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June 5, 2025

Welcome to The Lighthouse, the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute covering politics, economics, current events, and everything in between.

Dear Readers,

June starts on the heels of the news that the U.S. Court of International Trade has struck down the Trump administration’s tariffs, ruling that the administration overstepped its authority. A three-judge panel in a separate case involving two children’s toy companies followed the trade court and arrived at the same conclusion. The Federal Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a routine stay of the previous rulings, keeping the tariffs in place as the Trump administration appeals the rulings.

In this week’s writings, Phillip Magness leads with details of the trade court’s ruling and what the likely next steps are. On that topic, Scott Burns and Caleb Fuller continue their “mythbusting” series by responding to the panic around America’s trade deficit. Raymond March connects the legacy of Operation Warp Speed to the ongoing centralization of the Health and Human Services, and Kristian Fors calls for an elimination of travel bans that limit basic freedom. Finally, Francis Crescia looks back at Canada’s recent election and what its results may signal for the country’s direction.

Happy reading!

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor

Top picks this week
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** Happy Liberation from Tariffs Day ([link removed])
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** by Phillip W. Magness
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Let May 28, 2025, serve as our true Liberation Day—a day that our economy was freed from punitive taxation and government by arbitrary executive decree.
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** How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Trade Deficit ([link removed])
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** Mythbusters: Debunking the New Mercantilists, Part 5 ([link removed])
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** by Scott A. Burns, Caleb S. Fuller
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Just what is so “bad” or “exploitative” about this so-called “trade deficit,” anyways?
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** How Operation Warp Speed Helped Create RFK Jr. ([link removed])
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** by Raymond J. March
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President Trump promised HHS’s power is about to “go wild.” That should concern us all.
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** End the U.S. Travel Bans to Cuba and North Korea ([link removed])
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** Government restrictions limit the right of movement ([link removed])
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** by Kristian Fors
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True freedom includes the right to cross borders without undue interference from one’s own government. Americans deserve that freedom.
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** One Month Later: Rewinding Canada’s Election Results ([link removed])
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** What comes next? ([link removed])
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** by Francis Crescia
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Poilievre’s campaign serves as both a cautionary tale and a case study in missed opportunities.
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** FEATURED BOOK (Now in Paperback)
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** The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights ([link removed])
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** The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance
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** by David T. Beito
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“This book is not mere history; it is an exposé. You won’t know which is more shocking: the lengths to which FDR and New Dealers like Senators (and future Supreme Court justices) Hugo Black and Sherman Minton went to suppress freedom of speech, privacy, and civil rights; or the degree to which these efforts have been concealed by pro-FDR and New Deal propagandists.”
—Randy E. Barnett, Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
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