Trump’s Big Step in Restoring Meritocracy

Disparate-impact theory—the idea that race-neutral standards can violate federal civil rights law if they produce racially disproportionate outcomes—has been a cornerstone of progressive legal activism for decades. Left-wing attorneys have used it to persuade courts that a wide range of objective criteria, from police literacy tests to credit-based mortgage lending, amount to illegal discrimination.

In a sweeping new executive order, President Trump has withdrawn federal support for disparate-impact theory. According to Heather Mac Donald, this is “the most important step” the White House could have taken “to restore meritocracy to American society”—but Congress must act, she argues, to ensure that the policy can’t be reversed by a future administration.

“The White House needs to persuade Congress to clarify that civil rights mean freedom from discrimination,” she writes, “not the legitimization of ‘reverse discrimination.’”

Read the rest of her piece here.

In Canada, the government’s “safer-supply” policy allows health authorities to distribute free drugs to addicts—with little to no medical supervision, until recently. Now, U.S. harm-reduction advocates are citing Canada’s program as a model, pointing to studies claiming that it has saved lives. But those claims don’t hold up, warns Adam Zivo. The research behind them, he writes, “relies on weak methodologies, including biased interviews and self-reported surveys,” and fails to distinguish the effects of safer supply from other interventions. Policymakers in the U.S., he argues, should not rely on such shaky evidence to justify equally reckless policies at home.

Read more about the flawed research here.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum recently ordered a halt to construction on Empire Wind, a project that would have installed 150 wind turbines off the coast of Long Island. Burgum cited deficiencies in federal approvals granted to the offshore wind farm, which falls under federal jurisdiction as part of the nation’s continental shelf.

Ken Girardin explains why the project’s possible shutdown is good news—especially for New York electricity customers, who would have been on the hook for billions in subsidies for a less reliable grid.

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908.
But that long-awaited triumph didn’t launch a new era of dominance. Since then, the Cubs have joined a dubious club—one of only six Major League Baseball teams without a single postseason win since 2017.

William Voegeli explores why the 2016 championship failed to spark a dynasty—and what the Cubs’ fortunes reveal about deeper patterns in the world of professional sports. And his essay is suggestive of more than just baseball: it’s also a reflection on the Cubs as a civic institution, and on the ways their saga has become woven into the troubled story of Chicago itself.

“It took four years for Biden to destroy the country. Trump can wait six months for a durable Supreme Court decision. Yes, we need to act quickly, but the government does not need to move at the speed of Twitter.

We need lasting, durable policy that the open-borders enthusiasts, funded by the oligarchy, can’t undo with the stroke of a pen. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the devastation created by O’Biden won’t be rectified in six months.

Rebuilding takes time, but on good foundations we can raise ourselves to heights never seen before.”

Photo credits: Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty Images News via Getty Images