The Founders’ creation of an independent judiciary was a central constitutional achievement. When the Supreme Court decides Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, that decision will shed light on how well the Constitution’s promise of an independent judiciary is being kept today.
With Democrats taking control of the House and Senate in January 2027, Republicans are scrambling to pass as much of their agenda as possible during the lame-duck session. The rush will tempt the short-term majority to use a political shortcut: enacting new spending without paying for it. That can be expedient, but it does not justify drowning the country in more red ink.
Adding to America’s $40.5 trillion gross debt would be an irresponsible way for Republicans to use the final weeks of their trifecta. At a time of low unemployment and economic growth, deficits add to inflation and interest-rate pressures, meaning higher prices and heavier mortgage payments.
Republicans will have many opportunities to choose between political shortcuts and fiscal responsibility during the lame duck and must shrink deficits rather than add to them.
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Many people are viewing Tuesday’s election results as a rejection of the administration’s policies, a view that’s hard to argue with. Still, whether the Republican Party quickly moves away—or moves at all—from the populist policies that appear to have brought electoral ruin remains an open question.
One small litmus test that’s quickly coming up is a ban on stock buybacks that a group of populist senators squeezed into the “must-pass” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Members of the House were able to keep it out of their version of the NDAA, but the legislation is moving, and the two chambers will soon have to reconcile (possibly by Thanksgiving).
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While you were busy attending to the earthquake at the national politics level, voters around the states were addressing civic matters on their initiative and referendum ballots. Some results on issues I previewed last month, plus a few others:
- California voters rejected Proposition 40, which would have imposed a retroactive wealth tax, and instead approved Proposition 42, which bans both wealth taxes and retroactive taxes. Unfortunately, voters in Colorado narrowly approved a graduated income tax. Measures to limit income tax succeeded in North Carolina and Iowa but failed in Washington.
- Efforts to build things in California will continue to be hobbled by the objector-friendly provisions of the notorious California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, after a partial rollback of the law failed.
- Read the rest of this post →
The 2026 midterm elections are significant for the ongoing debate over AI policy in three ways: first, the role that AI played in the election itself; second, the outcomes of AI questions on the ballot and AI’s role in voter decision-making; and third, the impact of election results on existing AI policy debates.
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AI Disinformation Still Isn’t an Election-Disrupting Problem
With AI’s rising popularity, the midterms are not the first time we’ve seen concerns over AI-powered election disruption. The 2024 election saw a great deal of rhetoric around such potential concerns. In fact, 2024 saw the World Economic Forum label AI-powered misinformation the world’s greatest short-term threat. But the worst-case scenario did not come to pass in 2024. In fact, despite these concerns, AI tools in the 2024 election had an underwhelming impact.
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According to Census Bureau and United Nations data, the immigrant share of the US population (14.8 percent) ranked 54th worldwide among 206 countries in 2024. Among the 51 wealthiest countries—nations with a GDP per capita PPP greater than $50,000—its ranking has fallen from the 43rd percentile in 2000 to the 24th percentile in 2024. Its ranking for per capita growth in its immigrant population since 2015 was similarly low: the 29th percentile. The US accounted for most of the net increase in the worldwide immigrant population in the 1990s but accounted for only 17 percent of it since 2020.
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In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.
“I think I always was looking to create a more flexible model,” says former public school teacher Jill Perez. “In my mind, I was always thinking, ’ How do we get this model to evolve?”
Jill didn’t start out in education. She studied anthropology and nonprofit management in college and began working on fundraising at the YMCA. When she discovered how much she enjoyed children’s programming, she went back to school to become a teacher. Throughout her career, she taught middle school math and social studies in public schools, taught at Rutgers and Seton Hall, and supervised student teachers. Throughout it all, she kept thinking there should be a more flexible approach.