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...
Searching for Monsters
"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...
Independence Day 2025
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...
Trump, War, and the Constitution
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...
Punishing Freedom: Trump’s Attack on the First Amendment
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...
Holes in the 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...
Tariffs and the Constitution
"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...
A Brief History of the Freedom of Speech
"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...
Perilous Times for Personal Liberty
"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...
Tariffs and the Constitution
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...