by Casey Harper. Great moments in legalized theft. Cops across the country are padding their budgets with hundreds of
millions of dollars by seizing property from American citizens, even
when they have not been charged with a crime. This process–called asset forfeiture–allows police to take property
for themselves if they suspect it is being used for ... MORE
by Marjorie Cohn. Ignorance of the law is no excuse -- that is, unless you're a police officer. For the first time, in December, the Supreme Court upheld a traffic stop even where there was no traffic violation. The court, in Heien v. North Carolina, continued its steady erosion of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and ... MORE
by Rand Paul and Tim Walberg. There are many reasons why the Internal Revenue Service is perhaps the
least-loved agency in America -- a tax code so complex that it seems
like you need an advanced degree to understand it, the dreaded audit
process and revelations that certain groups have been targeted based on their political beliefs. ... MORE
What can't be seen looking down from high. This term, the Supreme Court heard two cases involving the actions of police officers during traffic stops. How the court comes down on the two cases will likely have significant repercussions far beyond the facts of the cases themselves. The court’s decisions could affect how police target ... MORE
Government's newest innovation in revenue collection. In Seattle, wasting food will now earn you a scarlet letter — well, a scarlet tag, to be more accurate. The bright red tag, posted on a garbage bin, tells everyone who sees it that you've violated a new city law that makes it illegal to put food into trash cans. "I'm sure neighbors are going ... MORE
To combat drug trafficking, of course. The Justice Department has acknowledged constructing a database to
track the movements of millions of vehicles across the U.S. in real
time. The program, whose existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal,
is primarily overseen by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to combat ... MORE
Bumbling idiots at work. Ali Saleh al-Marri is a convicted conspirator who entered the United States before 9/11 in order to create a dreaded sleeper cell here that might someday launch an attack on Americans similar to what we witnessed earlier this month in Paris. When the feds woke from their slumber on 9/11, they wisely began to search ... MORE
by Dan Cannon. Making self protection a felony. Democratic members of Congress apparently aren’t going to be
satisfied until American citizens are completely and utterly
defenseless. Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) has introduced a bill for
consideration of the new Congress which would prohibit the ownership of
certain types of body armor for ... MORE
Break it up! For a century and a half, the idea of secession has been systematically demonized among the American public. The government schools spin fairy tales about the “indivisible Union” and the wise statesmen who fought to preserve it. Decentralization is portrayed as unsophisticated and backward, while nationalism and ... MORE
by Nicole Johnson. If only the Fourth Amendment protected us from warrantless searches. DUI checkpoints in North Dakota could soon be a thing of the past. Sobriety checkpoints are used in North Dakota by police to deter drunk driving. But, lawmakers in Bismarck are talking about getting rid of them, saying there needs to be a reason to ... MORE
Ideas matter. More than two
centuries after freedom of speech was enshrined in the First Amendment
to the Constitution, that right is very much in the news. Campus speech
codes, disinvited commencement speakers, jailed performance artists,
exiled leakers, a blogger condemned to a thousand lashes by one of our
closest allies, and the ... MORE
E-Cig attack vaporizes. The New England Journal of Medicine ran a letter linking e-cigs to
cancer and the panicky media gobbled it up like a pot brownie. But how
sturdy is this research? What might happen if you tapped lightly on
their findings? Yes, under closer scrutiny, this blockbuster collapsed faster than Michael Moore in a spin class. According to ... MORE