Cato Daily Dispatch for October 21, 2005
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Bill to Protect Gun makers Likely to Become LawCan the FBI Be Fixed?
Illegal Immigrants Hired for Katrina Relief
Bill to Protect Gun makers Likely to Become Law
"Handing a major victory to the National Rifle Association and its allies, the House passed legislation Thursday that would give firearms manufacturers and dealers broad immunity from civil lawsuits," The Houston Chronicle reports.
"The measure, which has already been approved by the Senate, awaits the signature of President Bush, who supported the legislation because, he said, it would help stem frivolous lawsuits."
In "Courts Defend Guns," Robert Levy, a senior fellow in constitutional studies, writes: "To be sure, the gun lawsuits are rubbish. Whether the claims are based on 'design defect,' or 'negligent marketing,' or a trendy legal theory known as 'public nuisance,' courts across the country have done the right thing: They've concluded that gun makers are not responsible for the criminal misconduct of their customers. Of 33 lawsuits filed by various states, counties, and cities, 29 have been dismissed.
"Ultimately, the message for our judges and legislators is twofold. First, courts must continue to reject bogus claims instigated by anti-gun zealots seeking to circumvent state legislatures. Second, Congress should keep its nose out of state tort law and reaffirm that our national government is one of enumerated, delegated and, therefore, limited powers."
Can the FBI Be Fixed?
"Former members of the 9/11 commission sharply criticized FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III [Thursday] for failing to overcome internal resistance to the creation of a domestic intelligence agency at the FBI," the Baltimore Sun reports. "One former commissioner said that if Mueller cannot remake the FBI into an effective intelligence agency within a year, Congress should consider taking away that responsibility."
In "Intelligence Services Are Not 'Intelligent,'" Leon Hadar, a research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, writes: "Proposing that we can 'fix' this [intelligence] system to make it an open, objective, and independent information-processing system, is not very different than arguing that we can make a centralized economy more efficient, or that we can liberalize a communist government. Boys will be boys -- and intelligence agencies will continue to be politicized, incompetent, and wasteful government bureaucracies. And, occasionally, they will even get lucky. As a result of sophisticated technology, the courage of an American agent, or a defection by an enemy spy, they may end up providing a marginal advantage to the U.S. government during time of crisis and war."
Illegal Immigrants Hired for Katrina Relief
"Immigration agents detained more than 100 temporary contract workers at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station on possible immigration violations, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office reported Thursday," the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
"Earlier this week, Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, asked the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to investigate reports that use of illegal workers by contractors hired to do Hurricane Katrina relief work was becoming 'chronic.'"
In "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Daniel Griswold, director of trade policy studies at the Cato Institute, writes: "Demand for low-skilled labor continues to grow in the United States while the domestic supply of suitable workers inexorably declines - yet U.S. immigration law contains virtually no legal channel through which low-skilled immigrant workers can enter the country to fill that gap. The result is an illegal flow of workers characterized by more permanent and less circular migration, smuggling, document fraud, deaths at the border, artificially depressed wages, and threats to civil liberties.
"Legalizing Mexican migration would, in one stroke, bring a huge underground market into the open. It would allow American producers in important sectors of our economy to hire the workers they need to grow. It would raise wages and working conditions for millions of low-skilled workers and spur investment in human capital. It would free resources and personnel for the war on terrorism."
Kristen A. Kestner, editor, kkestner@cato.org