This essay, delivered as the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies’s 2003 distinguished lecture, now is available for download and purchase.

On December 4, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke at AEI about the practical difficulties of applying economic reasoning to judicial decisions.

Is Michael Bloomberg to blame for the deaths of the 18 Muslim men in Indian-controlled Kashmir who rioted over reports that someone in America burned the Koran?

Regulatory drag can be reduced only as part of a reform that credibly promises to ease burdens and protect the public. Such reform is possible, but it needs to start by changing how Congress approaches regulation: lawmakers must assume responsibility for rule-making.

REINS would improve environmental regulation by giving legislators a role in updating our obsolete environmental statutes. EPA has been rolling grenades to succeeding presidential administrations since it was established. The origin of the rolling, ticking hand grenades is Congress.

John Boehner and Eric Cantor want to see Congress approve or disapprove major agency resolutions. Democrats will offer a grab bag of excuses for why this should not be done.

Elena Kagan is continuing the process of Supreme Court nominees saying as little as possible in confirmation hearings, despite her past statements that the hearing process has become a sham.

Judicial review of decisions of regulatory agencies, and of statutory enactments with important economic content, presents unique and persistent problems. Sound economic policy requires a balancing of costs and benefits and of demand and supply, and the decisions of regulatory agencies are often technical and complex. Judicial review is usually...