I consider myself both a libertarian and a classical liberal. I have been teaching a seminar in classical liberalism at the NYU Law School for six semesters. I am always asked about the difference. My answer is basically this. Classical liberalism is the philosophy of political liberty from the perspective of a vast history of […]

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The question of national security and its relationship to individual privacy has always provoked a challenge for persons with strong libertarian inclinations, who rightly embrace a general presumption in favor of small government. On most economic matters, the group that hold these positions tend to be relatively small, and thus does not count as a […]

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There is little doubt that, of all the Supreme Court decisions of the last 100 years, Roe v. Wade—a decision handed down 41 years ago yesterday—has generated the longest, unresolved controversy. This is not to say that it was the most important decision over this time span. That pride of place probably belongs to Brown […]

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An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal decries a pattern of abuse by President Obama, who the paper finds guilty of the offense “of selectively enforcing the law.” There is much truth to this general proposition, but its broad-based critique overlooks an important question of principle: just how do we determine what counts as “selective […]

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The controversies over same-sex marriage continue to take unexpected twists and turns—the latest coming from Utah. The situation on the ground there is tangled at best. The story starts with a decision by a federal district court judge, Robert J. Shelby, that invalidated the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which had been approved by Utah voters. […]

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