Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Today, Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer take a look at President Trump’s recent executive order on flag burning and discuss the First Amendment issues it presents; Michael McFaul outlines the order of negotiations that will be most conducive to brokering a durable peace deal in Ukraine; and Raghuram Rajan considers the trade-offs in differing US and European approaches to AI regulation.

Revitalizing American Institutions

A Burning First Amendment Issue: President Trump’s Executive Order on Flag Desecration

In a new and timely episode of Free Speech Unmuted, Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh and cohost Jane Bambauer dive into President Trump’s new executive order on flag burning. Volokh and Bambauer ask: Is it bold politics or bad law? Or maybe both? The distinguished law professors break down what the order really says, how it clashes with First Amendment precedents, and why targeting flag desecration even under otherwise content-neutral laws could violate the First Amendment. Bambauer and Volokh also discuss the tricky question of whether noncitizens can be deported for speech or symbolic expression that is protected for citizens. This extends an earlier discussion on the show from the episode, “Can Noncitizens Be Deported for Their Speech?.” Listen here.

Determining America’s Role in the World

How to Arm Ukraine for Negotiations

Analyzing the results and implications of recent US efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Senior Fellow Michael McFaul argues in Foreign Affairs that the order of negotiations with the two parties will be of paramount importance going forward. “Trump and his team must first reach an agreement on security guarantees among Ukraine, other European countries, and the United States,” McFaul writes. “Only then should Washington encourage a conversation between Zelenskyy and Putin about de facto territorial concessions that could bring an end to the war.” Concluding that ending the war remains a “long shot,” the former US ambassador to Russia says that solid US and European security guarantees are the foundation of any lasting peace. McFaul suggests that details of a security arrangement could be kept secret pending Putin-Zelenskyy border talks, but getting “the order right” in these negotiations will be the first step in successful US mediation. Read more here.

Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies

The Trade-offs of AI Regulation

When it comes to managing new technologies and financial innovations, the United States tends to regulate too little, too late, whereas the European Union does too much, too soon, argues Senior Fellow Raghuram Rajan in a new column at Project Syndicate. “The problem with the European way,” in Rajan’s view, “is that it burdens fledgling firms with the costs of regulatory compliance before the technology’s potential has become clear.” Moreover, by limiting experiments with new technologies to relatively few users under the watchful eye of regulators, in a “sandbox” model, Rajan says that European regulation can preclude breakthroughs only possible with scale and the benefits of network effects. Rajan concludes that neither the US nor Europe should seek to “export their own rulebook,” or force “the other to fall in line.” Rather, we may be better off if US and European “regulators keep seeing regulations differently.” Read more here.

The Institutional Structure of the Federal Reserve

“The politically impossible has now become probable,” writes Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane in a new post at his Grumpy Economist blog. “Long dormant issues of the institutional and legal structure of the Fed could suddenly be reopened,” evidenced by recent writings from prominent progressive and populist figures “calling for fundamental reform at the Fed.” Cochrane charts some of the complexities inherent in operating a quasi-independent federal agency within a representative constitutional democracy. As he writes, “Independence must compromise with accountability. Independence slows down the popular and political will but does not stop it.” While agreeing with some of the complaints of the Fed’s current critics, Cochrane says that his preferred approach to reform would see a restoration of Fed “independence by restoring limits on its activities,” designed to keep the central bank from “interfering politically in fiscal policy, credit allocation, bank regulation, and other areas.” Read more here.