The process of naturalization is a government-created "right" with no basis in property rights. In other words, there is no libertarian case for birthright citizenship.

The philosopher Jürgen Habermas died on March 14. He was the leading philosopher of the Frankfurt School, a hotbed of Marxism and critical theory.

Cross-posted at PFS Blog

This is April 1, but this is not an April Fool’s Day joke (I despise April Fool’s Day jokes).

In response to “Mises Institute: Quo Vadis?,” Property and Freedom Journal (March 25, 2026), Professor Hoppe been removed as a Distinguished Senior Fellow (~2000–2026) with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, as indicated in the following email exchange. Hans was appointed Senior Fellow early in his association with the Mises Institute, which began when he moved to the US to study with Rothbard in 1985, and elevated to Distinguished Senior Fellow around 2000 or so. Hans remains the only person to have ever received this distinction from the Mises Institute; it now has no one with this designation.

In response to all this, Hans asked me to post this image:

Here is the correspondence:

Subject: Distinguished Senior Fellow Designation
From: “Executive Directors, Mises Institute”
Date: 1. April 2026 at 16:01:33 GMT+3
To: Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Dear Dr. Hoppe,

Given the nature of your recent public statements about the Mises Institute, we are revoking your Distinguished Senior Fellow designation. We will continue to host your past articles, books, and lectures on mises.org.

Sincerely,

Judy Thommesen and Chad Parish
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS

MISES INSTITUTE

From: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Date: Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 10:36 AM
To: “Executive Directors, Mises Institute”

Dear Mrs. Thommesen
Dear Mr. Parish,

If you think it helps the well-being of the Mises Institute, I will accept your decision to strip me of the title “Distinguished Senior Fellow”.
I sincerely hope that the Mises Institute will responsibly carry on the legacy of the great Ludwig von Mises and my dear teacher and mentor Murray N. Rothbard into the future, inspiring generations to come.

Sincerely
Prof. Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe

I note that it somewhat odd for this note to come from two non-academic executive directors, instead of the Chairman, Lew Rockwell, or Joe Salerno, its Academic Vice President. It is also odd to view the designation as some kind of status or award that can be revoked when one is displeased with the recipient; the designation was a recognition of his body of work and ideas, which has not changed; as Judy and Chad say, in fact, “We will continue to host your past articles, books, and lectures on mises.org.”

Mises Institute has now lost its most important scholar, Rothbard’s intimate associate, partner, friend, and student for the last decade of his life, the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gary G. Schlarbaum Award for lifetime defense of liberty (2006), the Murray N. Rothbard Medal of Freedom (2015), and the Caminos de la Libertad “A Life for Freedom” Award (2024), and the obvious successor and heir to Rothbard’s intellectual framework.

The only other former MI Senior Fellows I know of to whom something like this has happened are Walter Block, whose pro-war and anti-Rothbardian views were so egregious that association with him could not be tolerated any more by the MI ¹—and … me. I will explain this in some detail in a forthcoming article, but long-short: I was invited by Joe Salerno in 2009 to be a Senior Fellow. In the aftermath of Jeff Tucker’s and Doug French’s departure in 2011 and 2012, David Gordon, Joe Salerno, and Lew Rockwell inexplicably attacked me in a podcast in 2013 which was a long discussion, an oral history of Rothbard. When I quoted their words in a Facebook post, Peter Klein, who was temporarily acting CEO (before Jeff Deist was hired as the successor President), messaged me to ask me if I thought it was appropriate for a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute to be criticizing other senior members of the MI; I was thinking, umm, what’s actually inappropriate is for them to be attacking me, their Senior Fellow. What they should have done was apologize, cut out the inexplicable attack on me, and re-post the podcast and focus on Rothbard. But I said you know, you’re right, remove me. Purge away, boys. I did not want to be associated with these snakes. So I feel like now I am in good company. At least I was removed by a communication with the acting CEO, a fellow scholar, not a couple of non-acdemic temporary staffers.

1. See note 2 of Mises Institute email: “Rothbard’s Ideas Live On: Three Books That Defend Liberty.”

The editorial board of the New York Post does a yeoman's job of totting up the many king-like past transgressions of Democrat Presidents against the Republic, in the wake of the most recent protests against Donald Trump.

A sample:

Obama lost, often at the Supreme Court. That didn't stop him.

Nor did it stop President Joe Biden, who became infamous for ignoring Supreme Court decisions.

When the Supreme Court said that extending a COVID-era moratorium on evictions would be unconstitutional, Biden just did it anyway.

The same when the Supremes told Biden he lacked the power to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.

Democrats didn't protest against Biden acting like a king. In fact, they encouraged him to go even further.

The protestors, whose demonstrations notably included anti-American chants and flew flags of hostile regimes, well deserved to be called out for their inconsistencies.

On top of that, Americans are fairly warned:

So when it comes to "no kings," Dems aren't just accusing Trump -- they're falsifying their own history.

The truth is that Democrats cheer authoritarian behavior -- as long as they're in charge.

Let them back into power, and they'll prove it once again.

It is too bad that that is essentially the whole message, which evades the similar damage Donald Trump does to our Republic every day.

When two men sell poisonous snake oil, the fact that one calls out the other does not mean his product is any better, and yet that is the gist of this editorial.

In better days, the writers would be well aware of and open about the similarity, and of the alternative of working to free our nation from any and all tyrants. They would exhort their side to do better. The Founders, many Christian, for example, were well aware of the tyranny of religious authority -- and yet they did not squabble among themselves as to which religion to make official. They deprived all religions of secular power instead.

Today, there is no such exhortation, but to not "let them back into power," at a time when universal suffrage is under blatant attack and the leader being protested against openly undermines the legitimacy of past elections while working to rig future ones. This is dangerously close to endorsing a dictatorship, as, surely, one would keep the President's political enemies out of power, as if they all deserve to be.

The solution to the problem of a too-powerful Presidency isn't to stick with the proverbial devil you know or to make that devil even more powerful, but to work to exorcise imperial power from the Presidency so neither "side" can abuse it.

-- CAV

My latest Forbes column is now out:: "How Government Attempts To Reduce Health Spending Can Paradoxically Raise Health Costs"

Quick question: When is it proper for the government to tell a private employer whom he can hire, and how?

1. Any time that employer discriminates for or against anyone for reasons unrelated to fitness for the job as advertised, or
2. Never, because the purpose of government is to protect individual rights, including the right to contract.

Hint: Whatever other considerations an employer might have are moral matters, and an employer will bear the rewards or consequences (monetary or not) of those additional considerations.

The correct answer -- which apparently would come as a surprise to about 99% of today's government officials -- is 2.

The government has no business forcing employers to have hiring quotas or not to have them.

Florida is making the second mistake, in a knee-jerk reaction to decades of DEI/"corporate responsibility"/ESG:

The National Football League won't stop enforcing its "Rooney Rule" in the face of Florida's threats of possible legal action over the longstanding diversity hiring practice, league Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday.

Speaking at the NFL's annual meeting in Phoenix, Goodell said the league will "engage" with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who last week warned the Rooney Rule and other similar hiring policies are "illegal" under Florida's civil rights laws. But Goodell maintained the NFL believes its rule is "consistent" with state laws and will continue to be used to help "bring in the best talent."

The "Rooney Rule" is an effort by the NFL, a private employer, to help individuals who are not white males get into coaching jobs.

Whatever its moral status -- or anyone's opinion about whether it's necessary or the right way to give such candidates a fair hearing -- it's up to the owners of the NFL whom they hire and how they go about doing so. It would be wrong for the government to force them to have such a rule (if they didn't already) for the same reason it is attempting to force them not to do so now.

This is not the first time Florida's conservative Governor, Ron DeSantis, has shown that he's more of a fascist than a proponent of free markets. During the pandemic, he made exactly the same kind of mistake regarding vaccine "mandates" when he threatened cruise lines for asking their passengers to vaccinate before cruises (!):

[DeSantis] has no more right than the CDC to impose a vaccination policy on a cruise line. Do not be fooled by the fact that his position differs in concrete detail from the one favored by the left.

It is interesting to note that after decades of the left "mandating" things via improper government, many people seem to have forgotten the fundamental difference between a business owner setting policy and the government doing it for him.

-- CAV