Cato Quarterly
Events
Top left: Marian L. Tupy (left), senior fellow at Cato’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, in conversation with Bjorn Lomborg (right), who is known globally for promoting cost-effective solutions to climate problems. Top right: Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at Cato, connecting with a Cato Partner. Bottom left: Robert McDonald, Cato adjunct scholar and professor of history, Department of History and War Studies, United States Military Academy. Bottom right: Peter Goettler (left), president and CEO of Cato, and former Senator Joe Manchin.
Cato Club Retreat 2026
In April, the Cato Institute gathered its most committed Partners at Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina for the 2026 Cato Club Retreat. The event brought together donors, Cato scholars, and thought leaders for candid discussions about the state of liberty in America and Cato’s role in defending it. At a moment when threats to individual freedom are arriving from across the political spectrum, the retreat was a timely reminder of why principled, independent institutions matter—and a recommitment to the work ahead.
Fueling Human Flourishing
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright (left) outlined a vision of energy abundance through deregulated markets and technological innovation during an event at the Cato Institute. “Why do we produce energy? Well, one reason: better human lives,” Wright told Travis Fisher (right), Cato’s director of energy and environmental policy studies. Their conversation explored recent efforts to roll back energy subsidies, the future of energy production, and the role of energy in alleviating poverty. Wright also thanked Fisher for his work last year to help coordinate a report on climate change by the Department of Energy’s Climate Working Group. (Photo by Sarah Wood/Department of Energy)
The Supreme Court: The Last Constitutionally Functioning Branch?
That’s the contention of Sarah Isgur (left), Advisory Opinions podcast host, SCOTUSblog editor, and author of the new book Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today’s Supreme Court. Isgur argues that the conventional left-right framing of Supreme Court justices misconceives how they decide questions and that the Court looks more like a 3–3–3 institution than a 6–3 one. Clark Neily (right), senior vice president for legal studies at Cato, peppered Isgur with edifying and zany questions to explore the Court’s proper role, its fascinating history, and the institutional dynamics that continue to shape Court outcomes.
Philanthropy, Civil Society, and the Limits of State Power
Showcasing Cato’s unique ability to bring together voices from across the spectrum, Maria Santo Bier (right), Cato’s director of foundation and corporate relations, hosted a panel on the vital role of charitable giving and private philanthropy in a free society. The panel—Walter Olson (left), senior fellow at the Cato Institute; John Palfrey (middle left), president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and Lawson Bader (middle right), president of DonorsTrust—discussed the historical importance of voluntary associations and donor privacy for strengthening civil society and limiting government power.
The Economic Harm and Constitutional Implications of Trump’s Tariffs
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D‑CA, left) joined Clark Packard (right), a research fellow at Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, for a discussion about the harmful economic effects of President Trump’s tariff policies and the need for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority over trade. Packard was also joined by Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute and Hana Greenberg, former chief of staff to Rep. Ron Kind (D‑WI).
Publications
A History of Repeated Injuries
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence, this volume presents a series of essays that examine the Founders’ grievances against King George III as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, within the context of historical experience.
Edited by Thomas A. Berry, director of the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, this volume features contributions from expert policy scholars on a wide range of issues that were top concerns for America’s Founders and that remain contentious today.
While Americans have much to celebrate on the nation’s 250th birthday, the authors contend that the wisdom of the Founders serves both as a warning against erosions of liberties and as a source of timeless principles to guide America forward.
Proclaiming Liberty
As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Proclaiming Liberty revisits the revolutionary year of 1776 through the minds of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two men whose words and ideas gave birth to modern liberty. Cato adjunct scholar Timothy Sandefure’s engaging narrative brings to life the “American mind” as those extraordinary Founders sought to express it—their arguments, ideals, and enduring beliefs in natural rights and self-government.
Sweeping from the English Civil War and the writings of Locke and Montesquieu to the colonial battles over the Stamp and Townshend Acts and the battlefields of Massachusetts and Virginia, Sandefur’s fast-paced narrative shows how the Declaration distilled centuries of debate about freedom, law, and human nature into one of history’s most enduring statements on justice.
No Compulsion in Religion—No Exceptions
Most Muslims today are familiar with that remarkable Qur’anic statement: “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). This verse, in a few words, seems to present an amazingly ancient precedent to a modern liberal value: that religion must be based on freedom, not coercion.
However, traditional Islamic legal sources also include various measures of religious coercion. Apostates and blasphemers are sentenced to the death penalty, and “religious police” forces are called to enforce piety. Moreover, some self-defined “Islamic” regimes of today, such as the Taliban, enforce these verdicts rigidly, shocking the conscience of many people, including Muslims.
This book, edited by Cato Institute senior fellow Mustafa Akyol, brings together a team of Muslim scholars to address this important question. By highlighting insights from Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence, Muslim history, and contemporary trends in the Muslim world, they make the case for full-fledged religious freedom.
Featured Cato Studies
The Simon Abundance Index 2026
The latest edition of the Simon Abundance Index finds that the world’s resources have become dramatically more abundant over the past 45 years, even as the global population nearly doubled during the same period. The index—developed by Marian Tupy, editor of HumanProgress.org and senior fellow at Cato’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and Gale Pooley, a Cato adjunct scholar and economic history professor— measures resource abundance using “time prices,” which refers to the amount of work required to purchase a given commodity. Since 1980, the average time price of 50 basic commodities fell by 70.9 percent, meaning that what required an hour of work in 1980 now requires only about 18 minutes. After dipping from 2020 to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical turmoil, abundance continued its upward trend in 2024 and 2025. The index is inspired by the late Julian Simon, a University of Maryland economist and Cato senior fellow who understood that human ingenuity and innovation are limitless and drive abundance.
