Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20001-5403
Phone (202) 842 0200
Fax (202) 842 3490
 Contact Us
Support Cato

Cato Daily Dispatch for October 10, 2001

Armed Passengers = Safer Skies
Fast Track On The Fast Track
Supreme Court Turns Down Microsoft

Armed Passengers = Safer Skies

Airline crews said yesterday that after the terrorist attacks they are counting on passengers to help protect them -- the way they did when they tackled a deranged man who broke into a cockpit this week, according to the Associated Press.

Airline security has been a top concern since the suicide hijackings Sept. 11. Airports and airlines have increased security measures, but there were some tense moments Monday aboard an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Passengers said Edward Coburn, 31, of Fresno, Calif., ran to the cockpit and knocked open the door while screaming that the plane was going to hit the Sears Tower. He was restrained by a gang of passengers and two pilots, and the plane with 162 people aboard landed safely. Coburn was jailed on charges of interfering with a flight crew.

Law-enforcement officers can't be everywhere, but an armed, trained citizenry can be. That's why pilots, flight attendants and even trained passengers should be allowed to carry arms on board aircraft if they want to, says senior fellow in constitutional studies Robert Levy in "Invitation To Terror: This Plane Is A Gun-Free Zone."

Fast Track On The Fast Track

A key congressional panel yesterday approved a bill to give President Bush authority to forge broad new trade pacts, setting the stage for a hard-hitting and potentially divisive debate in the U.S. House of Representatives as early as next week, according to Reuters.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved the "trade promotion authority" bill by a vote of 26-13, with only two of the panel's Democrats voting in favor.

The White House has not had broad trade negotiating authority, also known as "fast track" legislation, since 1994 because of a sharp disagreement between Republicans and Democrats over whether trade agreements should contain protections for workers and the environment.

In "The Fast Track to Freer Trade," Daniel T. Griswold writes that "the case for passing fast-track trade legislation is simple: The most promising approach for advancing free trade in today's global economy is through negotiated trade agreements, and those agreements will be difficult if not impossible to reach if the president of the United States is denied fast-track authority."

Supreme Court Turns Down Microsoft

The United States Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal by the Microsoft Corporation to dismiss a lower court's findings that the company has a monopoly in the software market that it abused, according to The New York Times.

The company's appeal to the Supreme Court -- based solely on its interpretation of the way a federal appeals court reprimanded the district judge who handled the antitrust case against it -- was a long shot. Still, the high court's decision removes one last hope that Microsoft had for a clear victory in the case, leaving it to continue its negotiations with prosecutors.

The company's request, made two months ago, was denied without comment. At the same time that Microsoft petitioned the Supreme Court, it asked the federal appeals court to temporarily suspend all other legal proceedings in the case.

In "The Microsoft Decision: The Appeal Ends, The Trial Resumes," Cato Senior Fellow Robert A. Levy predicted that "the likelihood that the high court will accept the case is slim."

In "The Theft of Microsoft," Executive Vice President David Boaz writes, "When our antitrust laws are used by competitors to harm successful companies, when our most innovative companies are under assault from the federal government, when lawyers and politicians decide to restructure the software, credit-card and airline industries, it's time to repeal the antitrust laws and let firms compete in a free marketplace."