From the wilds of Connecticut where internet service on my phone is spotty at best...
-----Original Message----- From: Cato Institute <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Cato Daily Dispatch Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 09:17:35 -0700 (PDT) Fredrik V. Coulter Pragmatic Libertarian You want freedom?! You can't handle freedom. - United States Supreme Court (with apologies to Col. Nathan R. Jessep) ---------- Cato Daily Dispatch July 25, 2005 http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,aihw,4qf,216g,82q2 http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,ey68,2hqm,216g,82q2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Federalist Walking Papers? * House to Decide on CAFTA This Week * Big Brother, Still Watching -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FEDERALIST WALKING PAPERS? Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory, according to The Washington Post. (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,bj2h,dibh,216g,82q2 ) Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society would provide some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration are acknowledged current or former members. Roger Pilon, founder and director of the Catos Center for Constitutional Studies, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,4lii,9x8o,216g,82q2 ) says Judge Roberts is an excellent choice: He is a lawyer's lawyer, an experienced practitioner before the Supreme Court, who has a deep appreciation for the first principles of the Constitution and a subtle understanding of the role of the Court in interpreting it. He will bring a first-class mind to the Court. In Future of Federalism Is in Voters Hands, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,j6ei,gose,216g,82q2 ) Robert Levy, a Cato senior fellow in constitutional studies, writes that a reinvigorated federalism, according to many U.S. Supreme Court watchers, is the most likely legacy of the past 18 years under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. The current court -- comprising the same nine justices since Stephen Breyer's appointment in 1994 -- has invoked federalism to invalidate all or part of the Gun-Free School Zones Act, the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Violence Against Women Act. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOUSE TO DECIDE ON CAFTA THIS WEEK The House is to vote this week on CAFTA, and despite months of intense effort by President Bush and his trade officials, the outcome is unclear, reports The Washington Post. (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,efcy,ecok,216g,82q2 ) This bill is more than a trade bill, Bush said Thursday in a speech to the Organization of American States. This bill is a commitment of freedom-loving nations to advance peace and prosperity throughout the Western Hemisphere. In "Fair Trade or Betrayed? CAFTA SI! Promise of Stability and Prosperity," (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,ft6o,j2gd,216g,82q2 ) Daniel Ikenson, a trade policy analyst with Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,8af0,cnv7,216g,82q2 ) argues that CAFTA's passage would open markets to the region's exporters and make imports more accessible to the region's producers and consumers. It would encourage investment in worthy enterprises that currently lack for it; deliver more and inspire better products and services; and create wealth and better living standards throughout the region." Ikenson continues: "The agreement also would help lock in and encourage further the political and social progress made in a region that was only recently a Cold War flashpoint, mired in dictatorship, civil war and despair." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIG BROTHER, STILL WATCHING Bush administration officials are opposing an effort in Congress under the antiterrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act to force the government to disclose its use of data-mining techniques in tracking suspects in terrorism cases, The New York Times reports. (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,gi3o,1pjd,216g,82q2 ) As part of the vote in the House this week to extend major parts of the antiterrorism law permanently, lawmakers agreed to include a little-noticed provision that would require the Justice Department to report to Congress annually on government-wide efforts to develop and use data-mining technology to track intelligence patterns. In Surveillance and the War on Terrorism, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,1m2v,l7h9,216g,82q2 ) Jim Harper, Catos director of information policy studies, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,cpet,87eg,216g,82q2 ) writes: Searching privately held data without a warrant is not a technology: It is a policy, and a bad one. Let there be networked delivery of warrants dealing with particular suspects, and networked responses to those warrants. Using technology consistent with the Constitution is perfectly acceptable, and there is no need for new legal authority if a network serves an existing legitimate purpose. But any technology that promises something better than law enforcement consistent with the Constitution -- well, that's just not better. In Chapter 19 (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,3nor,2yja,216g,82q2 ) of the Cato Handbook on Policy, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,2156,eal5,216g,82q2 ) Timothy Lynch, Cato's director of the Project on Criminal Justice, (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,ln8u,3j1r,216g,82q2 ) states: Now that more than three years have passed since the shock and horror of September 11, Congress will have an opportunity to seriously deliberate the constitutional issues that were initially skirted. No one doubts that a legislative battle is looming with respect to whether the PATRIOT Act's provisions will expire or be made permanent. Policymakers should not make the mistake of underestimating the American people. Of course, the electorate wants safety, but it wants the federal government to secure that safety by fighting the terrorists themselves, not by turning America into a surveillance state. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In today's Daily Commentary: "Room to GROW," by Deroy Murdock http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,eezb,g1u0,216g,82q2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via email. (http://cato-subscriptions.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=77z,e6ry,949,jtr3,ioq4,216g,82q2 Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via PDA (AvantGo). 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