Former federal prosecutor Bob Barr, the Libertarian presidential nominee last year, has joined Ralph Nader to call for…more federal intervention in the economy. Thanks, boys, we needed that.

That is, Messrs. Barr and Nader would use the federal cluster bomb to force car companies to reveal their trade secrets to every Tom, Dick,and Harry repair shop. This is called the “right to repair.” Well, you certainly have the right to repair your own property, or other people’s by contract, but not the right to steal the computer codes, etc. of Toyota in the name of “fair competition.” That’s always a synonym for the SWAT team.

UPDATE from Brent Peterson:

After reading that article I can’t figure out what problem Nader and Barr are trying to solve with their legislation. I’m guessing they’ve never worked on a late model car themselves. The manufacturers put a good amount of information out there for purchase in factory manuals; the aftermarket usually fills in the special tool gap with products far more cost effective for someone working on multiple makes, and the distributed knowledge that the internet puts at our fingertips covers most of the rest. And note that aftermarket companies even make special tools for very specific problems where the dealer solution is VERY costly.