Mark J. Fitzgibbons

Mark J. Fitzgibbons

  • The Colorado decision: A John Marshall moment

    March 6, 2024

    The Colorado decision: A John Marshall moment

    The 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court vote that Colorado could not remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot for president had an unusual juxtaposition between the court’s three liberal justices who filed a concurring opinion and five center-right justices...

  • December 22, 2023

    2020 Election Fraud and the Courts

    While it’s far too late for the judicial worm to turn on illegalities in the 2020 election in a way that would overturn the election of President Biden, maybe there are other consequences to be had for the people who engineered what may be the ...

  • November 9, 2023

    John Eastman’s bar trial exposes Democrats’ process-rigging ignominy

    The California Bar, seemingly acting as a surrogate for the Democrat Party and other Trump Derangement Syndrome forces, will regret tangling with Professor John Eastman. The constitutional scholar and former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas was on tr...

  • December 6, 2022

    Did Trump really call to terminate the Constitution?

    Following Twitter's release last Friday of shocking revelations of collusion between the Deep State and Big Tech to censor news about Hunter Biden's "Laptop from Hell," Donald Trump took to Truth Social, and what followed may have b...

  • April 26, 2022

    Conservatives fighting over Florida action against Disney is OK

    Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis — who is used to taking abuse from the left — is now taking flak from the right over criticizing Florida's legislative actions to strip Disney of its special tax status and its "special l...

  • June 29, 2021

    Justice Kagan's 'white supremacist' defense of the home and liberty

    U.S. Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan sided with the so-called "white supremacy" of Anglo-American common law in limiting the ability of police to enter homes without a warrant. In Lange v. California decided on June 23, the i...

  • January 3, 2021

    No, President Trump did not pardon Steve Stockman. He should.

    President Trump is being criticized in the lopsided Democrat media and even by establishment keyboard Republicans for using his authority under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution to "grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the Un...

  • November 24, 2020

    Trump voters can take this action to #StopTheSteal

    Appearing on Maria Bartiromo's Sunday morning Fox Business show, Professor Alan Dershowitz made the sobering assessment that while President Trump's legal and constitutional paths to being declared winner of the 2020 election still ...

  • October 20, 2020

    Ordered Liberty is Not White Supremacy and Does Not Date from 1619

    The November 3 election will be an existential moment for the United States. As my friend, mentor, and boss Richard Viguerie has been saying, “it’s the ballgame.” The Democrat party has been overtaken by radical leftists bent on ...

  • September 6, 2020

    Steve Stockman's many 'friends' appeal to Supreme Court

    While many Americans are waiting for justice to be imposed on those who we firmly believe were involved in an attempted coup against President Trump, another victim of the Deep State's lawlessness, former congressman Steve Stockman, sits in jail....

  • August 17, 2020

    Stockman Conviction a Roadmap for Biden/Harris to Jail Conservative Activists

    Former Congressman Steve Stockman, whom leftwing Salon called a “Tea Party darling,” has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal from a 10-year criminal sentence on multiple counts involving raising money from just two GOP donors....

  • July 20, 2020

    Justice Thomas once again excels

    A recent dissenting opinion by U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas in a case involving congressional subpoenas for President Trump's financial records helps illustrate why Thomas should be considered as one of, if not the best mi...

  • June 24, 2020

    What Police Reform Can Learn from the Common Law

    Anti-American, radical leftists -- including many of their elected leaders in the Democrat party -- are now out of the closet and busy trying to destroy the security of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are the cornerstones of our way ...

  • January 16, 2020

    Sharyl Attkisson Refiles Spying Suit, Exposes Big Deep State Players

    National news media figure and multiple award-winning, straight-shooting investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson has refiled a lawsuit against the federal government for illegally and unconstitutionally hacking her computers and trespassing at her ho...

  • March 18, 2019

    Judge Jeanine's constitutionally correct question about sharia law

    The nation is focused on foreign influence on American politics in any number of ways.  The issues range from the discredited witch hunt directed at President Trump, the prosecution of Paul Manafort for failure to register under the Foreign...

  • August 23, 2018

    17 million reasons why Trump not guilty of campaign violations

    President Trump's disgraced former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, copped a plea deal on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan that includes his making a criminal campaign contribution in the form of hush money to Stormy Daniels. Mar...

  • June 25, 2018

    Isn’t There Some Way that Facebook and Twitter can be Forced to Stop Excluding Conservatives?

    Conservatives are frustrated with censorship by social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. These “digital town squares” were once more accommodating to expression by conservatives. After all, those entities built themselves into global ...

  • February 3, 2018

    Why the FISA memo could lead to perjury convictions of Comey & Co.

    The 2018 Groundhog Day release of the Nunes FISA memo was preceded by partisan and establishment objections that its disclosure would somehow jeopardize … something. The contents of the memo now show the objections by anti-Trump forces in t...

  • December 14, 2017

    SCOTUS and the Spy in Your Pocket

    For many of us, the information we carry around on a smart phone is the Rosetta Stone to decipher our lives. Our appointments, personal and business contacts, notes, favorite tunes, photographs, and many more windows into the inner recesses of our li...

  • December 10, 2017

    Mueller, Deep State ignore lessons from 17th century England

    The Mueller “Russiagate” probe is being exposed as a corrupt, partisan fiasco, so much so that it is losing support from one of the deep state’s best cheerleaders, The Washington Post. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appoi...

  • December 3, 2017

    Charlottesville antifa Whitewash continues

    President Trump accurately blamed “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, which makes it a matter of theological importance to the Left that no responsibility attributed to leftists can enter the public’s consciousness....

  • September 26, 2017

    No room for fun in progressives' identity politicization of sports

    President Trump, like so many Americans, says there's no identity politics in "t-e-a-m."  That some National Football League players choose to use the pre-game National Anthem as a forum for their protest about injustice is a divis...

  • September 9, 2017

    The Left Closes Ranks to Protect the Great Charlottesville Whitewash

    The violence in Charlottesville on August 12 has been used to promote the left’s box of political chocolates: Republicans are addicted to racism. President Trump’s ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “on the heels of C...

  • August 30, 2017

    Charlottesville false narrative crushed by DHS warning

    Governor Terry McAuliffe's efforts to evade responsibility for the shocking violence at Charlottesville just got even more implausible.  He and local authorities were warned, and yet allowed, if not forced, the two violence-prone parties int...

  • August 15, 2017

    CNN ‘shuts up’ conservative

    This is a sad yet comical metaphor for the left’s view about civility. Polite yet pugnacious former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was featured on CNN’s Chris Cuomo show Monday to discuss Charlottesville. With him as counterp...

  • August 8, 2017

    Is Your Dog 'Contraband'?

    An awful ruling for pet owners has come from a federal court, in a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge George Caram Steeh.  But the threat is not just to Fido and Fluffy, because, as anyone familiar with how precedent becomes corrupted knows, th...

  • March 7, 2017

    Liberal New York Times columnist may face serious legal problems

    President Trump takes a lot of flak for his tweeting, but a prominent liberal New York Times columnist may face more than criticism.  Could the N.Y. Times' Nicholas Kristoff's tweet asking anyone at the IRS to criminally leak Trump...

  • February 6, 2017

    Neil Gorsuch should be hailed by privacy advocates

    Digital-age privacy advocates should be thrilled with President Trump's nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court precisely because he is a superb originalist.  Gorsuch won't disappoint law-and-order types, either.  Unli...

  • October 18, 2016

    O’Keefe exposes Hillary’s truly sick ‘trickle-down’ economics

    Conservative journalist James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas have gone underground to uncover a coordinated effort among the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and various groups on the left to incite violence an...

  • October 9, 2016

    If you think Donald Trump’s comments are vulgar, check out Hillary’s potty mouth

    Note: If you are offended by vulgar language, do not read this. -  “Just get that [F-ing dog] out of my way,” said to Secret Service K-9 handler. - “Where is the God damn flag? I want the God damn fucking flag up every mo...

  • October 7, 2016

    Of Course Trump Paid Taxes

    Following a leak of a few pages of Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return, which under post-Watergate reforms to the tax code may be a criminal act if the leak were made by a federal or state government employee, the left is hyperventilating that Trump...

  • August 24, 2016

    Uncovered emails show motive

    The latest batch of Hillary’s emails released showing use of the Clinton Foundation as conduit for pay-to-play with Hillary certainly shows a motive for setting up her private server and lying.  Means, motive, and opportunity are three...

  • August 20, 2016

    Hillary’s email testimony, Powell’s facts, and mens rea

    New revelations about what Hillary Clinton told the FBI about former secretary of state Colin Powell’s “advising” her on using private email may provide grounds to reopen the case for criminal prosecution against her. Key aspects...

  • July 29, 2016

    Trump’s mocking Hillary’s ‘missing’ emails proves media don’t get it

    When Donald Trump said maybe Russia will “find” Hillary Clinton’s lost emails – you know, the ones that the Obama Justice Department claimed it could not find – and then added, “I think [they] will probably be rewa...

  • July 7, 2016

    America’s Actual Biggest Lawbreaker

    Americans who acknowledge the Constitution as our supreme law -- indeed, the fundamental and paramount law governing government itself -- are entirely justified in saying that government is the biggest and most frequent lawbreaker in our society -- w...

  • June 13, 2016

    Protecting the Privacy of Nonprofit Donors from Abuse

    Donors to nonprofit organizations of all stripes are at risk of harassment, unless a bill to be introduced this week by Rep. Peter Roskam is by passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law. If you have the means and are generous enough to co...

  • June 6, 2016

    Schooling Trump and entrepreneurs in nanny state lessons

    New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman sued Trump University, claiming it was a fraud from the beginning.  Last week he went on television with Hillary Clinton supporter George Stephanopoulos to say, “We have a law against running an ...

  • April 26, 2016

    IRS dereliction aids California AG's donor privacy violations

    California's Democrat attorney general, Kamala Harris, was recently slapped down by a federal judge for violating the First Amendment in a donor privacy case brought by conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity Foundation.  The Interna...

  • April 20, 2016

    AG Claude Walker contradicts self on ‘danger’ of fossil fuels

    What kind of a prosecuting attorney would sue one fossil fuel company to keep an oil refinery in his jurisdiction, then five months later launch an investigation of another, claiming that fossil fuel is a “product that is destroying the earth...

  • March 25, 2016

    California AG Kamala Harris wants your private information from the IRS

    California Attorney General Kamala Harris is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, and in all likelihood will win the Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer this November. Articular, telegenic, and complimented by no less than Barack ...

  • February 16, 2016

    The left invents a ‘right’ for Obama

    The left is notorious for taking away rights guaranteed by the Constitution and creating rights that do not exist under it. Now leftists are giving President Obama a new right.  As reported by Huffington Post, “[f]ormer Secretary of Sta...

  • January 15, 2016

    Ted Cruz is Natural Born under Originalism

    The people who question whether Ted Cruz is eligible to be president under the Natural Born Citizen clause fall into two categories: the sincere and the opportunists. This essay is for the sincere. Those who sincerely believe Ted Cruz is not a nat...

  • November 28, 2015

    FTC goes 'Star Chamber' on warrant transparency

    Intrepid reporter Kathryn Watson at The Daily Caller News Foundation just wanted to get copies of administrative subpoenas issued by the Federal Trade Commission.  The FTC replied to her Freedom of Information Act request with obstruction. No...

  • November 12, 2015

    How America Failed to Keep the Republic

    The story, whether true or not, is that after the Constitution was adopted in closed proceedings at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin was asked on the street what form of government was created. He replied, “A republic -- if you c...

  • November 2, 2015

    4th Amendment for me, but not for thee

    After posting stories complaining about how bureaucrats can obtain and read emails without a warrant signed by a judge after probable cause – which seems required by the 4th Amendment – the Daily Kos blasted McDonald’s for...

  • October 29, 2015

    Federal bureaucrats issue judge-less subpoena to support SEIU position

    In responding to allegations that, if true, would cost only $50,000 in penalties, McDonald’s has spent $1 million producing 160,000 pages of documents to comply with an “administrative subpoena” issued by the National Labor Relation...

  • October 25, 2015

    Government will examine your energy bill if your neighbor grows pot

    If you thought police using thermal imaging devices to peer into your homes was bad, welcome to the new police state, where the government may, unbeknownst to you, look at your residential energy bill if your neighbor is suspected of growing pot. ...

  • October 23, 2015

    Government Investigation Tricks or Treats

    Our ghoulish government is using its investigative powers to give tricks to private employers and treats to government agencies. The Department of Labor issued a judge-less warrant called an “administrative subpoena” to trucking c...

  • October 6, 2015

    Judge-less warrants for phone records (and money in the bank for lawyers)

    An award-winning investigative journalist at The Washington Post, Carol Leonnig, broke the story about what can be described as a Secret Service “plot” to leak confidential documents in an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jason Chaffetz, ...

  • September 25, 2015

    Lois Lerner's 'Partners'

    On October 5, the same day the Supreme Court opens its term, across town at the Washington Marriott Georgetown a group of bureaucrats that has lost four times before that court will huddle in a three-day meeting open only one day to the public or the...

  • September 17, 2015

    Email privacy bill violates...email privacy

    This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the ECPA Amendments Act (S. 356), that chamber’s version the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) over in the House. These bipartisan bills are opposed by several federal agencies, indi...

  • September 13, 2015

    Conservatives not understanding the Fourth Amendment spells trouble

    Kelley Beaucar Vlahos at Fox News does a great job reporting on use of "administrative subpoenas" for warrantless searches of medical records ("DEA blasted for no-warrant searches of patient records, court battle heats up"). Am...

  • September 2, 2015

    Political elites violating tax return confidentiality laws in ways that would land citizens in jail

    A friend-of-the-court brief filed by 58 organizations this week asks the Supreme Court to hear the case Center for Competitive Politics v. Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California. The brief describes how Ms. Harris is violating the First Amendm...

  • August 17, 2015

    Kamala Harris, Dem Rising Star, Goes for the Jugular on Conservative Nonprofits

    The Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether California’s ambitious Attorney General and candidate for U.S. Senate, Kamala Harris, has violated the First Amendment and federal law protecting confidential tax return information. Harr...

  • July 20, 2015

    Feds Get the Power to Seize Medical Records on 'Fishing Expedition' Investigations with No Subpoena from a Judge

    While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas. Now a United St...

  • July 18, 2015

    Paramilitary politics of the left exposed in Wisconsin investigation

    Reactions from the right and left to the decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to end the “John Doe” investigations by a Democrat prosecutor targeting several conservative groups have been markedly different. The allegations of polit...

  • July 16, 2015

    Oregon dignity czar's attack on Christian bakers' property of conscience

    Christian bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered to pay $135,000 by Oregon labor commissioner Brad Avakian for refusing to bake a wedding cake based on their rights of conscience.  The Kleins own the mom-and-pop Sweet Cakes bakery and belie...

  • July 8, 2015

    Will P.C. overtake Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg?

    Massachusetts is the Algonquin word for “a big hill place.”  Its state flag features a Native American. Minnesota Public Radio reports that political correctness is leading some in the Bay State to reconsider the design of the fla...

  • July 4, 2015

    This Independence Day, We Need James Otis

    As Americans gather this Independence Day weekend, many will read the Declaration of Independence. When we get to the line, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their s...

  • June 30, 2015

    Lawyers rejoice while Christian farmers fined for not hosting gay marriage

    The ink was not even dry on the Supreme Court’s opinion declaring gay marriage a constitutional right before Republican lawyer Ted Olson was assuring us everything would be OK. As reported by CNSNews: Former Solicitor General Ted O...

  • June 26, 2015

    Scalia zingers in marriage case

    Footnote 22: If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: “The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow pers...

  • June 25, 2015

    Sotomayor's 4th Amendment Time Bomb

    A painfully slim 5 – 4 ruling this week by the Supreme Court in City of Los Angeles v. Patel is being greeted by many privacy advocates almost with the ebullience of Gene Kelly’s heel-clicking dance in Singin’ in the Rain. The co...

  • June 15, 2015

    Magna Carta and the Law that Governs Government

    It was a time of abuse of power by the state, high taxes, foreign wars against aggressive, violent Muslims, cronyism, and unrest over civil, commercial and religious rights. Certain similarities between 1215 England and 2015 America are, as our Briti...

  • June 12, 2015

    PBS gives lesson plan for gay marriage constitutional amendment and despotism

    PBS has a section with “News for Students and Teacher Resources 7–12 Grade Level.” Today’s lesson plan, children, is about “Constitutional amendments and same-sex marriage.” The lesson plan written by a socia...

  • May 27, 2015

    IRS boss Koskinen in denial over massive agency hack

    IRS commissioner John Koskinen wins the government’s “Alice in Wonderland” quote of the week in addressing a data breach at the IRS in which confidential records of 100,000 taxpayers and tens of millions of dollars were stolen. T...

  • May 25, 2015

    Andrew McCarthy, Rand Paul both wrong on 4th Amendment

    Senator Rand Paul claims the PATRIOT Act provision allowing government collection of metadata of Americans violates the Fourth Amendment protection of privacy.  Over at National Review Online, Andrew McCarthy blasts Paul as “laughably wron...

  • May 20, 2015

    Government must obtain warrant for e-mails (unless government wants your e-mails)

    S. 356, the Electronic Communications Act Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2015, starts out well but ends badly.  S. 356 is purportedly written to cure a defect in existing law that government may access our e-mails that are 18 months or older with...

  • May 16, 2015

    EEOC's judge-less warrant to Catholic hospital is sign of what's to come

    The EEOC issued an administrative subpoena to a Catholic hospital system that fired one employee under its no-fault attendance policy. The warrant, which demanded information of all terminations by the faith-based nonprofit healthcare provider, was u...

  • May 7, 2015

    9th Circuit Court's Democratic Campaign Contribution

    The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has handed a gift to the Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate campaign, allowing Ms. Harris to collect confidential taxpayer information about donors to charities and nonprofit advocacy organizations, all without probable ...

  • April 30, 2015

    Homeland chief: Fourth Amendment 'beyond my competence'

    Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, a man with sweeping power to invade the property rights and privacy of every American using judge-less warrants to search and seize records, has a Fourth Amendment problem: he doesn’t really know it. ...

  • April 24, 2015

    America's Soft Police State

    Today Americans live in a soft police state. We may not sense its severity and doom like runaway slaves or Anne Frank, but the freedoms of the greatest number of Americans have never been more threatened and violated institutionally -- both openly an...

  • April 19, 2015

    Liberty receding in the wake of non-judicial government search and seizure

    Federal, state and local governments in America are abusing their search and seizure power through the use of “administrative subpoenas” – with no court proceedings at all. This is a bigger threat to liberty than most conservatives ...

  • April 18, 2015

    Government snooping through your emails without a warrant: Not just the NSA

    The SEC and IRS, among other government agencies, love, love, love administrative subpoenas to snoop through emails without probable cause. Techdirt writes: The story that we keep hearing is that two government agencies in particular really like...

  • March 28, 2015

    Ted Cruz starts with words of action about the Constitution

    In the year that the Magna Carta turns 800, Senator Ted Cruz began his bid for the presidency with an appropriately active, as opposed to passive, choice of words that “[i]t is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.” ...

  • March 20, 2015

    A little-noted masterpiece of constitutional scholarship by Justice Thomas

    Everything you really need to know about the Constitution (and that’s barely an exaggeration) -- why it is structured the way it is, what led to it, its purposes -- is found in pages 2 – 12 of the March 9 concurring opinion by Justice Tho...

  • February 23, 2015

    Court enjoins California AG Kamala Harris on First Amendment grounds

    Stopping acts statutorily related to some of Lois Lerner’s abuse of First Amendment rights of nonprofit organizations, a federal judge has enjoined California attorney general and Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate Kamala Harris from obtaining ...

  • January 31, 2015

    The Most Unlikely Hero for Conservatives: Justice Sotomayor

    Nine days after former New York assistant district attorney and current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor exclaimed, "We can't keep bending the Fourth Amendment to the resources of law enforcement,” a Richmond lobbyist for Vir...

  • January 24, 2015

    21st-century Fourth Amendment faces first legislative test in Virginia

    The Fourth Amendment reads: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by...

  • January 18, 2015

    Remembering citizen-privacy activist BJ Ostergen

    BJ Ostergen, who recently passed away, was an example of what one creative, fearless person can do in the face of government arrogance and lawbreaking. ACLU Virginia writes on occasion of her recent death, "Using governmen...

  • December 16, 2014

    Lazy, Incompetent Bureaucrats Will Celebrate the <em>Heien</em> Decision for Years

    The U.S. Supreme Court on December 15 ruled in Heien v. North Carolina that the Fourth Amendment allows for certain mistakes of law by the police in making stops of automobiles. Sergeant Matt Darisse pulled over Nicholas Heien to issue a warning t...

  • December 2, 2014

    Police body camera federal funding terrific but unconstitutional idea

    President Obama’s call for $75 million to fund 50,000 police body cameras finds no support in the Constitution, but such concerns never seem to matter to the man. Putting body cameras on police is a welcome idea both for good cops and the pu...

  • November 19, 2014

    Is Jonathan Gruber a Michael Mann without academic freedom defense?

    Jonathan Gruber and Michael Mann are both professors who received taxpayer money while promoting what many believe is verifiable dishonesty. Mann is the Climategate figure sued by Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli for obtaining state fundin...

  • October 26, 2014

    Green group's abuse of animal-rescuing farmer gets a hearing

    A green group, the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), complains that a farmer with over 200 rescued animals has hot running water at her farm. Virginia farmer Martha Boneta is well known for being charged by Fauquier County with violating the l...

  • October 4, 2014

    Obama Unwittingly Makes Best Case Against Political Speech Laws

    President Obama famously derided the Supreme Court over the Citizens United decision in a State of the Union address. Obama’s bashing of that First Amendment decision is also central in the scandal involving Internal Revenue Service targeting o...

  • September 27, 2014

    Bill Maher Thinks Beheading on American Soil a Laughing Matter

    It took less than a week for HBO’s Bill Maher to look foolish for his use of race-baiting to mock Americans’ concern about ISIS gathering on the Mexican border, and singled out conservative Arizona Congressman Trent Franks. And ABC New...

  • September 24, 2014

    Naked, Contemptuous Assault on Constitution by Obama IRS Unmasked

    Government agencies frequently violate the Constitution, which is America’s supreme, fundamental and paramount law governing government itself. Rarely, however, are government agencies so blatant as the Obama IRS, which was caught by the Ins...

  • September 16, 2014

    Outrageous IRS Commissioner False Claim: 'Whenever we can, we follow the law'

    Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen made a disturbing statement before Congress that the IRS follows the law “whenever we can.” As Thomas Lifson wrote, “The law, to Koskinen, evidently is a suggestion, not an iron...

  • August 12, 2014

    The sad but common irony that lawbreakers such as Lois Lerner are in positions of law enforcement

    Lois Lerner was a model government bureaucrat.   I say this as someone who deals with many good people in government who follow the law while they enforce the law on others.   Far too many, however, violate laws although they are in positions of ...

  • August 2, 2014

    Lois Lerner's 'pillow talk' about conservative 'crazies'

    As covered by Rick Moran, Lois Lerner called conservatives “crazies” and “a**holes” in assorted emails. Those who are familiar with Washington’s ruling class mentality will find no shock value in this. After all, Pres...

  • July 19, 2014

    Tea Party suit shows why we need remedies legislation

    The Tea Party lawsuit against IRS moves forward over a motion to dismiss, but the judge dismissed claims to hold individual IRS officials personally liable for intentional violations.  For America’s first 100 years, federal officials could...

  • July 15, 2014

    Reagan Knew How to Prevent Local Government Abuse of Property Rights

    A 1982 President’s Commission on Housing Report made two key recommendations that, had they been implemented, would have made significant advances in protecting citizens from abuses of their private property and other constitutional rights by l...

  • July 3, 2014

    Independence 'born' with lawsuit against bureaucrats

    The headline at The Hill reads: Obama dares GOP: 'Sue me' I’ve heard those words from some government bureaucrats when I’ve pointed out that they were violating the very laws that they were enforcing, and violating the Constitu...

  • June 11, 2014

    Dave Brat Wins One for Federalist 44

    There will be plenty of talk -- some good and some awful -- about Dave Brat’s historic defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in yesterday’s GOP primary in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, and what the implications are. ...

  • April 23, 2014

    IRS Gives 'Death Penalty' to Conservative Critic

    When the IRS revokes tax-exempt status of a 501(c)(3) organization, the sanction is considered so severe that tax practitioners refer to it as the “death penalty.” The IRS recently gave the death penalty to the Patrick Henry Center for...

  • April 12, 2014

    Illegal Tax Refund Seizures in Our Corrupt Republic

    The IRS has seized tax refunds to the tune of $1.9 billion from the children of deceased taxpayers who were overpaid Social Security benefits in the 1970s, reports The Washington Post. The blame is being placed on a provision in the 2011 farm bill...

  • April 1, 2014

    Conservative Critics of Government Are 'Freaks' Who 'Will Need Kevlar'

    Conservative critics of government are “freaks,” are “in for a pretty rough ride,” and “will need their Kevlar,” i.e., bullet-proof vests. These statements didn’t come from the Obama administration or some...

  • January 27, 2014

    America's Most Important Property Rights Legislation

    American Thinker has covered the saga of Virginia farmer Martha Boneta, who was cited in 2012 by Fauquier County government and threatened with $5,000 per-day fines for hosting a private birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a permit, an...

  • January 4, 2014

    When Government Breaks the Law

    Rick Moran writes about 11 GOP state attorneys general who called President Obama's "fix" of Obamacare "illegal."  It is heartening that some GOP officials with credentials in the law used "illegal" to describe Obama's acts.  That word has ...

  • January 1, 2014

    The League of Statists Versus Your Rights

    The December 30 piece A Veteran Gets Criminal Treatment and Censored over Chickens describes the statist treatment of veteran Leo Hendrick and his chickens by the City of Northwood, Iowa. Nearly all of the comments to the article expressed disdain...

  • December 30, 2013

    A Veteran Gets Criminal Treatment and Censored over Chickens

    Leo Hendrick has earned the right to have his say about liberty.  An Army veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he served from 2003 to 2006, and was recalled in 2009.  Now he's back home trying to raise a family.  The forces against lib...

  • December 18, 2013

    Mugged by government

    A civil libertarian, constitutional conservative is a conservative who's been mugged  -- by the government.  Good for KT McFarland, as reported by The Daily Caller: Reagan-era defense official KT McFarland told Fox News on Tuesday she'...

  • November 21, 2013

    Reining in America's Greatest Lawbreaker, President Obama

    The Hill reports that Republican members of Congress are contemplating actions to combat President Obama's lawbreaking methods of ruling from the Oval Office. "GOP officials have long claimed that the president has violated the law and the Constitu...

  • November 2, 2013

    Next Tuesday and the Fate of ObamaCare

    No election -- state or national -- will be as important in sending a message about ObamaCare or massive lawbreaking by government than the one on Tuesday in the Virginia governor's race. Republicans running in 2014 and 2016 are watching whether Ken ...

  • October 24, 2013

    Virginia Farmer Starts Property Rights Legal Revolution

    Long and growing is the list of property rights abuses by federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.  Even at the state level, wetlands and other laws are being used to invade and destroy private property rights.  Last ...

  • October 2, 2013

    Facts don't matter to Clinton stalking horse in Virginia

    Terry McAuliffe, the political bagman who rented out the Lincoln Bedroom while Bill Clinton was in office, wants to be governor of Virginia -- in the worst way. As McAuliffe wrote in his autobiography, governors "have all kinds of business to hand...

  • August 5, 2013

    When Government Acts Illegally

    Today's lead editorial at The Wall Street Journal ("Congress's ObamaCare Exemption") is a breakthrough in the battle against big, corrupt government. Someone in the conservative media has finally summoned the strength to call government's illegal ac...

  • July 26, 2013

    CA, NY Democrat AGs Use Color of Law to Break Donor Privacy Law

    The IRS targeted conservative groups for unlawful scrutiny in their applications for tax-exempt status, and illegally disclosed tax information of conservative donors as a means to bully, intimidate and silence them. What is also coming to light is ...

  • July 21, 2013

    George Zimmerman Could Be You

    After George Zimmerman was acquitted by jury trial in the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, President Obama said, "Trayvon could have been me 35 years ago." Well, George Zimmerman could be you tomorrow. Following the trial, Eric Holder's Department...

  • July 17, 2013

    Here Comes the Bride, Zoning Permit In Hand

    Couples wanting their wedding at that charming winery where they met or some other scenic private venue may need to pay a fee to get government authorization in the form of a permit. Complain about it enough, and you could get an IRS audit in the pos...

  • July 5, 2013

    Obama Cuckolds John Roberts with ObamCare Delay

    When Chief Justice John Roberts upheld the Patient Affordability Care Act, many of us considered him derelict in his duty to enforce the Constitution. He engaged in judicial activism to give the appearance of avoiding judicial activism. He wrote: "...

  • June 10, 2013

    Audit the IRS

    Lois Lerner and other officials at the IRS should be grateful that they do not live in 18th century America when tar and feathering were considered appropriate "remedies" against lawbreakers in government. Better yet for the IRS that this is not late...

  • June 6, 2013

    IRS Takes Vengeance on Virginia for Enforcing the Law

    Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli joked at the Virginia Republican Convention, where he was nominated by the state GOP for governor, that the Obama administration must not think he's a conservative:  He hasn't been audited by the IRS. T...

  • May 16, 2013

    Time for Legal Fees from Lawbreaking Government

    Following the IRS scandal targeting Tea Party and conservative organizations for special "scrutiny," Republican Congressman Michael Turner introduced legislation to increase penalties against government employees who violate laws governing issuance o...

  • May 3, 2013

    Et tu, Kim Strassel?

    Kim Strassel and Dan Henninger of The Wall Street Journal editorial page consistently write some of the best and most insightful conservative editorials in the country. Ms. Strassel's May 2 installment, however, took Senator Ted Cruz to task, calling...

  • February 14, 2013

    Ken Cuccinelli's Liberty and Justice for All

    Review of The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty by Ken Cuccinelli Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the 1964 Republican convention that launched his political career and distinguished him as the conservative leader of his gen...

  • February 11, 2013

    A Property Rights Revolution for 2013

    A previously apolitical organic farmer in Virginia has set off a property rights revolution that would make Founders Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights George Mason proud. Martha Boneta had a business lice...

  • January 18, 2013

    Farm Bureau Turns Against Small Farmers on Boneta Bill

    The Boneta Bill is the most discussed bill in Virginia's 45-day legislative session that opened on January 9. It is not only terrific model legislation for protecting freedom, it is providing a great lesson about who is for liberty and who's not. It ...

  • January 3, 2013

    Martha the Farmer May Have the Last Laugh

    Martha Boneta, the Virginia farmer at the center of the Pitchfork Protest in August that gained national attention, may have found the ultimate way to keep lawbreaking bureaucrats in check. Fauquier County, Virginia shut down Martha's quaint farm sto...

  • December 3, 2012

    Ken Cuccinelli: Conservatives' New 'It' Candidate

    This past week Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling announced that he was dropping out of the race for Virginia's governor, but left open the door to his running as an independent.  He issued a disappointingly divisive statement that Richard Vigueri...

  • November 5, 2012

    Virginia to Vote on Property Rights

    Question 1 on the ballot for Virginians this Tuesday is whether to adopt a constitutional amendment to protect private property owners from damage or under-fair market taking of their property through eminent domain. That Virginia even needs a consti...

  • November 3, 2012

    Our Sam Cooke president don't know much

    The Daily Caller reports that one Columbia University donor claims to know Barack Obama had a 2.6 grade point average at the school.  Obama's GPA, of course, remains unconfirmed because he refuses to authorize disclosure of many of his records. ...

  • October 27, 2012

    Prayers for Dan Riehl

    I've read a report from The Other McCain that my pal the firebrand conservative writer Dan Riehl is unconscious and in intensive care at a Fairfax, Virginia hospital. Dan's not only brilliant and colorful, he's a true patriot.  I'd want Dan on m...

  • October 4, 2012

    Corrupt County Says No to Discovery in Pitchfork Protest Farmer Lawsuit

    Martha Boneta, the farmer of pitchfork protest fame, was fined by Fauquier County, Virginia for selling farm produce and hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls. Her tiny farm store was shut down during prime harvest season.  Becaus...

  • September 25, 2012

    Bring on the Cuccinelli Principle

    Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has made enemies by fighting big, lawbreaking government.  His critics often unwittingly help his run for Virginia governor in 2013 because they stand in stark contrast to his view of government bound by ...

  • September 7, 2012

    The Environmentalists' Police and Welfare States

    The story about the abuses by Fauquier County against Martha Boneta, the farmer, of pitchfork protest fame, just gets creepier and creepier.  It also exposes how environmental groups combine unlawfully with government to impose dangerous anti-pr...

  • August 31, 2012

    The Battle of Fauquier County

    A maxim from marketing is that a narrower focus has broader appeal.  The national story about the pitchfork protest farmer, Martha Boneta, shows the reality of that maxim. Martha the farmer has gained national attention because she has fought at...

  • August 27, 2012

    Pitchfork Protest Farmer Confronts Government Corruption and Retribution

    American Thinker was the first to report about how Fauquier County, Virginia attempted to fine farmer Martha Boneta for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a special events permit.  She was also fined for selling her far...

  • August 3, 2012

    Agrarian Unrest comes to America

    A farmer zoning matter involving a bullying, lawbreaking bureaucrat, and featuring the "pitchfork protest" in Northern Virginia's Fauquier County on August 2 has gained an unusual amount of national attention, and for good reason. Smitty at The Other...

  • July 17, 2012

    Bureaucrats Bully Family Farms in D.C. Exurbs

    Fauquier (/fЙ”ЛђЛ€kЙЄЙ™r/) County, Virginia has become a new battleground against the sprawl of Washington-style government bullying.  Under the guise of business zoning authority, Fauquier is now depriving an agricultural community of its liber...

  • July 3, 2012

    Government Wins Even ObamaCare Ruling's 'Silver Lining'

    Some conservatives believe there's a silver lining in Chief Justice Roberts' opinion upholding ObamaCare because he pays lip service to limited government.  Folks, the constitutional rule of law lost.  To use a more appropriate metaphor, th...

  • June 28, 2012

    War!

    America is now at war. It is a civil war, but no shots will be fired. It's a war over the Constitution, yet it will be through the Constitution that the winner will be determined.  The opponents in this war are not Republicans against Democrats....

  • June 27, 2012

    ObamaCare and Our Paramount Law

    On the eve of the ObamaCare decision, it is worth reading the words of John Marshall from the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. To this day, Marshall's words sum up what the ObamaCare case is all about perhaps better than any writings of legal schola...

  • June 19, 2012

    America's First Anarchist President

    President Obama's executive order suspending deportation of illegal immigrants shows that his legal principles (for lack of a better term since he seems devoid of any identifiable ones) and ideology suit him better to head the anarchist Occupy Wall S...

  • June 16, 2012

    Obama Lurching Toward Tyranny

    As reported at The Daily Caller, in one of President Obama's campaign speeches this week he said that "Republicans are 'in favor of a no-holds barred, government is the enemy, market is everything approach.'"  This comes from the man who in a sp...

  • May 31, 2012

    Donald Trump and birth certificate fraud

    The Obama campaign, the liberal media and even some conservatives are trying to paint Donald Trump as some kind of conspiracy clown for claiming that Barack Obama's Hawaii birth certificate was falsified. The recent outburst was set off by the exposu...

  • May 21, 2012

    Obama the Inchoate Kenyan

    It is reasonable to believe that someone attempted to commit fraud in a commercial context when Barack Obama's literary agency published that he was born in Kenya. The few known facts seem to provide enough to constitute probable cause to probe wheth...

  • May 18, 2012

    Chuck Colson: An American story of freedom

    The life of Chuck Colson was celebrated beautifully on May 16 in a memorial service at Washington's National Cathedral. Colson's conversion to a man of unyielding faith, and his turning his life to Christ, is more than a great lesson of redemption. H...

  • May 11, 2012

    Paul Begala's Bully BS

    The Washington Post sure knows how to spread it. Now, left wing political hacks are smearing it. WaPo's flawed hit piece on Mitt Romney ("Mitt Romney's prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents") has given the left something ...

  • May 3, 2012

    Chief Justice Roberts' Marbury Moment

    If the Supreme Court declares the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, almost assuredly John Glover Roberts, Jr., the chief justice, will write the majority opinion.  Roberts' choice of words will weigh heavily on America's future.  More t...

  • March 31, 2012

    ObamaCare: Your money or your life

    Liberal Bob Shrum threatens "Tea Party" justices on the Supreme Court that declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional will guarantee four more years of an Obama presidency. So, it seems we've got two options: Obama or ObamaCare. Ouch. That's like someone w...

  • March 16, 2012

    Catholic Bishops calling out America's biggest lawbreaker: POTUS

    The March 14 Statement on Religious Freedom and the HHS Mandate, issued by the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, calls the Obama contraception mandate "unjust and illegal." It's a powerful statement, worth ...

  • March 6, 2012

    State attorneys general report tackles Obama's unprecedented lawbreaking

    On March 5, the chief law enforcement officials from nine states issued A Report on Obama Administration Violations of Law. Nine constitutional conservative attorneys general say the report's purpose is to "outline actions taken by [the Obama] Admini...

  • March 2, 2012

    Santorum's intellectual evolution to a strong constitutional conservative

    Rick Santorum's speech to the Chattanooga Tea Party's Liberty Forum is uplifting and convincing that he is the constitutional conservative we need as President of the United States. The speech is brilliant in its scope and sincerity. It shows that he...

  • March 2, 2012

    What the Cuccinelli Climategate case really means

    Don't waste your time reading the liberal press about this one. The Virginia Supreme Court issued a decision in the case in which Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sought emails from the University of Virginia about Michael Mann's "hockey stic...

  • February 13, 2012

    Bullying Statists Are Destroying Private Philanthropy

    The Susan B. Komen Foundation caved to pressure from the radical left and re-instated its private funding of taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood. Congress, of course, could defund Planned Parenthood and make it run entirely on private funds. As with m...

  • February 1, 2012

    Barking up the wrong tree

    As The Daily Caller reports, "The Obama campaign began targeting an oft-ignored demographic on Monday, creating 'Pet Lovers for Obama,' a Facebook group for people whose pets love Obama as much as they do." Because of the economy, dog shelters are ov...

  • January 6, 2012

    Oops, she did it again

    Nancy Pelosi is "glad" that President Obama ignored the Advice and Consent requirement of the Constitution on his recent appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the new bureaucratic beast, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ms. ...

  • December 27, 2011

    Subpoena Judges? Yes, Indeed

    (See also: Newt and the Judges) Speaker Gingrich's campaign position paper, "Bringing the Courts Back Under the Constitution," has serious flaws such as proposing that Congress and the Executive could limit the jurisdiction of the courts to hear cas...

  • December 20, 2011

    Newt's Courting the Demise of Citizens United

    Newt Gingrich's campaign has a position paper, "Bringing the Courts Back Under the Constitution," that is creating some controversy. I just started, and am still, reading it. Just in the first 20 pages, I've cheered wildly one moment, then booed the ...

  • December 7, 2011

    The Richmond Tea Party Audit and the First Amendment

    When the Richmond Tea Party (RTP) wanted to hold a daytime rally under the right of peaceable assembly protected by the Virginia and United States Constitutions, the City of Richmond made the RTP spend about $8,500 on a special events permit, liabili...

  • November 14, 2011

    A Chicago Politics Expansion of Executive Privilege

    RINO Congressman Fred Upton of incandescent light bulb ban fame, chairs the committee that subpoenaed Solyndra documents from the White House. Claiming Executive Privilege and otherwise stalling, the White House refused to turn over Obama Blackberry ...

  • November 9, 2011

    Why conservatives have a Hart for Herman Cain

    Criticizing the conservative defenders of Herman Cain, and defending journalistic ethics in coverage of Cain and his female accusers, RealClearPolitics editor Carl M. Cannon writes, "It's the media's job to examine these stories carefully, and also t...

  • November 7, 2011

    Cain Accuser's Modified Limited Hangout

    The liberal media's coverage of news reminds me of a school of fish.  It moves as one, and even when it darts in a direction off course, it does so in unison.  For instance, do two searches using one phrase, "Cain accuser" and another, "Sol...

  • November 5, 2011

    High-Stakes Chess May Backfire for Cain Accuser

    Joel Bennett, the lawyer for the anonymous accuser of some soon-to-be-known incident involving Herman Cain, spoke with reporters today:  "Bennett said his client, married for 26 years, will not reveal her identity because 'she and her husband se...

  • November 2, 2011

    Corrupt Crony Capitalism 'Been Bery, Bery Good' To Members of Congress

    Having just received my 401(k) statement showing another decrease in value, a story in Roll Call caught my eye.  The wealth of Members of Congress as a whole increased nearly 25 percent since 2008. TARP was signed into law in October 2008, and i...

  • October 26, 2011

    Obama 'Can't Wait' for the Rule of Law

    President Obama's proclamation on Monday that he "can't wait" for congressional action to help underwater homeowners raises two questions. If he already had the legal authority to take action, then why did he wait? Some may frame the second question ...

  • October 17, 2011

    Clarence Thomas' Constitution

    About ten years ago I told some friends and colleagues that the judicial opinions of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, often written in dissent of majority opinions eviscerating freedoms, would be widely cited 40 years hence.  And, if estab...

  • September 24, 2011

    Conservatives, Sisyphus, and the Renewed Constitutional Movement

    The key to saving America and its exceptional nature is in the math, but it's also very much about the law.  More and more people are coming to understand the inextricable link between the decline of American exceptionalism and government lawbre...

  • August 27, 2011

    Virginia's Political Earthquake, and Its Little Hurricane

    We've had an earthquake in Virginia, and are facing a little bit of a hurricane.  Oh, and besides the politics, there have been some big natural events taking place. As reported by John Gizzi at Human Events, conservatives won big in Virginia's ...

  • July 13, 2011

    Tap into the Social Security Trust Fund as if it were the federal oil reserve

    President Obama said yesterday,  "I cannot guarantee that [Social Security] checks go out on August 3rd, if we haven't resolved this [debt ceiling] issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." We've been told by Dem...

  • July 2, 2011

    Lennon's freedom

    As to the report that John Lennon's politics evolved to the point that he favored Ronald Reagan, it's hearsay, and I am not a fan of posthumous claims about people's political transformations.  However, I always liked Lennon's irreverent but mos...

  • June 30, 2011

    Let's have a Light Bulb Party!

    Yesterday I was talking with a colleague about the federal ban on incandescent light bulbs.  A light went off in my head (if you'll excuse the term). Let's have a Light Bulb Party! Wouldn't it be grand if tens of thousands -- hundreds of th...

  • June 11, 2011

    Cruising with Freedom and Hillsdale College in the Baltics

    I'm on the Hillsdale College Baltic Cruise.  Hillsdale has a special mission, especially for those of us who see the Constitution as the law that governs government consistent with the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. This cr...

  • May 30, 2011

    Call your congressman, not your stock broker, for hot tips

    What's illegal for you and me is legal for them. Valerie Richardson in the Washington Times:It's no secret that members of Congress qualify as political insiders, but a new report strongly suggests that they also may be insiders when it com...

  • May 24, 2011

    NPR's campaign finance nerve

    This morning on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, the discussion was a bashing of the Citizens United case.  What I heard centered on criticism of corporate-financed speech and how corporate entities may now finance independent ads on political races witho...

  • May 23, 2011

    An apology to Israelis

    On behalf of most Americans, I apologize for our president.  He has apologized to other peoples for America.  I figured it's time for an American to apologize to other people for him.Quite frankly, we're a bit perplexed ourselves about our ...

  • May 12, 2011

    Why the Left doesn't understand (or want) American exceptionalism

    Washington Post opinion giver and scribe Richard Cohen writes about The Myth of American Exceptionalism.  There may be no better example of why the liberal view of America is wrong.  Cohen calls it “smugness” that, as we sing in...

  • April 26, 2011

    More Crony Philanthropy

    "Prince of Pork" Hal Rogers (R-KY), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, is very charitable with your money.Politico writes about how the liberal organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported th...

  • March 30, 2011

    Oregon Attorney General's Uncharitable Legislation

    Oregon Attorney General John Kroger raised $1,048,841 for his 2008 election.  Of that, $312,500, a little over 30 percent of his entire campaign's funding, came from SEIU.  Much of that money came from what's called Citizen Action for Polit...

  • March 25, 2011

    Democrat Senator tells how he really thinks about our freedom

    This is obviously how they really think. From Real Clear Politics:U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) stood with, and was applauded by, Planned Parenthood supporters and state lawmakers and said, "They [Tea Party Republicans and the majority of...

  • March 22, 2011

    The 'Legality' of the Act of War in Libya

    Liam Ryan presents a very good argument that the Obama administration's participation in a military strike on Libya is legal.There is, of course, room for debate about many constitutional powers.  Even the War Powers Resolution is subject to int...

  • March 21, 2011

    Libya: Where's Congress? Worse Yet, Where Are Conservatives?

    J.B. Williams writes yesterday criticizing the Obama administration's decision -- absent congressional authority -- to participate in the United Nations' strike against Libya.Such acts of military force must be authorized by Congress -- before they t...

  • March 15, 2011

    Double, double standards on being shocked, shocked

    The leftwing media is up in arms, claiming the videos in which NPR executives were ‘O'Keefed' were edited misleadingly and dishonestly.Puuhhhleeease.Even Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, whose own honesty has been called into question, is get...

  • February 24, 2011

    'A man's home is his castle,' 250 years later

    Today is the 250th anniversary of the Paxton's Case, in which James Otis argued against the British Writs of Assistance, and uttered the famous words, "A man's house is his castle; and while he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his ...

  • February 7, 2011

    Dick Morris Disses (But Misses) Virginia Tea Party Candidate for Senate

    Tea Party organizer Jamie Radtke is running for the United States Senate from Virginia.  She has already attended her first Senate Tea Party Caucus meeting by request of the caucus.  Sounds like they want her as a colleague.Radtke's a const...

  • January 24, 2011

    How To Make Liberal Democrats Vote for Smaller Government

    Virginia Democrats have introduced legislation to scale back government power.  That's right.  Could it be that after recent election defeats the party of big and bigger government sees the error of its ways?No, not exactly.  The recen...

  • January 10, 2011

    Left Blames the Constitution for Assassination Attempt on Rep. Giffords

    The Left's attempt to de-legitimize the law that governs government, our Constitution, has taken a turn to the deranged.On Washington-based WMAL's Chris Plante Show this morning, host Chris Plante was discussing the Left's attempt to blame the Right ...

  • January 5, 2011

    The Liberal Press Meets the Law That Governs Government

    MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell asked her "favorite wonk," liberal Washington Post child writer Ezra Klein, whether the GOP's opening the 112th Congress by reading the Constitution aloud is a gimmick.Klein said that of course it was a gimmick ...

  • December 22, 2010

    The Vegetative State of Liberalism

    Liberal Slate's constitutional/legal expert Dahlia Lithwick has her version of a humor piece attempting to mock the ObamaCare litigation.A word to Ann Coulter: you've got nothing to worry about.Repeating a rhetorical question asked by Judge Henry Hud...

  • December 15, 2010

    Cuccinelli's Other ObamaCare Victory

    By now everyone knows about Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's win in his lawsuit against ObamaCare.Judge Henry Hudson ruled that the individual mandate "exceeds the Commerce Clause powers vested in Congress under Article I" of the ...

  • December 10, 2010

    Why Constitutional Conservatism Is Ascending

    If 2009 was the year of birth of the Tea Party movement, 2010 was the year of ascendancy of constitutional conservatism.  In many ways, the movements are the same -- except, perhaps, that the Tea Party is a movement of political activism by peop...

  • December 2, 2010

    Another Yale dunce at The New York Times

    Lincoln Caplan, formerly the Knight Senior Journalist at Yale Law School, now on the editorial board of The New York Times, explores the meaning of what it is to be a "constitutional conservative" by stating, "Constitutional conservati...

  • December 1, 2010

    'No Labels': No Kidding

    It was only after reading Joe Scarborough's angry, poison pen attack on Sarah Palin that I learned Morning Joe is part of a new organization for civility in politics called "No Labels."Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds. T...

  • November 24, 2010

    A 'gradual depreciation' of rights

    Justice Joseph McKenna's dissent in a 1911 Supreme Court case, Wilson v. United States, is a forewarning of the process by which government has gradually chipped away at constitutional rights, and how the judicial branch allowed that to happen.So oft...

  • November 18, 2010

    The party of evil -- and stupid?

    First, House Democrats re-elected Nancy Pelosi to be their minority leader after historic-level losses. It's like promoting Custer had he survived Little Big Horn. I'm sure there's a strategy in there somewhere.Now, the far-left is pushing President ...

  • November 11, 2010

    Reform the House Rules - Now!

    Heritage Foundation Distinguished Fellow and self-described "recovering Congressman" Ernest Istook (Amen, brother!) has a plan that must be implemented by the House Republican Conference next week when it sets its rules for how the Republic...

  • November 8, 2010

    Naked Emperors: How and why the Gingrich Revolution collapsed

    Perhaps the next single most important book for Tea Partiers and new members of Congress backed by Tea Parties to read is an objective insider's look at how and why the Gingrich Revolution collapsed.We mustn't repeat that history.Scot Faulkner was br...

  • November 4, 2010

    Term limit the Speakership

    The Contract with America included term limits for members of Congress, which was a worthy effort against the corruption that comes with institutionalized power. The courts, however, overturned term limits.Under Article I of the Constitution, the Hou...

  • November 1, 2010

    A lesson from 'extremist' Reagan

    Those who haven't read David Kopel's excellent piece, Ronald Reagan: Extremist Collaborator, should do so, and soon. In it, he chronicles the charges of extremist, racist and more that Ronald Reagan faced in his political rise.Kopel does an outstandi...

  • October 25, 2010

    A Mass Nervous Breakdown of the Left

    The left can be mean, vicious, and deceitful. I've recently concluded, however, that the left is having, before our eyes, a mass nervous breakdown at the prospects of its collapse, exacerbated by the lost prospect of being on the verge of something r...

  • October 19, 2010

    Media misrepresenting Christine O'Donnell. Again.

    Naturally, the liberal media are misrepresenting the Coons-O'Donnell debate at Widener Law School earlier today. Christine O'Donnell asked Chris Coons, "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?"The liberal media are ...

  • October 14, 2010

    Delaware debate moderator tells Coons, 'Go for it'

    Nancy Karibjanian, member of the Delaware media and a University of Delaware supplemental faculty member, was co-moderator of the O'Donnell-Coons debate on CNN.Not long into the debate, Karibjanian zeroed in on O'Donnell's financial and education con...

  • October 12, 2010

    Political Speech Laws: The Ruling Class Versus Mom, Pop -- and Rape Victims

    When President Obama said in his State of the Union address earlier this year that the Citizens United Supreme Court decision would open the floodgates to foreign spending on elections, he was legally and factually wrong. He didn't issue a correction...

  • September 29, 2010

    Those dumb, dangerous, 'fundamentalist' constitutionalists

    Bill Schneider of CNN political analysis fame echoes the new line of attack on Tea Partiers in his piece at Politico, Tea party: Political fundamentalists.He writes, "The tea party is a political fundamentalist movement. Like religious fundament...

  • September 23, 2010

    Those, like, totally weird constitutionalists

    Dahlia Lithwick, who sports both a Yale undergrad and Stanford law degree, is senior editor and legal guru at Slate magazine. Yesterday she wrote this comment, which I find stunning:I have been fascinated by Christine O'Donnell's constitutional world...

  • September 20, 2010

    Those cruel constitutionalists

    The headline of Amanda Terkel's Huffington Post piece: "Joe Miller Says Unemployment Benefits Are Unconstitutional, Struggles to Say How He Would Deal With Poverty."Let me start with the latter, given that the poverty level is at its highes...

  • September 18, 2010

    Christine O'Donnell and the Tea Party Era

    Christine O'Donnell is a game-changer in the first regularly scheduled federal elections of the Tea Party era in more ways than one. The evidence? Read the reactions of three people from various parts of the political-media establishment: Peggy Noona...

  • September 16, 2010

    We have a long way to go in correcting the liberal Senate

    Mark Levin is one of the most articulate conservatives, and is showing lots of people the importance of being fearless about having principles. He was ahead of the curve on Christine O'Donnell. He's ahead of the curve on most things these days, inclu...

  • September 14, 2010

    Win or lose, Christine O'Donnell's no Barack Obama

    The Atlantic headline trumpets, "Former Volunteer: Nominating O'Donnell Could Ruin the Tea Party."Oh, my. With the whole political establishment out to destroy the Tea Party, could one candidate really do that? The 2008 Delaware Republican ...

  • September 10, 2010

    The New Hampshire pro-life candidate is who?

    Pro-life groups I admire are scrambling to defend their endorsee Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire Attorney General and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, against a controversy involving whether she authorized lawsuit settlement payments to Planned ...

  • September 2, 2010

    U.N. report clearly not treason, just treasonous

    Apparently the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton's State Department consider our republican form of government a human rights deficiency.As Carol Taber wrote, "Last week, the Obama State Department submitted a report to the U.N. High Comm...

  • August 26, 2010

    'Compassionate' nonsense aimed at the Tea Party

    Michael Gerson, the "compassionate" George W. Bush speechwriter and advisor, cautions that the Tea Party is toxic for the GOP. Gersen thinks concentrating on actually abiding by the Constitution may be pushing things too far. Why does it se...

  • August 16, 2010

    The Tea Party and the Spider's Web

    Rick Cohen, a knowledgeable and well-qualified liberal writer for The Nonprofit Quarterly, wrote his first installment of what he says is a series about the legal structure (or lack thereof) of the Tea Party movement, entitled "The Starfish and ...

  • August 9, 2010

    Obama shows Virginia Dems out the door the Chicago way

    Virginia's Democratic senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb campaigned as moderates, but have virtually guaranteed limiting themselves to single terms by supporting President Obama's radical big-government, job-killing agenda.DNC chairman Tim Kaine was l...

  • July 26, 2010

    Journolist and Malice

    Uncertainty and fear among members of the now-defunct Journolist cabal seem rampant. Some of the emails demonstrate certain liberal journalists willing and eager to employ malice as part and parcel of their professional duties. The fact that such ope...

  • July 12, 2010

    Values Voters and Limited Government

    It's unlikely that Senate Democrats using the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings to criticize the Roberts court as "activist" will speak of Judge Joseph Tauro's two separate decisions on July 8 declaring the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) un...

  • July 6, 2010

    Bringing Home Incivility

    Don't be fooled by the schoolmarm looks of Elaine Marshall, North Carolina's Secretary of State and the Democratic Party's nominee this year for U.S. Senate. She's a dangerous person. She's also part of a trend from the statist left.As North Carolina...

  • June 18, 2010

    The NRA's Deal with the Devil

    Disappointment does not come from opponents; it comes from friends.Earlier this week, the NRA issued a statement when it was becoming known that Democrats had cut a deal exempting the NRA from coverage under the DISCLOSE Act, which is the Nancy Pelos...

  • June 16, 2010

    NRA sells out freedom with separate deal on the DISCLOSE Act

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  • June 14, 2010

    Hypocritical Democrats filtering corporate money for elections

    Democrats were up in arms after the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that corporations could make independent expenditures, which are payments for ads expressly advocating the election or defeat of candidates. The law still prohibits independen...

  • June 3, 2010

    Conservatives: Beware of the Military Funeral Case

    The obnoxious family that calls itself the Westboro Baptist Church is an example of how it is sometimes difficult to take the long view of freedom. Patriotic, constitutional conservatives, however, should be cautioned about the WBC military funeral c...

  • May 28, 2010

    Obama's Environmental Policy: Blame the Law, Then 'Bust Through' It

    President Obama was generous in spreading blame during his press conference yesterday addressing his administration's slow and incompetent response to the BP oil spill. He even blamed the law his administration is charged with enforcing.He noted:Unde...

  • May 25, 2010

    ObamaCare Lawsuit Reveals National Grab to Regulate Individual 'Decisions'

    Noted law professor Jonathan Turley said if ObamaCare stands, federalism is dead.Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius filed her expected motion to dismiss the Virginia lawsuit challenging the individual mandate in ObamaCare. The moti...

  • May 19, 2010

    Leftwing Drama Queen Scientists

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  • May 17, 2010

    Climategate Taxpayer Fraud Investigation Draws Ideological Heat

    Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has used the power of government to seek documents from the University of Virginia regarding its former professor and Climategate figure of "hockey stick" fame, Michael Mann. Mr. Cuccinelli is invest...

  • May 3, 2010

    Crony Philanthropy

    The Manhattan Institute's Anthony Paletta writes at The Wall Street Journal about the Council of Foundation's conference last week in Denver. Describing the "tone of mutual congratulation" between the Obama White House and liberal statists ...

  • May 3, 2010

    Mr. Obama, government ain't me, man

    At his University of Michigan commencement speech Saturday, President Obama again bashed critics of government (and socialism), and said, "government is us."Thomas Paine in Common Sense warned about those who confuse government with society...

  • April 26, 2010

    Justice Stevens on Distinguishing Protest from Incitement

    Many liberals are making loaded, unsubstantiated claims that talk radio, the internet, peaceful Tea Party protests, and other conservative speech and associations run the risk of inciting violence. Indeed, in the past it was liberals who not merely c...

  • April 20, 2010

    Less Free Speech for the Free Market On Its Way

    The Direct Marketing Association issued a warning about new powers about to be given to the Federal Trade Commission under The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173).H.R. 4173 passed in the House. The Senate is now conside...

  • April 9, 2010

    Government Is the Biggest Lawbreaker

    Measured just by the number of victims, there is no close second place to government as the biggest lawbreaker. Measured in terms of impact, government lawbreaking is disabling our entire society.When an individual or collection of individuals (such ...

  • April 2, 2010

    Thurbert Baker, Attorney General for ACORN

    Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker has angered Georgia Republicans to the point that some have called for his impeachment. Mr. Baker refuses to join other state attorneys general filing suit challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare. He's b...

  • March 29, 2010

    Charlie Rangel Faces His Scott Brown

    What better message to send to Washington than to defeat an old bull like Charlie Rangel?Rangel is one of the principal symbols of the tolerance Washington has for corrupt insider politics. He is Chairman-in-school-detention of the House Ways and Mea...

  • March 17, 2010

    No information FOIA you

    Associated Press reports the Obama administration is keeping more information hidden from the public than did the Bush administration by employing "exceptions" to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).FOIAstatutes, which are designed to kee...

  • March 16, 2010

    Wake-Up Call for the Tea Party

    Tea Partiers who think they're on to something special are right. In terms of competing with the organized left, though, Tea Partiers are light-years and hundreds of millions of dollars behind.The New Organizing Institute put together RootsCampDC for...

  • March 12, 2010

    Lessons from the Coffee Party

    Desperate to glamorize any cause that's contrapuntal to the hugely popular Tea Party Movement, the mainstream media have made much noise for the Coffee Party. But for the free publicity given by its allies in the media, the Coffee Party is pure bored...

  • January 28, 2010

    A Dangerous Dissent on Citizens United

    The dissenting opinion in Citizens United, written by Justice Stevens and joined by the court's other three liberals (including Justice Sotomayor), is remarkable for a number of reasons. Justice Stevens attempts to base his opinion in originalism, wh...

  • January 23, 2010

    Tea Party Crashers

    Some members of the media are in a snit about the Tea Party Movement's First Amendment-inspired freedom to peaceably assemble without them.Only a handful of media outlets have been invited to a Tea Party Convention in Nashville later this month.What ...

  • January 15, 2010

    Conscienceless Martha Coakley

    First referring to "separation of church and state" -- of all things -- "Massachusettes" (as she spells it in her recent ad) Senate candidate Martha Coakley says in an interview being reported, but not in the liberal media, that p...

  • January 4, 2010

    Will Massachusetts send ACORN flunky Coakley to replace Ted Kennedy?

    On January 19, Massachusetts will hold a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat held formerly by the late Ted Kennedy.  The Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, was one of only six attorneys general to rece...

  • December 22, 2009

    The Leftwing finds a use for Christmas after all

    The Census Project is a coalition of organizations, mostly leftwing, certainly none conservative. Among its activities, it promotes federal funding of organizations that, in ‘partnership' with the Census Bureau, mobilize for the U.S. Census....

  • December 19, 2009

    Send a 'No health care reform' Christmas card to your senator

    I've tried calling and faxing my "undecided" Democratic senator to urge him to vote against the Senate health care bill. I have not succeeded getting through. Others report "Senatorial phone lines in Washington have been jammed." ...

  • December 15, 2009

    Another look at defunding ACORN

    Liberal United States District Court Judge Nina Gershon issued a preliminary injunction blocking Congress from defunding ACORN. (Judge Gershon hails originally from Chicago, by the bye.)   ACORN claims it would be an unconstitutional Bill of...

  • December 8, 2009

    Former Massachusetts AG 'clears' ACORN

    Michelle Malkin refers to Scott Harshbarger as ACORN's "independent" assessor, left-wing former Massachusetts AG, and Common Cause president. Gun Owners of America describe his deceptive anti-2nd Amendment tactics. And he was pros...

  • December 5, 2009

    A list of 12 very bad ideas

    1. Letting a “vehemently pro man-made global warming advoca[te]” investigate Climategate.   2. Trusting the climate experts in the Obama White House.   3. Electing Barbara Boxer to office in the first place, then listening ...

  • December 2, 2009

    Free speech for me - not for thee

    I recently received a direct mail fundraising appeal from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) that contained a premium (direct mail term for ‘freebie'). The letter was signed by Senator John Kerry. The premium was a flexible mag...

  • December 2, 2009

    Speculating about Barbara Boxer

    One of the surest signs of whether a government official may have something to hide in Climategate, the ACORN scandal or any other controversy is that their first reaction to the scandal is to target the source exposing the scandal.California Senator...

  • November 25, 2009

    ACORNing the Climate Change Movement

    The climate change movement may have been caught in its first ACORN moment, with the publication of e-mails suggesting global warming data has been manipulated or suppressed.The University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit's (CRU) e-mail system ...

  • November 19, 2009

    Miranda Rights on the Battlefield Unconstitutional?

    Soldiers have been ordered to issue battlefield Miranda rights to captured enemy combatants.Rick Moran does an excellent job explaining the trouble with issuing Miranda rights to terrorists.The administration, though, is in a pickle. Even if enemy co...

  • November 14, 2009

    Presumed Ignorant

    In 1938 under United States v. Carolene Products, the Supreme Court institutionalized a judicial doctrine that federal legislation was presumed to be constitutional. While the court is right to rein in extra-constitutional constructions of legislatio...

  • November 4, 2009

    Hoffman lost, but tea partiers won in NY-23 after all

    TalkingPointsMemo reports:"On the heels of the NY-23 special House election, in which Conservative Party insurgent Doug Hoffman overtook moderate GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava, only to lose to Democrat Bill Owens, NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) ...

  • October 26, 2009

    Those Doggone Global Warmists

    Chris Plante's return to talk radio at Washington-based WMAL is welcome for many reasons. This morning he spoke of a book by global warmists with the disgusting title, Time to Eat the Dog.Reviewing the book for The Dominion Post, Tanya Katterns write...

  • October 15, 2009

    ACORN, Payola and Color of Law

    Here's one example of how state law enforcement officials have leveraged and possibly violated the law to help ACORN in return for ACORN's political help.In December 2004, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch sued Capital One for failing to state in...

  • October 9, 2009

    Beware of Misdirection on Dreams Authorship

    I've concluded, after initially thinking it was an issue, the Obama/Ayers' authorship matter is a distraction.  People sort of assume politicians don't write their own books. People know politicians lie. Whether Ayers wrote or highly e...

  • October 7, 2009

    Rep. Bachman: Problem Bigger Than Just ACORN

    ACORN's scandals hit a nerve with conservatives. It's likely no one in the media would understand why even if they were to try. Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, however, gets right what so many people have missed, which is that the real problem with A...

  • October 2, 2009

    Investigate Jerry Brown

    California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown is going to investigate "both ACORN and the circumstances under which ACORN employees were videotaped."  That’s right.  He’s going after filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hann...

  • September 23, 2009

    ACORN and the AGs

    ACORN being called a criminal enterprise.  Despite years of warning signs that ACORN was violating the law, many state attorneys general have not investigated the organization or brought enforcement actions. State attorneys general, besides bein...

  • September 15, 2009

    The Left's new enemy: 'Tenthers'

    Some on the left see them as radical and infinitely more dangerous than the birthers.As one leftwing blogger put it, "They are the fringe [among] the Birthers, the Teabaggers, the Tin Hatters, . . . the Racists, the Psychos, and just the plain i...

  • September 12, 2009

    Fund-raising battle over Joe Wilson seat

    Currently, leftists have reportedly generated $1 million in donations for Rep. Joe Wilson's opponent last time, Rob Miller. Wilson, for his part has reaped about $750k. But there is a big difference beneath the surface: : Kos and DCCC immediately org...

  • September 10, 2009

    Obama's Authoritarian, Unconstitutional Health Care Proposal

    In his September 9 address to Congress and the nation on health insurance, President Obama said that under his plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance.There is no clause in Article I of the Constitution authorizing Congress...

  • August 26, 2009

    Pets May Not Be So Happy under 'Happy Act'

    Republican Congressman Thaddeus McCotter has introduced well-meaning legislation that is certain to tug at the heartstrings of animal lovers.  H.R. 3501, the ‘Happy Act,’ would provide pet owners a tax deduction of up to $3,500 annua...

  • July 30, 2009

    Black Market Judicial Philosophy

    Some called it a confirmation conversion. At times during her confirmation hearings, Judge Sotomayor sounded as if she could have been Chief Justice John Roberts' sister.Obama advisor David Axelrod said on May 26 shortly after the Sotomayor nominatio...

  • April 29, 2009

    Sometimes You Gotta Spend Taxpayer Money to... Spend Taxpayer Money

    Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, testified in March that he estimated seven percent of the $787 billion stimulus spending bill, i.e., $55 billion, would be lost to fraud. All that fraud despite the transpa...

  • April 2, 2009

    Cornerstone to the Obama Agenda

    Conservatives are big financiers of the spread of socialism by nonprofits.  Bigger even than billionaire George Soros.There are tens of thousands of liberal nonprofits on the public dole.  Conservatives tend to focus attention and even outr...

  • April 1, 2009

    Apparently, no disposable income is best for charities

    Liberal charities recently learned to love lower donations.We now learn that the head of the Democratic Party, George Soros, through the Center of American Progress, commands that charities should like higher tax rates.If higher tax rates are be...

  • March 31, 2009

    Liberal charities learn to love lower donations

    In the "give me a break" category: Independent Sector, the liberal special interest group for charities, claims Obama's proposal to limit deductions for charitable contributions is a "Solomon's choice."If a Republican had suggeste...

  • January 12, 2009

    Give Us 'Change' in Congressional Fundraising Abuses

    TownHall.com reporter Amanda Carpenter writes about some new rules imposed by congressional Democrats.  Their vision of change for America apparently means entrenching their own power.  The new rules include a repeal of term limits on commi...

  • October 29, 2008

    Who Enforces the Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Clause?

    If you believe in individual rights and the notion that our Constitution is a document granting enumerated but limited powers to the federal government, then you have reason to be troubled by the recent dismissal in Berg v. Obama et al.Philip Berg, D...

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