But because it's being used to justify tax increases, regulation, and other policies, it becomes a highly politicized issue.

To be sure, mere political favoritism or opportunity for influence alone is insufficient to justify regulation.

Yet an analysis in the April 2001 issue of Communication Law and Policy found that, with few exceptions, the studies most frequently cited to justify regulation of nude dancing were seriously flawed.

The safety and soundness of our banks and banking system may be important, but it is a peculiarly defensive ground on which to justify or condemn regulation.

Washington has never quite made up its collective mind about what is needed to justify regulation.

The two reasons that justify regulation inside a common economic area are fair competition and a high level of consumer protection.

Several important players, including the Bank of Sweden, believe that the Commission has succeeded, in a less than credible manner, in demonstrating a market failure that justifies further regulation of the credit rating agencies.

Congress's claim, Holmes contended, was that "circumstances have clothed the letting of buildings in the District of Columbia with a public interest so great as to justify regulation by law."

An International Monetary Fund policy study argues that risk externalities between financial institutions and from them to the real economy are market failures that justify macroprudential regulation.

It also transfers blame to law-abiding gun owners and justifies even greater regulation of our personal freedoms.