'Making a police state out of the liberal university'
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day


'What Columbia should have done instead of brutalizing its student protesters'
Alexander Sammon at Slate
Columbia University didn't have to call in a "notorious" New York City police unit to "descend upon the campus" and arrest "nonviolent student protesters" occupying Hamilton Hall, says Alexander Sammon. Just up Interstate 95, Brown University showed there's a better way to address pro-Palestinian student demonstrations. Brown's governing body voted to divest from companies it believes have facilitated "Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory," and its "nonviolent student protesters agreed to vacate their encampment" the same afternoon.
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'An ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu would be a grave mistake'
National Review editorial board
It would be a "massive, institutionally suicidal mistake" for the International Criminal Court to issue warrants for the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials, says the National Review editorial board. If the ICC targets Israel, America's next. Five years ago, ICC "critic-in-chief" John Bolton tried to "protect America and its allies" from the court's reach. A Netanyahu warrant would assure that the next Republican administration would "prioritize steps to cripple the court."
'Automatic braking on U.S. cars will save lives. Biden is right to require it.'
Los Angeles Times editorial board
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's decision to require automatic emergency braking in cars "can save hundreds of lives each year," says the Los Angeles Times editorial board. The rule makes technology mandatory by 2029 to "stop and avoid contact" with cars ahead at 62 miles per hour. The sensors must "avoid hitting pedestrians" at 40 mph and detect them in the dark, when most fatalities occur. It's overdue. There's "no reason" to "tolerate 41,000 traffic deaths" annually.
'DEA finally expected to reclassify marijuana'
Joe Lancaster at Reason
The federal government's decision to "change the way it regulates marijuana" is "welcome, but it does not go far enough," says Joe Lancaster. Reclassifying cannabis as a less dangerous drug, on par with Tylenol with codeine rather than, say, heroin or peyote, would mean it will "no longer be completely forbidden." The old description was "ridiculous," especially since so many states have legalized pot. But the next step is nationwide decriminalization. "Marijuana prohibition is an antiquated notion."
Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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