City Journal

Incisive commentary on urban policy, politics, and culture. Published by @ManhattanInst and edited by @BrianACity.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

On November 3, Nebraska banned men in women's sports.

Wisconsin passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting affirmative action.

California voters rejected the billionaire tax.

Tennessee passed a constitutional prohibition on a state property tax.

Ballot measures increasing fentanyl penalties, establishing sex-based eligibility for school and college sports, and prohibiting specified gender-transition surgeries for minors are leading in Colorado.

The Republican Party may have sustained massive midterm losses, but statewide ballot initiatives tell a different story. Conservative policies still resonate, @Sean_Speer writes, even as voters reject the Trump administration. https://t.co/fXyoCic2m3

[City Journal @CityJournal]

"That week, many felt that the tragedy might have a silver lining, that Charlie’s death might move people to set aside petty differences and come together for the good of the country. That was his mission and, for a moment, it seemed that everyone was trying to honor it.

Instead, his death marked the shattering of the American Right."

@christopherrufo's powerful account of Charlie Kirk's assassination and how to honor his legacy: https://t.co/AQGf2aVMuS

[City Journal @CityJournal]

“Democrats in Texas will learn what Republicans elsewhere have discovered: a state’s policies tend to be sticky,” @judgeglock writes. https://t.co/CncQBjEpK2

[Mark Gimein @chumpchanger]

When Anthropic goes public, the regular shareholders will have virtually no power, thanks to a baroque corporate structure so that Dario and other founders absolute power, coupled with total deniability.

My latest in @CityJournal

https://t.co/cvOLnseVqn

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Americans are flocking to walkable small-town downtowns on the edges of big metros, but regulation has made it nearly impossible to build new ones.

Via @bhargreaves https://t.co/kFyUbTuevW

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Who's really running Anthropic?

Since the beginning, Anthropic’s leadership has presented its mission as too important to be subject strictly to the profit motive.

Its SEC filing tells a different story. The trillion-dollar company’s corporate structure is ostensibly designed to keep Anthropic focused on the public interest—but in effect, it leaves CEO Dario Amodei and his co-founders firmly in control.

@chumpchanger on the corporate structure that seems designed to obfuscate ⬇️ https://t.co/VcuFh3qkV7

[City Journal @CityJournal]

A lame-duck presidency that just lost decisively in the midterms doesn’t have to mean either forgetting about a policy agenda or having to push the constitutional envelope to achieve it. Plenty can be accomplished in the next two years—at the Department of Education and beyond—through executive orders, regulations, guidance, grant priorities, and enforcement.

@ishapiro's latest: https://t.co/RvuVBLCvOy

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Trump can still change the Department of Education, even with Democrats controlling Congress.

Yes, time has run out on eliminating it. But there's still much he can do 🧵

[City Journal @CityJournal]

7. Make the Office of Civil Rights' own procedures a model of the rule of law.

Adopt binding procedures requiring timely investigations, clear notice of alleged violations, a meaningful opportunity to respond, public explanations of resolutions, and settlement obligations tied to identified violations with defined termination criteria.

An investigation that remains open indefinitely can punish an institution without establishing that it violated the law. Vague settlements can also entrench expensive bureaucracies and ideological training requirements that survive long after the original dispute.

Clear procedures would improve relief for actual victims while requiring the OCR to substantiate its demands. Institutionalizing those limits would help prevent future administrations from using civil-rights enforcement to impose political orthodoxy.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Robert Maury killed a woman by strangling her with a nylon clothesline, strangled and killed another two women, and brutally raped a fourth before he was caught by authorities.

He's now using a taxpayer-funded digital tablet to watch pornography in a California state prison. https://t.co/nd71IRgMlA

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

In honor of Gavin Newsom commuting the death sentences of every death row prisoner in California, here's one of those inmates telling me how men on death row view pictures of naked kids/porn in prison.

(This man is a serial killer who strangled three women to death.)

[Haley Strack @StrackHaley]

In honor of Gavin Newsom commuting the death sentences of every death row prisoner in California, here's one of those inmates telling me how men on death row view pictures of naked kids/porn in prison.

(This man is a serial killer who strangled three women to death.)

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Progressives swept into statewide office in Texas on Tuesday—but the red state model will endure.

@judgeglock on how political and constitutional factors will constrain the newly blue state: https://t.co/CncQBjDRUu

[City Journal @CityJournal]

“The mere threat of a wealth tax has already inflicted lasting damage on California’s economy, prompting many high net-worth individuals to flee the state, taking their taxable income with them,” @Shawn_Regan writes. https://t.co/JVjOdmsfEE

[City Journal @CityJournal]

New York’s GOP doesn’t have answers.

Empire State Republicans were trounced up and down the ballot. They’ve conspicuously avoided any serious introspective or after-action analysis, failing to create a brand of their own distinct from the national party.

That should prompt some questions.

Via @PolicyEngineer & @JKetcham91 https://t.co/lQiUIopBec