AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
AEI This Week
AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
WHY ARGUMENT MATTERS
The Importance of Disagreement
September 20, 2025
The murder of Charlie Kirk and its aftermath have thrown into sharp relief the corrosion of America’s civic life. AEI Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies Director Yuval Levin explains ([link removed] ) why the most effective solution to this state of affairs is paradoxically to disagree with each other more—openly and constructively.
jpfp0821 ([link removed] )
That we have forgotten the importance of disagreement in our constitutional order reflects how far we have drifted from our founding values on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary. AEI Domestic Policy Studies Director Matthew Continetti identifies ([link removed] ) troubling recent examples of Democrats and Republicans misunderstanding the universal basis of American freedom and nationhood.
This drift is particularly evident in foreign policy, where President Donald Trump appears to be jettisoning America’s moral leadership by courting the favor of authoritarian regimes. Historian of US grand strategy Paul Lettow predicts ([link removed] ) how future historians will assess this striking reversal of traditional priorities.
One of the most important things we can do to renew America’s promise is to tackle the housing affordability crisis that limits upward mobility. In a new paper, Arthur Gailes and AEI Housing Center Codirector Edward J. Pinto propose ([link removed] ) an innovative solution to this shortage in the Western United States: founding new cities on promising tracts of federal land.
Similar to the housing sector, overregulation has driven up the cost of American infrastructure, especially public transit buses. In a new AEI report, urban economics expert Edward L. Glaeser and coauthors develop ([link removed] ) three ideas that could significantly lower costs.
Rational Judicial Review: Constitutions as Power-Sharing Agreements, Secession, and the Problem of Dred Scott
The place of judicial review in America’s constitutional schema has been contested since the founding, and federal courts’ reliance on originalist methodology has attracted criticism from both the left and the right for failing to advance substantive common goods. In a new article for the UC Law Journal, John Yoo advances ([link removed] ) an instrumental justification for originalist judicial review. Constitutions are fundamentally power-sharing agreements, but how can constitution makers ensure all parties will obey the terms? One mechanism is to have an independent judiciary enforce the original terms of the agreement. Yoo argues that in the US context, originalist judicial review therefore serves as a valuable commitment mechanism to ensure future compliance with the Constitution’s political bargain.
More from AEI
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Pro-Growth Fixes for the National Environmental Policy Act ([link removed] )
James Pethokoukis | AEIdeas
Family as the Foundation of Republican Democracy ([link removed] )
Robert P. George | New York University School of Law Democracy Project
Deep Learning for Solving Economic Models ([link removed] )
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde | National Bureau of Economic Research
One Big Beautiful Step Toward Education Freedom: How the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Became Law ([link removed] )
Jim Blew et al. | American Enterprise Institute
Improving the Efficiency of Government-Funded Transportation Projects: An AEI-Brookings Project ([link removed] )
American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution
PODCASTS AND VIDEOS
The Trump Administration’s Surprising China Policy ([link removed] )
Aaron Friedberg | Conversations with Bill Kristol
Election Administration in All-Mail-Voting States ([link removed] )
John C. Fortier et al. | The Voting Booth
Presidential Greatness and the Fragility of Judicial Supremacy ([link removed] )
Jack Landman Goldsmith et al. | AEI event
Federal Student Loan Repayments ([link removed] )
Beth Akers | AEI video
Trump’s Capital Crime Crackdown: Rafael Mangual Explains ([link removed] )
Danielle Pletka et al. | What the Hell Is Going On?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Americans must realize that future population growth, if it occurs at all, will increasingly depend on immigration. Depopulation, for its part, will be a ‘stress test’ for our society, economy and political system—and it is by no means clear we are ready to pass that test yet. Without immigration, America’s working-age population would shrink immediately—as in this year.
—Nicholas Eberstadt ([link removed] )
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