This is an op ed I wrote which was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on September 11, 2023. Free marketeers have complained about excessive government regulation since time immemorial. You’d think, in a representative democracy, by now we would’ve figured out how to address their concerns. Of course, some will ascribe the ongoing […]
Those Pesky Externalities Read More »
Over at The Boiling Frog, Seth and I recently published our 19th podcast, on voting rights. As we do with all our podcasts, we ended that one by offering suggestions about what we all could do to protect what has got to be one of the most important rights in any constitutional democracy, the right
“Originalism” and Voting Rights Read More »
This is a letter to the editor I wrote which was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on 10/12/2022. Editor: I was an elected official in San Carlos for almost 20 years, first on the school board and then the city council. On the council I was able to see both candidates for the
Ray Mueller for District 3 Board of Supervisors Read More »
This is a letter to the editor I wrote which was published in the Palo Alto Daily Post on 8/16/2021. Let the games begin! Today I invented a new game. It’s called “find the Harvey Milk Terminal” at SFO. Anyone can play! Park on level 2 of the garage. Walk over to the terminal via
This article was sparked by a flurry of emails I got recently asking me, as a Council member, to be sure mask-wearing wasn’t made mandatory. Please note this article was re-written in part after a reader pointed out I was wrong to say mask wearing wasn’t currently required. It is. My apologies for the mistake!
The Wearing of Masks and Decision-making Read More »
A recent NextDoor comment asserted the Council broke the law regarding how our train depot was treated in the Transit Village/Trestle Apartment project. Because the depot is on the National Register of Historic Places development around it must, by law, protect its historic status. While people are entitled to hold whatever opinion they wish, and
Freedom and the Law Read More »
Ever since I became an elected official I’ve been asked why we can’t reallocate our property taxes among the various public agencies they fund to reflect the community’s current priorities. This came up recently because the City of San Carlos is running significant surpluses while the San Carlos Elementary School District is having difficulty making
Allocating Property Taxes Read More »
This essay was sparked by a comment I got on my post, The 2nd Amendment Does Not Prevent Firearm Regulation. Here’s the comment: It is nice you cite a kinds of court cases, however I’d like to know where in the Constitution you think it allows government to regulate arms. “A well regulated militia, being
The Fundamentalist Constitutional Perspective Read More »
This being an odd-numbered year, there are seats coming up for re-election on the San Carlos City Council (and on the San Carlos School Board and Sequoia Union High School Board, too).
So You Want to Be a Council Person? Read More »
This op ed ran, in substantially similar form, in the Daily Post on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. When the Constitution was being drafted there was a debate about enshrining various rights in the document itself. Some felt it unnecessary because they were such a fundamental part of American culture. It’s one of the reasons the
Getting It In Writing Read More »