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Cato Daily Dispatch for August 11, 2003

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U.S. Empire Debate Heats Up
Justice Kennedy: Scrap Mandatory Minimum Sentences
First Tobacco, Now Obesity

U.S. Empire Debate Heats Up

"At forums sponsored by policy think tanks, on radio talk shows and around Cleveland Park dinner tables, one topic has been hotter than the weather in Washington this summer: Has the United States become the very 'empire' that the republic's founders heartily rejected?"

"Liberal scholars have been raising the question but, more strikingly, so have some Republicans with impeccable conservative credentials," The Washington Post reports.

In "U.S. Empire? Let's Get Real," Leon Hadar, Cato research fellow in foreign policy studies, writes: "Consider the notion that the duopoly of the Cold War, United States versus the Soviet Union, will be replaced by a monopoly -- the American empire. It's a fact that the United States is the strongest military power in the international system, in the same way that elements of globalization are a reality. But just as globalization hasn't smashed the nation-state, U.S. military supremacy probably won't transform America into an empire. Economic costs, public opposition and potential challenges from other global players will get in the way."

Justice Kennedy: Scrap Mandatory Minimum Sentences

"Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said Saturday that prison terms are too long and that he favors scrapping the practice of setting mandatory minimum sentences for some federal crimes," according to an Associated Press report.

"'Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long,' Kennedy told the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, his remark met by long applause."

In "Misguided Guidelines: A Critique of Federal Sentencing," Erik Luna, associate professor of law at the University of Utah, writes that current Sentencing Guidelines are unfair.

"Justice in sentencing requires an individualized assessment of the offender and the offense, leading to a moral judgment imposed by judges with skill, experience, and wisdom," he maintains. "Those judgments cannot be made by a distant bureaucracy pursuant to abstract rules that disregard important context."

First Tobacco, Now Obesity

"As obesity-related health costs soar, policymakers nationwide are pursuing legislative solutions modeled after the anti-smoking campaigns of the 1990s to attack what many in the medical community say is one of the gravest threats to the nation's long-term health," The Washington Post reports.

"In the District of Columbia and half a dozen states, lawmakers are debating bills that would require fast food and chain restaurants to post nutrition information such as caloric, fat and sugar content on menus.

"Twenty-five states, following successful efforts in Arkansas and Texas, are considering restrictions on the sale of soda and candy in schools. Parent and advocacy groups in Alabama and Seattle are pushing to go one step further, waging campaigns to eliminate junk food advertising aimed at youngsters."

"If fatty foods are so injurious, let's make sales to kids illegal," writes Cato Senior Fellow Robert A. Levy in "Fat City for Trial Lawyers." "Require proof-of-age at retail stores. Prosecute retailers who break the law. Prohibit vending machine sales where underage consumers congregate--like schools and arcades. For good reasons, those proposals are unlikely to attract wide support."

Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org