side, pound the law. If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If neither is on your side, pound the table.” It also has an alternate ending which says, “When neither is on your side, pound your opponent.”

As we’ve already discussed in detail, here and here, police agencies are not under any general legal obligation to protect the taxpaying public from criminal behavior. The motto “to protect and serve” is an advertising slogan. 

Moreover, police agencies are also protected by immunity laws from lawsuits in regards to police abuse or lack of action.