Next to Ron Paul’s Revolution on the shelf in your local Barnes & Noble, you will find two other new books by RLCers this year.
One is The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom by RLCer Robert Levy, a senior fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, and William Mellor, the president and general counsel of the libertarian Institute for Justice.
The book is a non-lawyer’s guide to the worst cases of the modern era, including Helvering v. Davis (1937) which allowed the government to take money from some and give it to others without any meaningful constraints and Kelo v. City of New London (2005) which approved government seizure of private property to transfer to another private owner.
Are these 12 the absolute worst in history? It is hard to narrow down after 216 years of Supreme Court cases, but Levy and Mellor make a good case and provide a lively read along the way. Henry Mark Holzer, professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School who served as Ayn Rand’s lawyer, apparently couldn’t narrow it to 12 and is working on a book right now about the 50 worst Supreme Court decisions. He also has some nitpicking to do about Levy’s and Mellor’s dozen.
Noted business author and speaker Bob Burg is another RLCer with a new book. Best known for his bestselling first book, Endless Referrals, Burg has just released his latest, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea with John David Mann.
The book is garnering immediate praise. “This is the best little business book I have ever read,” said Raymond James financial advisor and RLCer Paul Rampolla of West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns to be successful. Joe learns that putting the other person first and focusing on how he can help others, instead of on how he can get ahead of the competition, can ultimately lead to unexpected returns. The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “give and you shall receive.”
As an active RLCer, Burg is a staunch defender of the free enterprise system and, while not a political book, his appreciation of the libertarian values of individual initiative, peaceful cooperation, productive work and genuine tolerance and concern for others shows through on every page.
