Required reading from around the web of the best, most interesting, or most though provoking things we’ve read:
Copland: Tugging at the Reins of the Administrative State
“At first blush, last week’s Supreme Court decision in Gundy v. United States was unexceptional: five of eight justices participating in the case voted with the government to uphold an unsympathetic criminal’s conviction. But Gundy may portend a revived judicial oversight of Congress’s all-too-frequent delegation of effective lawmaking power to the executive branch. It’s hard to envision many criminal defendants less sympathetic than Herman Gundy. In 2004, on supervised release from prison for dealing crack, Gundy raped an 11-year-old girl. He was convicted in Maryland. In 2012, he was released. He moved to New York, where he failed to register with the authorities as a sex offender. On that basis, he was rearrested and convicted of violating the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which established a national sex-offender registry. Gundy’s rape conviction, however, predated the 2006 law. And in crafting that law, Congress did not clearly state that prior offenders should be included in the new registry. To the contrary, it delegated to the attorney general of the United States “the authority to specify the applicability of the [sex-registry] requirements . . . to sex offenders convicted before the enactment” of the Walsh Act. Gundy contended that Congress had unconstitutionally delegated authority to the attorney general to decide whether the registration requirement applied to him. Congress’s delegation was a problem, . . .”
Pomerantz: How Trump’s Palestinian Proposal Could Reshape The Middle East’s Future
“Yesterday, the White House released the long awaited “Peace to Prosperity” plan, the economic aspects of its Israel-Palestinian peace deal. Most media are already portraying a tired and misleading narrative of ‘Israel versus Palestinians’ as well as the essentially unrelated question of whether one supports or opposes President Trump. Yet the reality offers far greater potential to shape our world. The plan consists of a 95-page document and $50 billion offer of detailed economic proposals in private-sector and infrastructure development, development of human capital, including education and the workforce, and professionalization of government economic standards to a level that can attract private international investment and World Bank lending. But that’s not what’s shocking. It is the reaction of Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab states that stands to fundamentally change the world.”
Prager: Clarity About Nationalism
“In order to make arguments for nationalism, we have to define it. The first definition in Merriam-Webster is ‘loyalty and devotion to a nation.’ But in a second paragraph, it adds, ‘especially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.’ Let’s be clear: If the second paragraph is the only definition of nationalism, nationalism is always a bad thing. Furthermore, I acknowledge that this definition is what some people have in mind when they call themselves nationalists. At the same time, even anti-nationalists would have to acknowledge that if the first paragraph is the definition of ‘nationalism,’ nationalism can often be a beautiful thing. So, if we are to be honest, the answer to the question of whether nationalism is good or bad is ‘How do you define it?’
Dictionary.com offers seven definitions.”