ILYA SOMIN: How The Legal System Often Ignores The Rights Of Parents. Not enough tar and feathers?
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ILYA SOMIN: How the Constitution protects “free range” parents.
The Supreme Court has always indicated that parental rights are not absolute. The state can intervene to protect children against serious threats to their health and safety, and to ensure that all children get at least a basic education. But, as Troxel makes clear, the state can’t infringe on parental control over child-raising unless they have real evidence showing that there is a genuinely significant threat to the childrens’ safety and well-being. Otherwise, as Justice O’Connor’s opinion makes clear, the authorities must respect the “presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of their children.”
Forcibly detaining elementary school-aged kids for walking by themselves in a safe, middle-class neighborhood doesn’t even come close to meeting the necessary standard. Statistically, such walking is extremely safe, and probably less dangerous than police officers’ actions in forcibly detaining the children and driving them to a CPS office. According to the Center for Disease Control, car accidents are a leading cause of death among small children; riding in a car as a passenger is far more dangerous for kids than walking in most neighborhoods. Far from “protecting” the two children, the police and the CPS probably put them at greater risk than they were exposed to before (though the risk was still very low in an absolute sense). The Meitivs’ parenting practices are also much safer than numerous typical childhood activities, such as participating in contact sports like basketball and hockey, or going downhill skiing. If the CPS can force parents to stop letting their children walk home from the park, it can similarly target every other comparably risky activity, including numerous sports, and even driving the children in a car.
The bottom line is that the CPS’ actions here seem to be the result of exactly the kind of “mere disagreement” with parental choices that the Supreme Court specifically barred as a basis for overriding parents’ constitutional right to direct their children’s upbringing.
Tar. Feathers.
DAVID BERNSTEIN & ILYA SOMIN: The Mainstreaming of Libertarian Constitutionalism.
FROM ILYA SOMIN, a review of Damon Root’s Overruled: The Long War for Control of the Supreme Court.
ILYA SOMIN: Changing public attitudes toward federalism.
In a poll conducted last year, Samples and Ekins replicated a series of questions on what level of government should make “the major decisions” on various issues, that were first asked in a 1973 Harris poll. With the exception of national defense (where there has been no statistically significant change), there has been a substantial increase in preference for state and local control relative to federal.
On several important issues, majority opinion has actually flipped over the last forty years, shifting from a majority in favor of federal dominance to a majority against it. For example, the percentage of Americans who believe that state or local government should make the major decisions on drug policy has increased from 39% in 1973 to 61% in 2013. On health care, it has risen from 40% to 62%; on environmental protection, it has gone from 36% to 56%. On prison reform, the proportion supporting state and local primacy has increased from 43% to 68%.
In both 1973 and 2013, substantial majorities favored federal primacy on national defense, Social Security, and cancer research. But in the last two cases, the minority preferring state or local control has substantially increased. Similarly, in both 1973 and 2013, large majorities favored state or local control of education, transportation, housing, and welfare policy. But on all four issues, those anti-federal government majorities have grown substantially.
Well, the Federal Government hasn’t exactly covered itself with glory since 1973.
ILYA SOMIN: Assessing a possible Scottish secession. “I think it’s clear that Scottish independence isn’t inherently objectionable. Whether it is actually a good idea is a much tougher call.”
ILYA SOMIN: Political Ignorance And The Founding Fathers.
ILYA SOMIN: Target The Russian Elites.
IN THE MAIL: From Ilya Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter.
GEORGE WILL: The Price of Political Ignorance: More Government.
A column on Ilya Somin’s book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter.
VIDEO of Ilya Somin’s book forum at the Cato Institute on his book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter.
ILYA SOMIN: Voting With Your Feet Works for the Poor, Too.
ILYA SOMIN: Foot Voting vs. Ballot Box Voting.
His new book is Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter.
ILYA SOMIN: Why Political Ignorance Matters. Also, Why Political Ignorance Is A Serious Problem. Both posts drawn from his new book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, which just came out from Stanford University Press last week. (Bumped).
AT BALKINIZATION, Ilya Somin is guestblogging about his new and important book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, which just came out from Stanford University Press.
ILYA SOMIN: “Terrorism,” “Hostage-Taking,” and the Government Shutdown.
Terrorists and hostage-takers are evil because they threaten lives and property that do not belong to them. “Your money or your life” is a terroristic threat, because the person making the threat has no right to dispose of either your money or your life. But there isn’t any terrorism or hostage-taking if you say you won’t give me any of your money unless I do something you want me to do.
In the case of the government shutdown, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has no constitutional or other obligation to pass a funding bill that includes funding for Obamacare or any other particular government program. Part of the reason why the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse is so they can decide which government programs are worthy of funding, and which are not. It is also worth noting that the Republicans are not the only side in this dispute who are willing to shut down the government if they don’t get what they want on health care policy. President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate could just as easily avoid a shutdown by accepting the House bill. In its latest version, it doesn’t even defund Obamacare completely, but merely delays implementation by a year and repeals the medical device tax, which is currently part of the law. This is not to say that Obama and the Senate Democrats are acting as “terrorists” or “hostage-takers” either. The Senate is not obliged to pass the House bill. If they do, Obama has every right to veto that bill if it gets to his desk. But there is considerable symmetry between the two sides’ positions.
But not, however, in the press coverage they receive. Because the press is deeply suspicious of anyone who stands in the way of the orderly and efficient expansion of the state.
OUT THIS WEEK: From Ilya Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter.
ILYA SOMIN ON The Rise of Movements Seeking to Create New States Through Secession. “Over the last week, secession movements seeking to create new states have made some progress in northern California and rural Colorado. Back in 2011, I wrote about the secession movement in southern California. All three movements are examples of rural jurisdictions seeking to secede from state governments they perceive as dominated by urban interests and values.”
ILYA SOMIN: Thoughts on the Text of the Obama Administration’s Proposed Authorization to Use Military Force in Syria.
UPDATE: Seen on Facebook:
