A recent Supreme Court oral argument about the liability of the FBI for invading and terrorizing the wrong home has brought to mind the dark and dangerous history of law enforcement. The practice of British agents rummaging through the private possessions on the...
What if the writ of habeas corpus has been guaranteed to the British since 1215 and to Americans since 1789? What if this encompasses the right of every person who is confined by the government against his or her will to compel the jailer to justify the confinement...
Among the lesser-known holes in the Constitution cut by the Patriot Act of 2001 was the destruction of the “wall” between federal law enforcement and federal spies. The wall was erected in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which statutorily limited...
Last week the FBI arrested a Wisconsin state judge as she was walking into the courthouse where she works. The feds had alerted the media -- but not the judge -- to this event, and they arrived and recorded the arrest. The standard and preferred practice when...
A little over a year ago, I spent a week living and studying at the Vatican as a guest lecturer at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a university-like organization of scholars that explores ideas of interest to the Vatican. Last year, the Academy addressed...
“That God, which ever lives and loves,One God, one law, one element,And one far-off divine eventTo which the whole creation moves.”-- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) When American colonists were oppressed by British monarchs, the word most frequently uttered in...
“No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of [the Constitution’s] provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.”-- Ex Parte Milligan, Supreme Court of the United States, 1866....
The U.S. Constitution was crafted in 1787 both to establish a new central government and to limit it. Some of the limitations are direct, some are subtle, and some are hidden. The chief instrument of limitation is the separation of powers, the brainchild of James...
“I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”-- Voltaire (1694-1778) When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included in it a list of the colonists’ grievances with the British government. Notably absent were...
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a...
When an invitation from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the renowned Professor Alexander Dugin to visit them in Moscow arrived in my inbox, it was actually the culmination of a series of emails and telephone calls from Russian-American friends giving me a...
“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion,and only one person were of the contrary opinion,Mankind would be no more justifiedIn silencing that one person,Than he, if he had the power,Would be justified in silencing mankind.” -- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) The...
I have often thought that after Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson was our worst president. By worst is meant least faithful to the Constitution and most destructive of personal liberty. With the exception of Lincoln’s dictatorship -- during which the federal government...
Normally, when the government asks a judge to dismiss criminal charges against a defendant, the judge will happily do so. This does not occur frequently, but occasionally, the government will reevaluate the strength of its own case and conclude it cannot prove the...
“The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever...
The taxing power in the federal government resides in the Congress. The Constitution states that Congress has the power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts” of the federal government. Indeed, in order to emphasize the location of...
In 2021, to his credit, President Joe Biden warned the American public against the dangers of zero-click spyware manufactured by an Israeli corporation. Zero-click is unwanted software that can expose the entire contents of one’s mobile or desktop device to prying...
“Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom of speechor of the press…”--First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution During the oral argument before the Supreme Court in the famous Pentagon Papers case, a fascinating colloquy took place between Justice William O....
When she was a member of the House of Representatives, Tulsi Gabbard was a fierce defender of personal privacy rights protected by the Fourth Amendment. She consistently opposed permitting federal agents to spy on Americans without search warrants, and she...
When British kings wanted to dispose of troublesome enemies -- real or imagined -- they often had them or their colleagues arrested on pretextual charges and then brutally tortured until confessions were extracted. The confessions were then read aloud during so-called...
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