“A circuit court has ruled that Virginia’s new voter-passed congressional map, gerrymandered to give Democrats in the state a prohibitive advantage in the next congressional election, is unconstitutional.
Judge Jack Hurley, of the Circuit Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 29th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, denied a motion to stay his injunction blocking certification of the election using the new districts. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli reports that once a final order is drafted and entered, ‘it will be immediately appealed.’ If the rejiggering survives the challenge, it could be the factor that tips the balance in the House of Representatives toward the Democrats next November.” (04/23/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“While taxation is coercive, economically distortive, and ultimately something to be abolished, it does not follow that one may simply opt out of the existing legal regime. As much as one might wish otherwise, there does exist — at present — a binding legal obligation to report and pay income taxes under U.S. law. This article then is a response to a recent post on Twitter by Peter Schiff, who argued that, unlike excise taxes, the Internal Revenue Code contains no provision that creates a liability to pay the income tax, rendering it effectively ‘voluntary.’ This is not a new argument. It is, in fact, one of the more persistent claims advanced by so-called ‘tax protester’ theories. And like most such claims, it depends less on the structure of the law than on a selective reading of it.” (04/23/26)
“Turkish lawmakers passed a bill late Wednesday that includes restricting access to social media platforms for children under 15, state media reported. The legislation is the latest in a global trend to protect young people from dangerous online activity. Its passage comes a week after a 14-year-old boy killed nine students and a teacher at a middle school in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, in a gun attack. Police are investigating the online activity of the perpetrator, who also died, in a bid to uncover his motivation for the attack. The bill will force social media platforms to install age‑verification systems, provide parental control tools and require companies to rapidly respond to content deemed harmful, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.” (04/23/26)
