In the same week in which President Donald Trump announced that he was federalizing 200 Oregon National Guard soldiers and dispatching them to the streets of Portland, he quietly signed a Presidential National Security Memorandum that purports to federalize policing....
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) “Congress shall make no law ...abridging the freedom of speech,or of the press ... ”-- First Amendment to the US...
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons,houses, papers, and effects against unreasonablesearches and seizures shall not be violated,and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describingthe...
Last week, the President of the United States did not take the Constitution seriously. He ordered the murders of 11 people who were riding in a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea around 1,300 miles from the U.S. Afterward he said he did so because he believed that they...
While the public’s attention this summer has been drawn to masked ICE agents arresting folks without warrants, presidentially imposed sales taxes on goods emanating from foreign countries that have been invalidated by three federal courts, and the fruitless Kabuki...
It is (my) intention to ... demand recognition of the distinctionbetween the powers granted to the Federal Governmentand those reserved to the States or to the people.All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Governmentdid not create the States; the States...
What if the federal government captures in real time the contents of every telephone call, email and text message and all the fiber-optic data generated by every person and entity in the United States 24/7? What if this mass surveillance was never authorized by any...
“The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”-- Ninth Amendment to the US Constitution When the Texas legislature decided to engage in the reapportionment of congressional districts...
This week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -- which sits right below the Supreme Court -- is hearing a case of profound constitutional importance. It is the government’s appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, which...
When the IRS announced two weeks ago that it would not enforce a section of federal law commonly called the Johnson Amendment, many clerics rejoiced. The Johnson Amendment -- named for its author, then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson -- strikes a bargain with charities. You...
Last week, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., invalidated a plea agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been incarcerated at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for 20 years. Mohammed has been charged with conspiracy to commit mass murder in...
“America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy ...She might become the dictatress of the world,But she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.”-- John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) In the middle of his term as Secretary of State, the future president...
We are independent of London, but are we independent of Washington? Is there more freedom when governed by one tyrant 3,000 miles away or by 3,000 tyrants a few miles away? Does government today remotely resemble the values articulated on July 4th 1776? When the...
We have seen this before. A foreign entity attacks American persons or property and the government warns that its sleeper cells have infiltrated the United States and it is somehow necessary to expand the powers of the government and shrink protections for civil...
Has the United States become what President Donald Trump recently condemned? Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress fund any war it chooses? Are there constitutional and legal requirements that must first be met before war is waged? These questions...
The deployment of California National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines onto the streets of Los Angeles is an assault on federalism, violates federal law and manifests a dangerous pattern of governmental behavior in defiance of constitutional principles and...
Last week, the Trump administration announced the streamlining of access to illegally seized personal data from unsuspecting Americans, thereby making warrantless domestic spying easier for the spies. Here is the backstory. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S....
All attempts by the government to evaluate the content of speech and deter or punish what the government and its benefactors hate or fear is un-American, unconstitutional and unlawful; and if not stopped, will reduce the American people to serfdom. During the past...
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...
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