A new book of essays offers a range of conservative viewpoints on education.

I was interviewed last week by Juliette Sellgren, a 17-year old in northern Virginia who asked good questions and showed that she already understood what a public good is. Her podcast is titled “Juliette’s Uncommon Knowledge.” She’s an impressive young lady and we had a nice talk after the interview about her college and career plans.

The Constitution specifies only one process for making international agreements. Article II states that the President “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.” The treaty process has long been on a path to obsolescence, however, with fewer and fewer treaties being made in each presidential administration. Nevertheless, the United States has not stopped making international agreements. Even as Article II treaties have come to a near halt, the United States has concluded hundreds of binding international agreements each year. These agreements, known as “executive agreements,” are made by the President without submitting them to the Senate, or to Congress, at all. Congress has responded to the rise of executive agreements by imposing a transparency regime—requiring that all the binding executive agreements be reported to Congress and that important agreements be published for the public to see.

Across much of the world, national governments have responded to the coronavirus pandemic by ordering nonessential businesses to close and residents to shelter in place. In the United States, in contrast, the orders did not originate from the national government; instead, local and state governments took charge.