The Reason Roundtable

Occupational licensing laws apply to nearly one in three U.S. jobs, but the most "most broadly and onerously licensed state" of all, according to the Institute for Justice, is Arizona. The Grand Canyon State required a license to work for 64 occupations, costing on average $455 in fees and almost 600 days of education and experience.

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican and the former CEO of Coldstone Creamery, has made reforming Arizona's occupational licensing regime a priority. "Our focus [has been] on improving that structure of government and really stopping the bullies that were part of the boards and commissions," he told Reason. He's now backing a bill that would allow Arizona to recognize occupational licenses granted by other states.

Produced by Alexis Garcia. Camera by Paul Detrick and Andrew Belcher.

Photo credits: Monica Almeida/REUTERS/Newscom, Samantha Sais/REUTERS/Newscom, Nicole Neri/REUTERS/Newscom, Ben Moffat/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Fred Young/agefotostock/Newscom.

Additional footage courtesy of Foundation for Government Accountability.

Whose hysteria looks silliest in retrospect?

According to Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, the abuse he's endured on Twitter is of a "breadth and scope" that "no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life." He's been called a "presidential fluffer and swamp rat," a "Putin shill," an "unscrupulous, craven, back-stabbing, charlatan and traitor," and "voted 'Most Likely to Commit Treason' in high school."

Now this California lawmaker and Trump ally is suing Twitter for $250,000,000 for "emotional distress and mental suffering, and injury to his personal and professional reputations." He's also asking the court to force Twitter to reveal the true identities behind the "Devin Nunes' Mom," "Devin Nunes' cow," "Fire Devin Nunes," and "Devin Nunes Grapes" accounts.

On what grounds can an elected official sue a social media platform for speech that offends him? "Twitter is not merely a website," the lawsuit alleges: "it is the modern town square"—a "public forum" with a "private owner."

Named in the quarter-of-a-billion dollar lawsuit, right alongside "Devin Nunes' Mom" and "Devin Nunes's Cow," is Liz Mair, a Republican strategist and self-described libertarian. Mair angered Nunes for, among other things, delivering a pair of yellow New Balances to his congressional office after he ran out of a committee hearing on the Russia scandal.

Reason's Peter Suderman sat down with Mair to talk about the lawsuit and what it means for free speech on the internet.

Cameras by Todd Krainin and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Ian Keyser. Intro by Todd Krainin.

"Complect for...." by Kosta T is licensed under CC BY-NC_SA 3.0.

Photo credits:

JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS/Newscom

CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS/Newscom

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

A conversation with Mike Solana, a vice president at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm

Forty years ago, one of the most momentous events in the history of politics and television took place: C-SPAN started...

Seven academic journals recently published papers that were actually hoaxes designed to show the absurdity found in such academic fields as gender studies, race studies, and queer studies. The hoaxers intentionally submitted papers that were ridiculous. One included gibberish about rape culture in dog parks. Another was a section of Hitler's Mein Kampf re-written with feminist buzzwords.

Six journal editors would not talk to Stossel, but one—Roberto Refinetti, editor in chief of Sexuality and Culture—agreed to an interview.

He condemns what the hoaxers did: "You're deceiving people without much of a reason."

He complains, "If you're going to do your research with people, you have to propose your research, submit to a body called an Institutional Review Board."

One of the hoaxers, Peter Boghossian, was found guilty by his employer (Portland State University) of violating its rules requiring him to get approval for the experiment. Of course, since the Institutional Review Board would have insisted that the researchers inform the journals that they were being tested, the test wouldn't have worked.

Stossel says he thinks the hoaxers had good reason not to go to the review board first. "Their hoax woke us up to the fact that some academic journals publish nonsense," he says.

Refinetti's journal, for instance, published the hoax paper titled, "Going in Through the Back Door: Challenging Straight Male Homohysteria, Transhysteria, and Transphobia Through Receptive Penetrative Sex Toy Use."

The paper touted "encouraging male anal eroticism with sex toys" because it would help make men more feminist.

Sexuality and Culture published that paper after its reviewers praised it glowingly. One called it "an incredibly rich and exciting contribution...timely, and worthy of publication."

The views expressed in this video are solely those of John Stossel; his independent production company, Stossel Productions; and the people he interviews. The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason.

Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and most of the 2020 presidential field agree that tech companies have too power. But maybe they don't like the competition.

In 2016, Clint Bolick became an associate justice on the Arizona State Supreme Court, making him one of the most influential—and consequential—libertarians in today's legal world.

That appointment is merely the most recent career highlight for the 61-year-old activist, author, and policy wonk. Bolick worked under Clarence Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the 1980s before moving to the Justice Department. While he was there he published his first book, which argued that the civil rights movement should focus on removing government barriers to economic opportunity.

In 1991, Bolick and Chip Mellor founded the Institute for Justice, the country's premier libertarian public-interest law firm. In 2007, he became vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute, Arizona's leading free-market think tank, where he took on restrictive licensing, zoning, and business regulations—and became a nemesis to Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" America.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Bolick in Phoenix to talk about his legal philosophy, the politics of immigration, the most interesting case he's encountered on the bench so far, and why he sports a scorpion tattoo on what he calls his "typing finger."

Q&A with the co-founder of Institute for Justice about immigration, his legal philosophy, his battles with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and that tattoo.

George Mason's Todd Zywicki says the senator and presidential hopeful has inherited the ideas of Louis Brandeis without learning the lessons of overregulation.