Heard at Heritage

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have broad jurisdiction, with both playing a powerful and critical role in Congress. In the Senate, the committee is responsible for providing oversight over key activities of the executive branch, including the Department of Justice, and is responsible for the confirmation process of judicial and many executive branch nominations. The House Judiciary Comm...

On February 3, 2019 Nayib Bukele was elected president of El Salvador with one of the highest majorities in the Central American nation’s history. His election also marks the first time a third party candidate won the presidency since the 1992 Peace Accords. His election takes place at an opportune moment for El Salvador and U.S.-Salvadoran relations. Come join us to hear the president-elect’s ref...

After six years of failed attempts to get Russia to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty obligations, the U.S. officially announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty on December 4, 2018. To date, much of the discussion surrounding the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty has focused on the implications for Russia, the European Union, and trans-Atlanti...

The suffering of America's working class is real. Immobility, inequality, a retreat from marriage, and deaths of despair are the symptoms. In short, for much of the country, the American Dream is dead. The root cause is the collapse of local community for the working-class. The institutions of civil society that are still strong in some parts of America, specifically among the elites, are fading a...

Equating capitalism with colonialism, Africa’s nationalist leaders rejected it and adopted socialism in the 1960s. Foreign companies were nationalized, a string of state-owned enterprises were established and a plethora of state controls on rent, prices, imports and foreign exchange were imposed to capture the commanding heights of the economy. But nowhere in Africa was the socialist experiment su...

Six states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws providing for “physician-assisted suicide.” Sometimes proposed as relief for patients undergoing pain and suffering, physician-assisted suicide constitutes a major break with the traditional medical ethics embodied in the Hippocratic Oath that call on doctors to heal patients. Many analysts across the ideological spectrum agree: the normali...

In the past few years, the world has seen the dramatic movement of Islamist terrorists to war zones around the world. While this is not a new phenomenon, the elevated level of terrorist travel to places like Syria and Iraq from many nations in Europe and North America was deeply concerning to many policymakers across the globe. Now as ISIS loses its last stronghold in Syria, similar concerns over...

Adam Smith has been called the “father of capitalism.” The Nobel Prize winning economist George Stigler called Smith the “high priest of self-interest.” But what did Smith really think? As a virtue ethicist Smith believed that people were good (for the most part) and that self-interest, though important and different from selfishness, was not enough to create a vibrant society. This talk will cove...

Though the First Amendment’s command that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” is straightforward, the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence is anything but clear. To determine if a government action amounts to an establishment of religion, the Supreme Court has developed a number of tests looking for excessive entanglement, endorsement, or coercion, to...

Since the first submarine strategic deterrent patrol by USS George Washington (SSBN-598) in 1960, U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarines (or SSBNs) have provided the most survivable leg of the U.S. Strategic Nuclear Triad. U.S. SSBNs on patrol are virtually undetectable and hold adversary strategic targets constantly at risk. Today’s force of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs carry 70 percent of deployed U.S...

The Heritage Foundation and The Gloucester Institute present the 2nd Annual Jay A. Parker Lecture and Reception in honor of Jay A. Parker, founding father of the emerging black conservative movement. Come engage with prominent leaders about the dangerous decline in civil discourse and salute emerging leaders who are making significant contributions to our nation. As the leader of the Lincoln Insti...

It was over three decades ago, when then-Attorney General Ed Meese initiated an important spirited national debate about the proper application of our most important governing document—the U.S. Constitution. Since then, Originalism has emerged as a serious theory of constitutional interpretation that has permeated the judiciary and the academy. Originalists believe that the Constitution and laws s...

The National Security Strategy of the United States (December 2017) highlighted the need for U.S. intelligence and homeland security experts to work with law enforcement and civic leaders on terrorism prevention. The National Strategy for Counterterrorism (October 2018) further stated that terrorism prevention must be an integral part of our counterterrorism strategy. Given the administration’s pr...

The title “Bit Player” perfectly reflects Stephen Hess’s long and distinguished career as a Washington insider. As a 25-year-old, recently discharged Army private in 1958, he suddenly found himself as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s speechwriting team that ultimately helped draft the famed “Farewell Address” warning of the influence of the “military industrial complex.” Then over the next...

When Vladimir Putin first took power in 1999, he was a little-known figure ruling a country that was reeling from a decade and a half of crisis. In the years since, he has reestablished Russia as a great power. How did he do it? What principles have guided Putin’s economic policies? What patterns can be discerned? In this new analysis of Putin’s Russia, Chris Miller examines its economic policy an...

Please join The Heritage Foundation and the International Republican Institute for a conversation about Venezuela with Senator Marco Rubio. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, and a member of IRI’s Board, the senior senator from Florida has played a critical role in shaping a democratic transition in Venezuela. Senator Rubio will discuss the political developments in Venezuela,...

Socialism is a distortion, in a collectivist direction, of human beings’ natural need for familial connection with others. But socialism and the family are incompatible. The family requires independence from governmental interference in order to flourish, and parents know its needs better than government officials can. Meanwhile, the breakdown of the traditional family leads to greater need for st...

A conversation with Dr. Kim Holmes and Amb. Terry Miller about why Economic freedom matters and how Heritage's Index of Economic Freedom became the measuring stick by which governments evaluate their own performance, and compare their progress to their neighbors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Threats to religious freedom in China were on the rise in 2018, especially after the Chinese government instituted its new Regulations on Religious Affairs in February 2018. Christians in China are facing newfound persecution. Between September and December of last year, three major churches, the Early Rain Covenant Church, Zion Church, and Rongguilli Church were shuttered. Muslims in Xinjiang are...

We are seeing a significant increase in the number of nationwide injunctions issued by federal district court judges against the federal government. Are such judges acting outside of their jurisdictional limits? Are their actions constitutional and within the procedural precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court? Do such injunctions promote forum shopping and do they violate class action requirements? D...

Today, a college degree is not necessary to achieve the American Dream and live a fiscally successful life. Sure, for many, college can be the perfect launching pad. The societal aspect of school can be transformative, and the exposure to different people, different thoughts, and different ideas is crucial. But for millions of young Americans, college is not the answer. What about the teenager for...

In October 2008, as the U.S. economy plunged, the Federal Reserve began paying interest on banks' reserve balances. The resulting switch to a "floor system" of monetary control, in which changes in the interest rate on reserves, rather than reserve creation or destruction, became the Fed's chief tool for influencing economic activity, was to have far-reaching consequences--almost all of them regre...

Taxing Wars explores how a country decides to pay for wars and how that decision shapes how the public and the military experience the conflict. Dr. Kreps explores how the way that the United States has funded her wars fluctuated through time. Government fund their activities through one of three mechanisms: taxation, borrowing, or printing more money. All three have been leveraged in different le...

Who could be against a law that promises equality and bans discrimination? Parents who’ve already experienced grief, despair, and witnessed medical harms as they attempted to get help for their gender-confused children. Medical experts concerned about how adding "gender identity" into civil rights law would cause physical and psychological harm. People who have transitioned, and then detransitione...

The Index of Economic Freedom (www.heritage.org/index) celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2019!The Index evaluates government policies and economic conditions in 186 countries. Since its inception in 1995, the Index, an annual cross-country analysis by The Heritage Foundation, has tracked the progress of economic freedom around the globe and measured the real impact of advancing economic liberty....