“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...
In the last days of East Germany, when government officials detected that their power was unraveling, they ratcheted up enforcement of the nation’s reporting laws. The reporting laws made it a felony to know of a crime and fail to report it. It was also a crime to...
Last week, the Supreme Court effectively abolished the right to assembly in three Southern states. By refusing to hear an appeal of a speaker accused of being liable for what a protester did in an audience the speaker addressed, the court exposed all protest...
Americans need to be aware of the unbridled propensity of federal intelligence agencies to spy on all of us without search warrants as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These agencies believe that the Fourth Amendment -- which protects the...
“I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”-- Voltaire (1694-1778) Holy Week was not a good week for personal liberty as governments throughout the United States engaged in direct and subtle attacks on free speech....
“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 governance, the word most frequently uttered in...
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” --First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution When James Madison set about to draft the Bill of Rights -- the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution -- he was articulating what lawyers and...
I spent last week living and studying at the Vatican as a guest lecturer at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, or PASS. PASS is an organization of scholars that explores ideas of interest to the Vatican. Last week, PASS addressed the philosophy of St. Thomas...
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