January 17, 2024
Pay Attention, America: Edmund Burke and the Folly of British Climate “Leadership”
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” This timeless wisdom was articulated by Edmund Burke, a famous philosopher, member of the House of Commons for many years in the mid- and late 18th century, and often described as a “father of conservatism.” British energy policies since 2008 — the year that Parliament…
January 17, 2024
Can the FCC’s Open Internet Order Really Increase Consumer Safety?
On January 17, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is scheduled to report on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet. If it proceeds, broadband internet access services, provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be reclassified as telecommunications services subject to Title II of the Communications Act 1934. Broadband providers will…
January 11, 2024
Concern for Kids Prompts Problematic Internet Regulation, Take 27
“What about the kids?” plays an outsized role in the short history of Internet law. From the Communications Decency Act to the Child Online Protection Act, California’s violent video game law, and more, the contours of online regulation have been shaped by well-meaning legislation that turned out to be unwise, unconstitutional, or both. Last month,…
January 9, 2024
Broadband Pricing Under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program
Key Points Read the PDF. Congress created the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a prominent feature of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA),1 to usher areas without modern broadband into the digital age. Congress found: The IIJA provides $42.45 billion for planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs in all 50 states, American…
January 9, 2024
Examining Manipulated Media and Platform Accountability
On October 24, 2023, AEI hosted a panel to discuss a case facing Meta’s Oversight Board, which concerns an altered video posted by a Facebook user of President Joe Biden. The video raises questions about social media platforms’ responsibilities and their ability to influence public perceptions of political figures. The panel included AEI’s Clay Calvert and Shane…
January 5, 2024
Louis Brandeis and William McKinley: An Unlikely Pair United Under Biden
William McKinley won the presidency under the banner of the “Full Diner Pail” for workers allegedly underpinned by protection and high tariffs. Louis Brandeis, by contrast, was a free trader who abhorred concentrated corporate power (today’s Big Tech). The Biden administration has accomplished the unlikely feat of merging neo-Brandeisian trustbusting with portions of “Full Dinner Pail” protectionism….
December 23, 2023
A Deal on Permitting Reform Is Still Possible
Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) has failed in his pursuit of a final approval of the Mountain Valley pipeline from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, as the Senate refused even to give majority support for his effort to attach his “permitting reform” bill to the defense budget authorization. The environmentalist Left and many congressional Democrats have no interest in…
November 6, 2023
Why the CDC Failed Its Covid-19 Test
The Covid-19 pandemic was a disaster. Over a million Americans died—many in isolation in hospitals and nursing homes, far from their friends and family—and millions more became seriously sick, lost their jobs, or felt the effects of widespread economic and social disruption. Students suffered irreversible learning losses, with many exiting the public-school system altogether. Patients delayed or…
August 29, 2023
No One Is Above the Law? Biden’s Bureau of Land Management Thinks It Is.
One central characteristic of the Biden administration is its contempt for the letter of the law. When laws interfere with overriding political objectives, they are cast aside, and the courts are often forced to clean up the mess. Nowhere is this norm-busting reality more pronounced than at the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM),…
August 8, 2023
The IEA and Congressional Opponents of Fossil Fuels Are Chasing Windmills
The Biden administration’s regulatory onslaught is no mere rumor. It’s a harsh reality deeply problematic for the rule of law, for the concept of self-government, for the institutions of our constitutional republic, and for federalism. And, not least, for a U.S. economy subjected to ever-increasing legal burdens, bureaucratic interference, distortions in the productivity of resource use, and metastasizing Beltway mindlessness. But it’s…