The Wall Street Journal: Seattle and the state Supreme Court wage war on property rights

Affordable-housing shortages are an abiding challenge for cities around the nation. But often policies meant to alleviate the problem aggravate it instead. That’s certainly the case in Seattle, where the City Council imposed a pair of ordinances aimed at restricting property owners’ right to choose their tenants.

Ethan Blevins explains how Seattle forces landlords to rent to the first person who walks in—even if that person has a criminal record.

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The Hill: What is UC Davis hiding about its use of diversity statements?

Last month, Abigail Thompson, a professor of mathematics and department chair at the University of California, Davis, wrote a scathing opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal calling out the university’s ideological litmus test for job applicants. She suggested that the university’s requirement that aspiring faculty members submit “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” statements amounts to political “loyalty oaths.”

In response, the university released a woefully inaccurate statement—contradicted, as Daniel Ortner discovered in a public records request, by the UC Davis administration itself.

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Assessing the Trump administration’s “Navigable Waters Protection Rule”

On January 23, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their widely anticipated final rule defining the term “waters of the United States.”

This rule replaces the repealed Obama Rule, and its definition is critical because it determines what waters the EPA and Corps can regulate under the Clean Water Act. In the past, agencies’ broad interpretations of the law often undermined property rights and made it difficult for Americans to use their property for even ordinary activities, such as farming.

Our friends at the Heritage Foundation invited Tony Francois to take part in an event this week that carefully examined the new rule and its potential impact.

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