Free Speech and Its Discontents

"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 U.S....

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Taking the Constitution Seriously

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...

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The Feds Defend Their Tortures Again

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...

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The Right to Be Left Alone

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...

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No Due Process at Gitmo

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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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