"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) The US Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. It established boundaries beyond which the government may not venture,...
For argument’s sake, let’s assume that Donald Trump is the worst United States president in history. Still, is he so bad that you would like to see him overthrown via a military coup? A new survey from the Center for Strategic Politics, reported on Tuesday by Ryan...
What’s the point in celebrating the Constitution one day a year if we permit the government to violate it the other 364? September 17 marks the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, a document designed not merely to establish a government but to...
After the 9/11 attacks, US officials used the “emergency” to wield and exercise extraordinary totalitarian-like powers. This was reflected by such totalitarian-like measures as the USA PATRIOT Act, warrantless telecommunications surveillance, torture, indefinite...
A survey of 2,253 Americans conducted by Morning Consult and the Cato Institute provides some good news but also raises serious concerns about the future. The good news is that the survey indicates 55 percent of Americans believe the Constitution should put firm...
Since its inception, the government of the United States has inexorably exceeded its powers under the Constitution. All three branches have been complicit in a consistent pattern of constitutional indifference. Congress has regulated in areas of governance nowhere...
When President Donald Trump appointed an obviously unqualified friend, a home builder executive, to be acting director of national intelligence, he inadvertently triggered attention to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The director of national...
This week, President Donald Trump announced that he plans to give away tax dollars without congressional or judicial authorization to his friends and allies whom he believes were mistreated by the Biden administration. Can he legally do...
This one slipped under the wire. Tucker Carlson talked about it the other day, but beyond that, it is flying sans transponder. On February 29, New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer and New York Republican Mike Lawler introduced “a bipartisan resolution condemning the...
Is personal freedom a reality or a myth? Does the government execute the will of the governed or the will of those who finance its officials? Does the Bill of Rights restrain the government? Are the levers of government power pulled by those the governed have elected...
Wars of choice, a plethora of changing tariffs and sanctions on countries across the world, and a historically high number of executive orders characterize the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. And all this has been accomplished by the executive...
Over the past weekend, some apologists for President Donald Trump’s recently ordered attacks on Iran argued that because Trump's plans call for a quick strike, the attacks do not constitute a war. George Orwell is vindicated yet again. These apologists believe...
“Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than it has been by catastrophic upheavals such as violence or war.” -- James Madison (1751-1836) Last week, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana,...
Last fall during the opening of the United Nations in New York City, I recognized the face of a federal officer from his days working in law enforcement in New Jersey and mine as a trial judge. We chatted and I asked him what he was doing. He told me he worked for...
Legal scholars have many lenses through which to examine the Constitution. Lawyers need to master about 150 Supreme Court decisions in order to have a sufficient understanding of the government. But most of what lawyers have studied is theory -- how the Constitution...
In a scene in Robert Bolt’s famous play “A Man for All Seasons,” about the treason trial of St. Thomas More, More argues with the attorney general of Wales about the law. The attorney general says he’d cut down all the laws in England to get to the Devil. More...
This Administration, elected with a promise to end forever wars, has since taken America to war against Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and Nigeria, while funding genocide against Gazans. It has invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its President, Nicholas Maduro, and his...
Does anyone know where the love of God goesWhen the waves turn the minutes to hours? -- Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” As we learn more about the events on Sept. 2, 2025, in international waters 1,500 miles from the United States, the...
We now live in a nation where constitutional rights exist in theory, not in practice. Yet what good are rights on paper when every branch of government is allowed to ignore, circumvent, chip away at or hollow them out in practice? Two hundred and thirty-four years...
Support our upcoming set rebuild. We plan to improve our reach by amplifying the message.