With SCOTUS, the Statistics Belie the Vibe

by Ilya Shapiro, Shapiro’s Gavel, October 21, 2024.

Excerpt:

The court leans right, yes, but it’s no monolith, and it clips the wings of aggressive conservative litigators and lower-court judges alike. Indeed, last term, for the first time in living memory, the Supreme Court reversed the Texas-heavy Fifth Circuit more than the California-based Ninth Circuit. And in the previous term—which featured historic rulings on gun-rights and affirmative action—the justices least in the majority were Thomas and Alito. As the kids would say, statistics belie the vibe.

Only 11 of the 58 opinions in argued cases last term resulted in “partisan” 6-3 splits and nearly half the decisions were unanimous. (The previous term saw only five “partisan” 6-3 votes and a similar rate of unanimity.) There were also five 5-4 rulings in five different configurations, in four of which the liberal trio held together.

 

The Remarkable Redneck Air Force of North Carolina

by Eric Boehm, Reason, October 23, 2024.

Excerpt:

Less expected is the sight that has accompanied that sound in Swannanoa, North Carolina, for the past three weeks: Helicopters, many of them privately owned and operated, launching and landing from a makeshift helipad in the backyard of the local hog shop. According to the men who organized this private relief effort in the wake of devastating floods unleashed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene, more than a million pounds of goods—food, heavy equipment to clear roads, medical gear, blankets, heaters, tents, you name it—have been flown from here to dots all over the map of western North Carolina.

“We’re not the government, and we’re here to help,” says one of the two men standing by the makeshift gate—a pair of orange traffic drums—that controls access to and from the Harley-Davidson dealership’s parking lot and the piles of donated items neatly organized within it. “We can do it quicker, we can do it efficiently, and we genuinely just want to help our neighbors.” He identifies himself only by his first name and later asks that I don’t use even that. It’s an understandable request, as what he’s doing is probably not, strictly speaking, totally legal. (italics mine)

DRH comment: The quote that I italicized is obviously a riff on what Ronald Reagan famously said were the scariest 9 words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” (Parenthetical note: I miss Reagan.)

And:

The man largely responsible for organizing the Harley-Davidson airlift is a burly, bearded former Green Beret who goes by Adam Smith—yes, really.

And finally:

They weren’t the only ones who needed help. Smith’s day job these days is running Savage Freedoms Defense, a training and consulting firm, where he draws on his military experience to help prepare people to take care of themselves and their loved ones under difficult circumstances. Through that business and via connections with other retired special operations veterans in the area, Smith launched what’s been called a redneck air force to get supplies to flooded mountain towns. Smith owns motorcycles and knows people who work at the Harley-Davidson dealership. He also knew it would be a perfect spot for the group’s ad hoc operations: a big parking lot with a single entrance, and a large field out back where the helicopters have been landing.

By the end of the first week, they had three civilian helicopters running missions, and it has only grown from there. In addition to food and supplies, the group has carried Starlink devices into places where internet and cell connections were down.

 

Draghi’s Dirigisme

by Samuel Gregg, Law & Liberty, October 24, 2024.

Excerpt:

Entitled The Future of European Competitiveness, this 404-page document is remarkably candid about Europe’s economic troubles. Draghi acknowledges that Europe “is stuck in a static industrial structure,” increasingly devoid of innovation, unable to resist regulatory creep, weakening in capital markets, experiencing a demographic implosion, enduring accelerating energy prices, and losing some of its best entrepreneurs to America. Thousands of European businesses, reports Draghi, identify “regulatory obstacles and the administrative burden as their greatest challenge.” Then there is Europe’s sclerotic tech sector. “Only four of the world’s top 50 tech companies,” Draghi observes, “are European.”

And:

One would think that this state of affairs would itself suggest the solution: an aggressive deregulation of European economies at the national and EU levels. Alas, it is a sign of the dirigiste mindset’s iron grip upon wide swathes of the EU’s political class that Draghi’s proposed cure for fading competitiveness amounts to more political centralization and greater state intervention, the exact opposite of what is necessary to make EU economies more dynamic and fitted up for twenty-first-century challenges.

 

Illegitimate Attacks on the Court’s Legitimacy

by John O. McGinnis, Law & Liberty, October 24, 2024.

Excerpt:

Critics also argue that Dobbs is unique because it represents the first time the Court has overturned a right on which many Americans relied. But this claim ignores history. The Court erased substantial economic liberties when it overruled Lochner v. New York and gutted constitutional protections for contracts in Home Building and Loan Ass’n v. Blaisdell, holding that the Contract Clause could be disregarded during economic emergencies—the very moment when such protections are most critical. These decisions eliminated rights that Americans had depended on, rights that were enshrined in the original constitutional framework.

DRH comment: Very good point. I think he and I have a different understanding of rights, though. I don’t think anyone can eliminate a right; he or she can only fail to recognize it. For example, I have a right not to be a slave. If someone made me into a slave, he would abrogate my right, not eliminate it.