The Founding Fathers thought long and hard about the proper role of government in our lives, and they set forth their thoughts in a document that explicitly numerates the powers of the federal government. To restore truly limited government, therefore, we must do more than define issues as political or budgetary. We must go to the heart of the matter and raise the underlying constitutional questions. In a word, we must ask the most fundamental question of all: Does the government have the authority, the constitutional authority, to do what it is doing?

More on Limited Government

Commentary

Farewell to a Constitutional Conservative

By Gene Healy. American Conservative. June 27, 2013.

Evolutionary Anomalies in our Midst

By Richard W. Rahn. Washington Times. June 25, 2013.

What Frederick Douglass Stood For

By Michael D. Tanner. National Review (Online). June 19, 2013.

Cato Studies

Libertarian Roots of the Tea Party

By David Kirby and Emily McClintock Ekins. Policy Analysis No. 705. August 6, 2012.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board: PPACA’s Anti-Constitutional and Authoritarian Super-Legislature

By Diane Cohen and Michael F. Cannon. Policy Analysis No. 700. June 14, 2012.

Herbert Hoover: Father of the New Deal

By Steven Horwitz. Briefing Paper No. 122. September 29, 2011.

Articles

Introduction

Roger Pilon. American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century. 2011.

The Case Against the Fiscal Stimulus

Jeffrey A. Miron. Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Vol. 33. No. 2. Spring 2010.

Declaration of Independence, U.S.

Roger Pilon. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences., 2nd Edition. 2007.

Public Filings

Addressing Transparency in the Federal Bureaucracy: Moving toward a More Open Government

By Jim Harper. Testimony. March 13, 2013.

City of Arlington v. FCC

By Ilya Shapiro, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Trevor Burrus & Mac Stone. Legal Briefs. November 26, 2012.

PPL Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

By Ilya Shapiro and Matt Gilliam. Legal Briefs. August 10, 2012.

Reviews & Journals

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Aaron Ross Powell. Cato Journal. Spring/Summer 2013.

Cato Papers on Public Policy: Second Annual Volume

Policy Report. March/April 2013.

James M. Buchanan, RIP

Policy Report. March/April 2013.

Events

India Grows at Night: A Liberal Case for a Strong State

Featuring Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar and Ian Vásquez. June 11, 2013. Book Forum.

The Problem with Europe’s Austerity Debate

Featuring Ian Vásquez. June 5, 2013. Policy Forum.

The 2013 Farm Bill: Reducing the Economic and Environmental Costs

Featuring Chris Edwards and Laura Odato. May 30, 2013. Capitol Hill Briefing.

Downsizing the Federal Government

Airports and Air Traffic Control

By Chris Edwards and Robert W. Poole Jr.. June 2010.

Airports and Air Traffic Control

By Chris Edwards and Robert W. Poole Jr.. June 2010.

Fiscal Federalism

By Chris Edwards. February 2009.