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About Civitas Outlook

Civitas Outlook is the online journal of the Civitas Institute. The journal represents a community of scholars and thinkers who write about the core ideas of freedom and virtue, constitutionalism, economic growth, and dynamism crucial to citizenship and flourishing as human persons in a free society.

The opinions expressed in Civitas Outlook are solely those of the writers and do not reflect those of the Civitas Institute or the University of Texas at Austin.

Richard M. Reinsch II

Editor-in-chief of Civitas Outlook

Richard M. Reinsch II is editor in chief of the Civitas Institute’s Civitas Outlook. He was the founding editor of the online magazine Law & Liberty.

Immediately before joining Civitas, he was the editor in chief and director of publications of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) where he introduced the Institute’s white paper program, helped launch two new podcasts, Qualified Opinions and Econception, and led AIER’s online journal, The Daily Economy.

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Contributing Editors

Jonathan H. Adler
Jonathan H. Adler
Inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Josh Blackman
Josh Blackman
Professor of Law and Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Samuel Gregg
Samuel Gregg
Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin
Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. He is the founder and editor of National Affairs.
Joseph Postell
Joseph Postell
Associate Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College.
Veronique de Rugy
Veronique de Rugy
George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a nationally syndicated columnist.
Scott Winship
Scott Winship
Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Steven F. Hayward
Steven F. Hayward
Steven F. Hayward is the Edward Gaylord distinguished visiting professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
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Civitas Outlook

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Beyond the Border: How Extraterritorial State Laws Risk America’s AI Ambitions

True policy innovation in AI requires states to respect the boundaries of their authority and allow the freedom of movement for both people and resources that defines a truly national market.

Kevin Frazier
Politics
Dec 16, 2025

The Trump National Security Strategy Is Good, Bad, and Ugly All at Once

Like the classic Clint Eastwood western, the Trump Administration should have titled its National Security Strategy: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

John Yoo
Politics
Dec 16, 2025

U.S. Can’t Cave to Europe’s Anti-Growth Agenda

One does not have to support protectionist tariffs or protracted trade wars to see why Washington needs to continue using trade to pressure Eurocrats to give up micromanaging tech platforms and supply chains around the world. 

Michael Toth
Economic Dynamism
Dec 15, 2025

Junk the CAFE Standards

The regulation of air pollution, like that of any other dangerous externality, only works if the appropriate regulatory scheme is put in place at the outset, and that is where the current CAFE framework is fatally defective.

Richard Epstein
Pursuit of Happiness
Dec 12, 2025

“Brazenly Partisan” Judges Scrutinize Trump’s Mind, But Refuse To Explain Themselves

Josh Blackman investigates how, when it comes to rooting out judicial misconduct, federal judges hide behind a veil of ignorance.

Josh Blackman
Politics
Dec 11, 2025
Who we are

We are a community of scholars exploring the ideas and institutions that create flourishing societies.

The Civitas Institute is part of the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.

Independent thought, civil discourse, reasoned deliberation and intellectual curiosity are central to our ethos.

Learn more