by Sheldon Richman. The place where rights vanish into thin air. A man, an American citizen, sits in his car as a U.S. Border Patrol
agent insists that he roll down his window. He refuses. Agents use
battering rams to smash the windows. Still, the driver refuses to leave
his car, so he is hit with a Taser from two sides. He screams. It would be bad ... MORE
Rand Paul Tries to Limit the State's License to Steal
by Jacob Sullum. An effort to stop policing for profit. In 2003 a Nebraska state trooper stopped Emiliano Gonzolez for speeding on Interstate 80 and found $124,700 inside a cooler on the back seat of the rented Ford Taurus he was driving. Gonzolez said the money was intended to buy a refrigerated truck for a produce business, but the cops ... MORE
Brian Fung: Think The Supreme Court Protected Your Cellphone From Warrantless Searches? Think Again.
It was supposed to be a simple day trip to Niagara Falls. Little did he know the visit might land him in prison for the next 100 years. Ali Saboonchi was returning from the Canadian side of the falls with his wife in 2012 when he was detained by customs agents at the U.S. border. The agents eventually let the Maryland man go, but not ... MORE
Is The President Incompetent Or Lawless?
by Andrew Napolitano. It has been well established under the Constitution and throughout our history that the president's job as the chief federal law enforcement officer permits him to put his ideological stamp on the nature of the work done by the executive branch. The courts have characterized this stamp as "discretion." ... MORE
John Stossel: Healthy Profits?
More damage to the medical profession. I'm the underachiever in my family. My parents also produced Harvard Medical School research director Thomas Stossel. Mom called him the one who had "a real job." For years, my brother annoyed me by not embracing the libertarianism that changed my life. It bored him. He was comfortable in his Harvard ... MORE
Labels:
doctors,
drugs,
incentives,
innovation,
medicine,
ObamaCare,
regulation,
research,
restrictions
The War On Poverty And The War On Drugs
by Randall Holcombe. Fighting the big government fight. As an apparently war-minded people, Americans (or at least, our American political leaders) have been comfortable framing parts of the domestic policy agenda as wars for decades. Two of the most prominent have been the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs. Despite the ... MORE
Labels:
ATF,
black market,
drug war,
government,
individual liberty,
police state,
politics,
poverty
The IRS Scandal And The Politicization Of Justice
by Hans von Spakovsky and John Fund. If you want a good illustration of how Attorney General Eric Holder has politicized the Justice Department and its prosecutorial decision-making, all you have to do is look at what Justice has not done in just one part of the IRS scandal. Despite its agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by the National ... MORE
Frank Pariato: Jury Nullification Set Wild Bill Hickok Free
Although he killed a man illegally. On July 20 1865, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was playing in a poker game at the Lyon House Hotel in Springfield MO., when a friend of his, Davis Tutt showed up claiming Hickok owed him $45 from an earlier game. Hickok said he only owed $25 since he had paid Tutt $20 some days before. Tutt snatched ... MORE
Brenda Craig: Before You Blow The Whistle - Read This
A very risky business. Washington, DC: Computer systems analyst and former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, unleashed an unprecedented volume of government secrets and became the world’s best-known whistleblower. Some of the details of American security operations are simply embarrassing. In other cases, the ... MORE
Peter Morici: The Real Unemployment Rate Is At Least 18%
Dismal future for low-skill workers. Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 235,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 6.1 percent, but that hardly tells the story. The jobless rate may be down from its recession peak of 10 percent, but much of this results from adults, discouraged by ... MORE
‘Udall Amendment’ An Assault On Free Speech
from Statesman Journal. The effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance isn’t simply misguided. It’s dishonest, and, even were it successful, it would be ineffective, as well. Senate Democrats are forging ahead with a plan to bring a joint resolution to the floor that would add a 28th ... MORE
Time To Reform Draconian Marijuana Laws
by Jerome McCollom. It's a war on us. The war on marijuana has been an attack on our constitutional rights and civil liberties for decades, since the government started lying to us about it. No enemy could hope to violate our rights as much as it has done. For example, in Temecula, Calif., an undercover officer at a high school befriended an ... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
drug war,
incarceration,
jury nullification,
justice,
legalize,
marijuana,
prohibition
Rand Paul Introduces Bill To Reform Civil Asset Forfeiture
by Radley Balko. This is a pretty big deal, especially if Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) can round up enough co-sponsors to build some momentum. Sen. Rand Paul yesterday introduced S. 2644, the FAIR (Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act,
which would protect the rights of citizens and restore the Fifth
Amendment’s role in seizing property ... MORE
NSA Spying Threatens Press Freedom and Right to Counsel
by Dan Froomkin. Top journalists and lawyers agree. To do their jobs properly, journalists and lawyers sometimes need to be able to keep information private from the government. And because what journalists and lawyers do is so integral to safeguarding democracy and basic rights, the United States has traditionally recognized their need for ... MORE
Thomas Sowell: Cease The Cease-Fire
Just get the job done. Many years ago, on my first trip around the world, I was struck by how the children in the Middle East -- Arab and Israeli alike -- were among the nicest looking little children I had seen anywhere. It was painful to think that they were going to grow up killing each other. But that is exactly what happened. It is ... MORE
Katie Kieffer: A Bullet A Day Keeps The Doctor Alive
You and I avoid visiting the doctor by eating well. Doctors like Lee Silverman carry concealed in order to care for us when we do need them. Doctors and medical professionals should be allowed to carry concealed. Last week, a psychiatrist named Dr. Lee Silverman technically broke the letter of the law by carrying concealed at work. ... MORE
Labels:
concealed carry,
crime,
doctors,
gun rights,
mental health,
policy,
protection,
self-defense
Walter E Williams: Please Stop Helping Us
Misplaced loyalty. While reading the first chapter of Jason Riley’s new book, “Please Stop Helping Us,” I thought about Will Rogers’ Prohibition-era observation that “Oklahomans vote dry as long as they can stagger to the polls.” Demonstrative of similar dedication, one member of Congress told Vanderbilt University political scientist Carol Swain ... MORE
Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist
by Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Devereaux. The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion
of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that
requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to
designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key
government document obtained ... MORE
DC’s Gun Restrictions Takes One Between The Eyes
by Ross Kaminsky. Concealed weapons legal in DC until further notice. The ruling
of Washington, DC district court judge Fredrick Scullin in the most
important current challenge to that city's unconstitutional restrictions
on Second Amendment rights takes judicial action against intentionally
law-breaking jurisdictions to a most welcome new ... MORE
David Bauder: NSA Surveillance Is Hampering Journalists
A chilling effect on truth-seeking. Revelations over the past few years about how U.S. security officials have the ability to track people through phone, email and other electronic records are making it harder for journalists to report on what the government is doing, two human rights groups say. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil ... MORE
Frank Parlato: Jurors Have A Right to Judge the Law
Learn an important principle of freedom. It has long been assumed that juries judge the facts and the courts judge the law. But Georgia v. Brailsford (1794) is the precedent that explains why that is a hasty assumption. It sets a precedent that the jury can also judge, and if it wishes, veto any law. Take a moment to understand what ... MORE
Labels:
court,
freedom,
juror,
jury nullification,
justice,
law,
liberty,
morality,
victimless crimes
Jacob Sullum: Where Pot Might Be Legal Soon
Alaska, Oregon, and the nation's capital. Last week a marijuana legalization initiative officially qualified for the ballot in Oregon. Voters will also consider legalization measures in Alaska and (probably) the District of Columbia this fall, so by the end of the year three more jurisdictions could join Colorado and Washington in allowing ... MORE
Labels:
Alaska,
cannabis,
drug war,
incarceration,
initiative,
marijuana,
Oregon,
politics,
prohibition
Peter Van Buren: Drone-Killing The Fifth Amendment
Murder is murder. You can't get more serious about protecting the people from their government than the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, specifically in its most critical clause: "No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." In 2011, the White House ordered the drone-killing of American citizen ... MORE
Paul Hsieh: Gun Violence Is Not A 'Public Health' Issue
Which of these things is not like the other? 1 Measles, 2 influenza, 3 tuberculosis, 4 murder. If you picked #4, “murder,” you’re right. The first three are medical diseases. In contrast “murder” is not a medical problem, although it is a tragic cause of death. But in recent years, anti-gun organizations (and some physicians) are seeking ... MORE
Labels:
disease,
firearms,
government,
gun control,
gun rights,
health,
medical,
murder,
public health
David Firestone: Let States Decide On Marijuana
from NY Times editorial series. In
1970, at the height of his white-hot war on crime, President Richard
Nixon demanded that Congress pass the Controlled Substances Act to crack
down on drug abuse. During the debate, Senator Thomas Dodd of
Connecticut held up a package wrapped in light-green paper that he said
contained $3,000 .... MORE
Labels:
cannabis,
drug war,
federalism,
government,
marijuana,
prohibition,
recreation,
states' rights
Your Drug Warriors At Work: Florida SWAT Team Shoots Teen Girl & Kills Dog During Pot Raid On The Wrong House
from InformationLiberation: Orange County, Florida sheriff's deputies waging an armed raid for a suspected pot dealer entered a family's home guns blazing and shot a teen girl and her dog, only to find out the suspect they were looking for hadn't lived in the home for weeks -- despite their claim to have "surveilled" the home extensively ... MORE
L. Brent Bozell: Here Come the Indian Mascot Killers
Scalping free speech. Anyone who thinks the cultural left is going to stop its political correctness with the Washington Redskins isn't reading USA Today. On the top of their Sports front page on July 22, the paper reported on activists taking a stand against "redface," championing a group called Eradicating Offensive Indian Mascotry. The thought ... MORE
Pot's Popularity Creating Trying Times For US Prosecutor
by Joe Mozingo. A lesson on jury nullification. Julie Shemitz watched warily as the judge asked prospective jurors whether they or anyone close to them had a card for medical marijuana. Ten hands lifted, a third of the jury pool. "Look at all those hands," the judge said. An assistant U.S. attorney, Shemitz knew that this would be a ... MORE
WASH TIMES: Stopping Police Asset-Forfeiture Predators
Only the cops are against reform. When the public is more afraid of the cops than the bad guys, the system is broken. There’s reason for some law-abiding Americans to worry about their pocketbook becoming lighter after a visit from the lawman. Bonnie and Clyde never pretended to be anything but robbers. A 64-year-old Texas ... MORE
The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less
by Anna Bernasek. Economic
inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention.
But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical
American household has been getting poorer, too. The
inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in
2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 % ... MORE
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