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Cato Institute

May 12 roundup

by Walter Olson on May 12, 2011

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Podcast interview: Cato’s Ilya Shapiro

by Walter Olson on April 28, 2011

David Kopel of the Independence Institute interviews my Cato Institute colleague Ilya Shapiro on Cato’s active amicus-filing program, ObamaCare challenges, “Libertarian ConLaw 101,” and more. You can listen here.

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“Reign of the Philosopher-Kings”

by Walter Olson on April 13, 2011

In its bimonthly Policy Report, the Cato Institute (where I’m a senior fellow) summarizes some of the themes of Schools for Misrule. You can buy the book here; and if you’ve already read it, do consider giving it a rating or review at Amazon or your favorite book-related site.

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My Cato Institute talk on Schools for Misrule

by Walter Olson on April 4, 2011


I was joined on March 3 by Roger Pilon, who directs Cato’s project on law and the Constitution, and by distinguished federal judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit, who commented. You can also watch it (possibly in a larger format) at the Cato site.

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Attention NYC readers

by Walter Olson on April 3, 2011

I’m a speaker at next Friday’s Cato Institute luncheon. Come be there!

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DC readers: speaking at Cato next Thurs. afternoon

by Walter Olson on February 24, 2011

Attention readers in the Washington, D.C. area: I’ll be speaking at a Cato Policy Forum next Thurs., March 3, at 4 p.m. at the Cato Institute auditorium, discussing my new book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America. Roger Pilon, who directs Cato’s program of legal studies, will be the moderator, and commenting on my remarks will be one of the most distinguished federal judges, the Hon. Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The event is free, but you do need to register in advance here, where you’ll find more details. There’ll be a reception afterward and a chance to buy the book. Please introduce yourself and mention that you’re an Overlawyered reader!

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Schools for Misrule spring speaking tour

by Walter Olson on February 17, 2011

[cross-posted from Cato at Liberty]

The first copies of my new book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America are here from the printer, and I’ll be touring the country to promote it in coming weeks. Some highlights:

  • February 21. Bloomington, Ind. Indiana University Law School, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
  • February 22. Urbana-Champaign, Ill. University of Illinois School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter. Commenting will be Prof. Larry Ribstein.
  • March 3. Washington, D.C. Cato Institute Policy Forum. Commenting on the book will be the Hon. Douglas Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals, and moderating will be Cato legal director Roger Pilon.
  • March 10. University of Minnesota, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter. Commenting will be Profs. Brad Clary and Oren Gross, and moderating will be Prof. Dale Carpenter.
  • March 16. New York, N.Y. Manhattan Institute luncheon (invitation). Commenting will be James Copland, Manhattan Institute.
  • March 22. Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation forum. Commenting/moderating: Todd Gaziano, Heritage Foundation.
  • March 28. Boulder, Colo. University of Colorado School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
  • March 29. Laramie, Wyo. University of Wyoming School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
  • March 30. Sacramento, Calif. McGeorge School of Law, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
  • April 6. New York, N.Y. Manhattan Institute Young Leaders evening event (private).
  • April 7. Washington, D.C. American University Law School, sponsored by Federalist Society chapter.
  • April 13. Washington, D.C. Book club appearance (private).
  • April 27-29. Dallas, Tex. Heritage Foundation Resource Bank meeting (private).

Always check in advance with the hosting group for venues and exact times; some events open to the public require advance registration. The book’s official publication date is March 1, and copies should be arriving in the bookstores soon.

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January 26 roundup

by Walter Olson on January 26, 2011

  • Cato Institute scholars liveblog reaction to State of the Union speech and GOP response, plus video on Facebook with Gene Healy and Julian Sanchez, more video;
  • Private store owners get beaten up for lack of ADA ramps. On the other hand, when the federal government is building courthouses… [Sun-Sentinel; earlier here and here]
  • “Securities suits filed in 2010 again a record” [Business Insurance]
  • Do mass tort “claims facilities” enable participants to bypass the strictures of legal ethics? [Monroe Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
  • Latest workplace-retaliation ruling once more undermines “pro-business Supreme Court” narrative [Bader, Examiner, more]
  • Jacob Sullum reviews Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Reason]
  • Another “lawyers excited about coming wave of bet-the-company climate change suits” article [AFP]
  • Dickie Scruggs: “It was never about the money for me, this litigation” [four years ago on Overlawyered]

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Frontiers of federal criminalization

by Walter Olson on December 11, 2010

A case called Bond v. U.S., arising from an admittedly bizarre fact pattern involving a wife’s attempt to injure a romantic rival, provides an opportunity to test the limits of extension of federal criminal law into areas that would ordinarily serve as the occasion of state-level prosecution. The Cato Institute has filed an amicus brief urging a narrow view of the proper federal criminal role in the case, in pursuit of the view that the federal government is one of limited, enumerated powers. [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]

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Cato podcast on food safety bill

by Walter Olson on December 2, 2010

I’m interviewed by Caleb Brown in this audio feature. It’s about seven minutes long and was taped on Monday, before the Senate’s vote in favor of S. 510.

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Cato Constitution Day — Thurs. Sept. 16

by Walter Olson on September 14, 2010

On Thursday the Cato Institute will be holding its annual day-long Constitution Day symposium, which is also a celebration of the publication of the ninth volume of the annual Cato Supreme Court Review. I’ll be moderating (stepping in for Roger Pilon) on the second afternoon panel, which will cover three business-related cases recently decided by the Court: Jones v. Harris on mutual fund fees, Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB on one of the terms of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, and American Needle v. NFL on the scope of antitrust exemption. All three principal panelists are well-known bloggers: Larry Ribstein of Illinois (Jones) and Josh Wright of George Mason (American Needle) at Truth on the Market, and Hans Bader of CEI (Free Enterprise Fund) at Open Market (he’s also guestblogged on the PCAOB case right here). The event is open to the public, but reservations are required. More: Larry Ribstein, Josh Wright.

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My new Cato podcast: human rights redefined

by Walter Olson on September 7, 2010

The other day the Obama administration came out with the first official U.S. response to the United Nations’ “periodic review” critique of human rights practices within the United States. To the surprise of many — though not of those who’ve been following this area carefully — it presented as human rights imperatives worthy of international attention a wide range of initiatives that would earlier have been seen as domestic policy matters, from ObamaCare (whose passage — including a penalty on individuals for failing to buy health insurance — it depicted as a human rights advance) to labor law (where it suggested that Congress might be putting the U.S. human rights record at risk if it declines to expand the organizing rights of labor unions).

One of the major themes of my forthcoming book Schools for Misrule is the role of thinkers in the law schools in preparing the way for new and transformed (and gravely mistaken) conceptions of international human rights. Today on the Cato Institute’s daily podcast series, Caleb Brown interviews me about the ongoing redefinition of international human rights and how we got to this point. The interview audio is available here.

My Cato Institute colleague Roger Pilon, who directs the Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies and served under Reagan as policy director for the State Department’s office on human rights, has been active in recent days in advancing a critique of the Obama administration’s approach in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed as well as at Cato at Liberty.

And coincidentally: today’s NYT reports that George Soros is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch, a group in the forefront of advancing novel human rights claims.

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Antitrust experts ponder NFL exemption

by Walter Olson on September 6, 2010

Is it imperiled by a recent Supreme Court decision? A paper to be presented at the Cato Institute’s Sept. 16 Constitution Day conference looks into the question. [Josh Wright, Truth on the Market; date now fixed]

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Panel: “Union influence on public policy”

by Walter Olson on July 28, 2010

At Cato today at noon, with John Fund, Armand Thieblot, John Samples, and moderator Chris Edwards, and watchable online. Wish I could attend, but I’m not in Washington at the moment.

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June 8 roundup

by Walter Olson on June 8, 2010

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Joining Cato, cont’d

by Walter Olson on May 7, 2010

More kind comments on my move from Ramesh Ponnuru at NRO “Corner” and David Lat and Elie Mystal at Above the Law (earlier). And I’m very grateful for Chris Rizo’s full-length treatment at Legal NewsLine, even if it’s hard for me to imagine anyone calling me a “godfather” of anything.

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Joining Cato, and a farewell to the Manhattan Institute

by Walter Olson on May 4, 2010

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve joined the Cato Institute as a senior fellow, effective this week. As most readers of this site know well, Cato is the premier voice for individual liberty in our nation’s capital, and a think tank of tremendous accomplishments across the board. Its program on law, led by Roger Pilon, includes such outstanding thinkers as Tim Lynch, Ilya Shapiro and Robert Levy. Cato is particularly known as a place where free speech, civil liberties, and the Bill of Rights are given the centrality they deserve in legal thinking, and it’s also a powerhouse in studying the ill effects of government regulation. In fact, the publication where I got my real start in the policy world, the magazine Regulation (originally published by the American Enterprise Institute), has made its home at Cato for many years now. In short, it’s hard to imagine a better fit with my writing and research interests.

I’ll be saying goodbye to my colleagues and kind friends at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which has long supported my work in the most patient, good-humored and uninterfering way I could have hoped for. I’m immensely fortunate to have been part of MI for more than 25 years and I know I’ll learn much more from its formidable thinkers in years to come. While I’ll continue to contribute occasionally to MI’s blog/web magazine Point of Law, I’ve left its editorship, and I’m happy to say the Institute had the good idea of hiring as my replacement none other than Ted Frank, of Overlawyered and CCAF fame.

Jim Copland of the Manhattan Institute has some extremely kind things to say at Point of Law about our long association. The blog Think Tanked reprints the MI’s generous announcement.

I’ll still be posting as usual here at Overlawyered, and I’ll also be joining as a contributor at the excellent group blog Cato at Liberty, which you should promptly place in your RSS feed if you haven’t already. In months ahead I’ll have more to say about some new projects I’ll be pursuing at Cato, as well as existing projects many readers already know about, like my forthcoming book on bad ideas from legal academia, Schools for Misrule.

P.S. Cato’s press release and bio page for me are up, as is a welcoming post from Roger Pilon at Cato at Liberty. And thanks for the very generous words to Dan Pero at American Courthouse, Carter Wood at NAM ShopFloor, and Alan Lange at Y’AllPolitics.

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