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Rights are not Subject to a Vote
Last November, voters in St. Paul approved the most stringent rent control law in the nation. This past week, a Minnesota Senator introduced a bill that would repeal that law and prohibit other municipalities from imposing rent control. This is an appropriate bill because rights, including property rights, are not subject to a vote. The…
Sell the Damn Dams
In August, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) announced plans to drain four lakes beginning September 16. GBRA said dewatering was necessary to avert potential failure of spillgates on the dams creating the lakes. Two other lakes have already been drained. GBRA says that it doesn’t have the funds to repair the spillgates. Property owners along…
Property Wrongs
A neighborhood association in Boise is fighting a proposal to develop a 226-unit subdivision. The Northwest Neighborhood Association (NWNA) contends that the development would prejudice its “substantial rights to ‘open space and rural character.’” Rights pertain to freedom of action. If one desires to live in a neighborhood with open space and a rural character,…
Justice and Intellectual Property Rights
Libertarians have long expressed disdain for intellectual property rights. As an example, Jeffrey A Tucker writes that “ownership is impossible as regards ideas, and no one has a right to profit as such.” Tucker is correct that nobody can own an idea. He is grossly wrong when he claims that no one has a right…
Hypocrisy Times Two
A recent editorial in the Austin American-Statesman called for legislators to enact “common-sense” reforms of the state’s civil asset forfeiture laws. The editorial correctly notes that Gov. Greg Abbott and many Republican lawmakers have trumpeted the cause of private property rights when it comes to annexation, fracking bans or local tree ordinances, yet they have…