United Liberty

Doug Mataconis has already written a very good post weighing in on the legal battle between Charles and David Koch and the Cato Institute, so I’m not going to get into the meat of the issue again. But this recent bomb on the libertarian movement does have me concerned about its future, and with that, it’s something that you can expect us to cover as the case develops.

When it comes to the Koch brothers, I’m typically defensive. I think they’ve become a boogeyman for the Left. With that said, however, the Cato Institute is well-respected for their work promoting free markets, school choice, civil liberties, and an non-interventionist foreign policy. The folks at Cato are willing to call out all sides, including conservatives and Republicans, for trying to increase the size and scope of government. Making the Cato Institute a partisan would be a disaster, ruining the credibility of this respected think tank.

Below is a roundup of the various news and blog coverage of the fight for, what I consider to be, the very heart and soul of the libertarian movement (in no particular order). Not all of it is unbiased, meaning that it does include links to people with close ties to Cato, but it all makes for good reading if you want to follow the story:

• Cato says Koch engaged in “a hostile takeover” of the think tank (Allen McDuffee, Washington Post)
• Kochs launch court fight over Cato (Mike Allen, Politico)
• Cato and the Kochs: A Presignation Letter (Julian Sanchez, JulianSanchez.com)
• Thinking About the Battle for Cato (Jonah Goldberg, National Review)
• How good a case do the Koches have in the Cato flap? (Alison Frankel, Reuters)
• Cato Goes to War (Dave Weigel, Slate)
• Behind the Cato-Koch Kerfuffle (Dave Weigel, Slate)
• Cato and the Kochs (Don Boudreaux, Cafe Hayek)
• The battle for the Cato Institute (Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune)
• Strange Things At The CATO Institute (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Beast)
• Save the Cato Institute (Timothy Lee, Forbes)
• What a Koch Takeover of Cato Would Mean for the Foreign Policy Debate (Justin Logan, The American Conservative)
• Cato Institute Is Caught in a Rift Over Its Direction (Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times)
• Koch v. Cato – Some Further Thoughts (Jason Kuznicki, The League of Ordinary Gentlemen)
• Classically Liberal on the Kochs (Jason Kuznicki, The League of Ordinary Gentlemen)
• An Open Letter to Koch Program Alumni (Gene Healy, GeneHealy.com)
• Think Tank in Koch Brothers Dispute Could Find Its Tax Status at Risk (Debra Blum, The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
• Cato Strikes Back (Skip Oliva, Under Penalty of Catapult)
• Save Cato from the Koch brothers…on Facebook? (Allen McDuffee, Washington Post)
• Koch vs. Cato (Jacob Grier, JacobGrier.com)
• Let the Cato Institute remain Cato (B. Daniel Platt, GayPatriot)
• Koch v. Cato (Jonathan Adler, Volokh Conspiracy)
• Koch v. Cato Follow Up (Jonathan Adler, Volokh Conspiracy)
• Koch v. Cato — A View from Cato (Jonathan Adler, Volokh Conspiracy)
• The Cato Institute and the Kochs (Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy)
• You should care that the Kochs are seizing Cato (Alex Pareene, Salon)
• HOSTILE KOCH TAKEOVER MANIA: Bros Seek ‘Intellectual Ammo-Shop For Americans For Prosperity’ (Jim Newell, Wonkette)
• Scrum and Koch (The Boston Globe)
• On the Koch/Cato fight (The Blanks Slate)
• Cato Senior Fellow: Koch Brothers Want To Take Over Cato Because ‘Cato Wasn’t Doing Enough To Defeat’ Obama (Ian Millhiser, ThinkProgress)
• Libertarian Ed Crane Decides to Act Like a Liberal. Will It Destroy the Cato Institute? (Erick Erickson, RedState)

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