Paul Ibrahim

Video: IRS Overreaches by Deciding Who Can Prepare Taxes

Paul Ibrahim — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:27:40 +0000

Video: Another Legal Perspective on the Individual Mandate

Paul Ibrahim — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:31:51 +0000

In this video, the Insitute for Justice takes a look at the individual mandate that is different from the arguments most often made against the law. George Will also explores this perspective here.

Video: Overreaching Food Truck Regulations Are Unconstitutional

Paul Ibrahim — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:43:00 +0000

Video: Are There Any Limits to the Commerce Clause and Power of the Government?

Paul Ibrahim — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:10:30 +0000

Due Process Clause v. Privileges or Immunities Clause in the McDonald Case

Paul Ibrahim — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:23:28 +0000

Lawyers and laymen alike know vaguely that in McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court found that state and local governments are, as the federal government is, limited by a constitutional individual right to bear arms.

But not everyone who approves of the end result is happy about how the 5-4 majority (or rather, 4-1-4 plurality) arrived to this conclusion. My good friend and legal scholar Josh Blackman explained a few months ago the two different paths the court could take: it could incorporate the Second Amendment against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause, or it could use the Fourteenth Amendment's privileges or immunities clause.

The plurality went with the first option (Justice Clarence Thomas was the only one to go with the second). There has been and will be a lot of analysis of the implications of this decision, but the article Blackman co-wrote for the Washington Times explained and summarized the situation simply and clearly. Read it here.

Why Capitalism Is Amazing: Reason #7

Paul Ibrahim — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:17:05 +0000

Because it now lets you get into your car, fly it to work, a friend's, a concert, or a game two states away, and park it in your garage upon returning home. The stuff of science fiction:

Also see Why Capitalism Is Amazing reasons, one, two, three, four, five, and six.

Video: The Free Market Is Everywhere - Including Haitian Tent Cities

Paul Ibrahim — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:10:08 +0000

RWN Blogger Poll: Like/Dislike Poll for Famous People on the Right

Paul Ibrahim — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:50:20 +0000

John Hawkins is out with another one of his fun polls, this time a like/dislike poll for a good list of people on the Right. Click here to see the entire list.

Two quick observatons. First, wow:

How do you feel about Thomas Sowell?
Strongly like: 82% (66 votes)
Like: 17% (14 votes)
Dislike: 0% (0 votes)
Strongly dislike: 0% (0 votes)

I assure you I am among those who "strongly like" Mr. Sowell, only for the lack of a more flattering option. Second, how can up to nine right-of-center bloggers not like Jim DeMint?

How do you feel about Jim DeMint?
Strongly like: 46% (35 votes)
Like: 42% (32 votes)
Dislike: 11% (9 votes)
Strongly dislike: 0% (0 votes)

Video: Why Government Education Monopoly Is Bad

Paul Ibrahim — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:44:31 +0000

Lesson from D.C.: Guns Decrease Murder Rates

Paul Ibrahim — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:24:51 +0000

The facts speak for themselves:

A telling story is illustrated by the murder numbers since the handgun ban and gun-lock bans were struck down. Between 2008 and 2009, the FBI's preliminary numbers indicate that murders fell nationally by 10 percent and by about 8 percent in cities that have between 500,000 and 999,999 people. Washington's population is about 590,000. During that same period of time, murders in the District fell by an astounding 25 percent, dropping from 186 to 140. The city only started allowing its citizens to own handguns for defense again in late 2008.

Few who lived in Washington during the 1970s can forget the upswing in crime that started right after the ban was originally passed. In the five years before the 1977 ban, the murder rate fell from 37 to 27 murders per 100,000. In the five years after the gun ban went into effect, the murder rate rose back up to 35. One fact is particularly hard to ignore: D.C.'s murder rate fluctuated after 1976 but only once fell below what it was in 1976 before the ban. That aberration happened years later, in 1985.

This correlation between the D.C. gun ban and diminished safety was not a coincidence. Look at the Windy City. Immediately after Chicago banned handguns in 1982, the murder rate, which had been falling almost continually for a decade, started to rise. Chicago's murder rate rose relative to other large cities as well. The phenomenon of higher murder rates after gun bans are passed is not just limited to the United States. Every single time a country has passed a gun ban, its murder rate soared.