In 1966, two famous Russian literary dissidents, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, were tried and convicted on charges of disseminating propaganda against the Soviet state. The two were authors and humorists who published satire abroad that mocked Soviet leaders for...
“Those who have sown the wind shall reap the whirlwind.”-- Hosea 8:7 The federal antipathy to compliance with the Constitution is well known and well documented. Presidents have declared war in contravention of the constitutional command that only Congress may do so....
“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 John...
Don't miss Judge Napolitano LIVE at the RPI 2024 DC Conference! “Every move you makeAnd every vow you breakEvery smile you fakeEvery claim you stakeI’ll be watching you.” -- “Every Breath You Take,” song by The Police The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution...
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...
In the months following the attacks of 9/11, the government laid the blame for orchestrating them on Osama bin Ladin. Then, after it murdered bin Ladin, the government decided that the true mastermind was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. By the time of bin Ladin’s death,...
Sometime before he withdrew from the presidential race, President Joe Biden secretly reaffirmed his own self-willed and self-created authority to kill persons in other countries, so long as the CIA and its military counterparts have “near certainty” that the target of...
“Freedom is always just one generation away from extinction.”-- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) In December 1776, just six months after the Declaration of Independence had been signed and a year and a half into the Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine sensed a desperation...
“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...
In his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1928 called the right to be left alone the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. He was referring to the right to be left alone from the...
When a presidential debate devolves into an argument over golf scores and afterward the public argues about the candidates’ mental acuity or personal honesty, when the question for voters is who is the sharper debater rather than who would be more faithful to the...
“I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude.”-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) It wasn’t until 1969 that the Supreme Court’s modern First Amendment jurisprudence made it clear that whenever there is a clash between the government and a person over the...
What if the government is a myth? What if it doesn’t produce what we pay it for? What if it fails to safeguard our lives, liberties and property from its own agents? What if nothing changes after these failures and after elections? What if we’re stuck with it? What if...
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? Can the United States legally attack an ally? These questions should be front and center in a...
Which is more destructive to personal liberty, a government that engages in secret wars or a public and news media that are indifferent to it? In the current American toxic stew of anti-Russian hatred and beating of war drums -- in President Joe Biden’s America -- we...
A recent column in The Economist magazine asking if America is dictator-proof got me to thinking if our constitutional guarantees are secure. Stated differently: Can the custodians of our constitutional norms be trusted to restrain a deliberate attempt to ignore,...
“Which is better -- to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away or by three thousand tyrants one mile away?”-- Rev. Mather Byles (1706-1788) Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This...
Can an idea be dangerous? Can a dangerous idea be expressed? Can the government punish ideas it deems to be dangerous? These are not questions one regularly asks in America because of our rich tradition of protecting the freedom of speech from infringement by the...
I predict future happiness for Americans,if they can prevent the government fromwasting the labors of the people underthe pretense of taking care of them.-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Last week, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward Markey of Massachusetts revealed...
When James Madison was a member of Congress in 1791 and charged with drafting the Bill of Rights, he made two grammatical demands. One was that the word “the” precede “freedom of speech” in the First Amendment, and the other was a command in the Ninth Amendment that...
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