Constitutional News & Commentary

Last month, as the Senate was busy negotiating the final details of its Ukraine aid package, Majority Leader Harry Reid became temporarily distracted with a campaign finance issue. Since winning re-election in 2010, Reid’s campaign had purchased gifts for supporters and donors from vendors like Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon, Nordstrom, and the Senate gift shop, among others. But one round of spending was directed to a less recognizable firm: Ryan Elisabeth, a jewelry line. Read More...

“It happened again, and will happen again, because Fort Hood is a gun free zone,” he said. “To those of you who hold elected office, if you hear nothing else I have told you, hear this: you have the power to stop the next massacre from happening. Read More...

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday that gun tracking bracelets are something the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to “explore” as part of its gun control efforts. Read More...

On his official .gov page, Cantor outlined a new batch of “Recent Examples of the Executive Branch Refusing to Faithfully Execute the Law” under the heading “The Imperial Presidency.” He’s been keeping tabs on this since October of 2012, when he first issued a list of more than 40 separate examples “of the breakdown of the rule of law” under Obama. Read More...

If someone owns a gun, is that enough for law enforcement to justify violating that person’s Fourth Amendment rights with a no-knock raid? Read More...

A balanced budget amendment would impose the fiscal discipline required to constrain federal spending, but would not require a reduction in federal spending. A balanced budget would only require that spending as a share of national income be gradually reduced to the historic level of revenue as a share of national income, something less than 20 percent. A balanced budget would be accompanied by restoration in economic growth and a sustainable fiscal policy. Read More...

President Obama famously has a pen and a phone. And if he had the same powers that Hugo Chavez had, that would be all he would need to impose Hugo Chavez’s programs on America, unilaterally by decree. President Obama is telling us by his words, and his actions, that he thinks he has at least some of those powers. He is telling us by his words and his actions that he will not obey the law, and follow the Constitution he is sworn to uphold by his Presidential Oath of Office. That is the Constitutional Crisis presently facing America. Read More...

“Our officers are 24/7, on or off duty, and if they run into a critical incident – they are required to take action” he said. “Our officers will be allowed to carry their weapon into AT&T Stadium and other football stadiums in the State of Texas due to Texas law.” Read More...

It shouldn’t take a Snowden, who promises a boatload of new disclosures in 2014, to make this happen. That’s why Judge Leon, whether or not he prevails in this case, deserves thanks for launching the legal and political debate in the right direction. Read More...

“I am filing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama because he has publicly refused to stop a clear and continuing violation of the 4th Amendment,” Paul said in a statement from his political action committee. “The Bill of Rights protects all citizens from general warrants.”  Read More...

For over six years, Roger Shuler has hounded figures of the state legal and political establishment on his blog, Legal Schnauzer, a hothouse of furious but often fuzzily sourced allegations of deep corruption and wide-ranging conspiracy. Some of these allegations he has tested in court, having sued his neighbor, his neighbor’s lawyer, his former employer, the Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, the Alabama State Bar and two county circuit judges, among others. Mostly, he has lost.  Read More...

We have been going town to town educating not only the public but the local police departments on laws that they haven’t had to enforce and have forgotten. But what seemed strange earlier this year has become commonplace amongst us Texans. Police departments everywhere are stepping up and respecting our second amendment.  Read More...

It is unfortunate that there is nothing new in the President’s agenda for 2014. His speech was wrapped in the worn out rhetoric of class warfare and populism. It included the income inequality through re-distributive means, such as minimum wage laws and extending unemployment benefits. These do not improve the structural growth of middle class wage earners. All they do is reduce the number of available jobs and increase unemployment rates. There is no meaningful discussion of reforming Obamacare to make it a viable healthcare system that provides "affordable" and quality healthcare to Americans.  Read More...

“The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution expressly provides that all powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states,” Eagle said in the release. “Time and time again, Florida has proven that we have the best solutions to our own issues, whether it be healthcare, education, or our balanced budget, which is accomplished without raising taxes. When it comes to protecting our fundamental Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the Constitution, I believe it is best left to be handled by Floridians for Floridians.” Read More...

With a number of States now considering bills to thwart the implementation of Obamacare or legislation to turn off resources like water and power to National Security Agency facilities around the country, a number of political commentators are weighing in. Read More...

A new gun law proponents say helps law enforcement has driven Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger out of California, and affirmed the suspicions of firearms rights advocates that the measure is really about making handguns obsolete. Read More...

If Congress takes seriously the idea that there needs to be an advocate of privacy, trying to protect the public from the intrusion of the government’s massive sweep of telephone data in search of terrorists, it will not find a ready answer in the Constitution on the legality of such a move. And, it appears, Congress will also run directly into significant opposition from within the federal courts themselves, whose leaders see no real need for such an office. Read More...

A New York Times report on the imprisonment of a journalist may have underplayed how chilling the case is... On Monday I highlighted the case of Roger Shuler, an Alabama blogger currently under indefinite detention in a state prison after refusing to remove items from his blog in adherence to an injunction ruling. His detention is a striking abrogation of First Amendment protections. Read More...

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. Read More...

On Tuesday, Citizens United announced a campaign to raise awareness about a proposed Constitutional amendment that would prohibit members of Congress from exempting themselves from federal laws. H.J. Resolution 55, sponsored by Congressmen Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Matt Salmon (R-AZ), has been introduced in order to stop the sort of abuses attendant on the passage of Obamacare, in which members of Congress crafted waiver language carving them out of laws they meant to prescribe on everyone else. Read More...