Protecting People Against "Gun Control"
My recent address in Grand Junction on the Colorado gun control laws has received widespread notice. This is particularly so of the part pointing out that the same arguments used by the legislative majority for gun control could be used to restrict other constitutional rights, such as free speech and sexual choice. I’ve reproduced the […]
Federal “Campaign Finance” Laws are Mostly Unconstitutional
In a recent posting, I wrote: [I]t is dubious whether the Constitution even gives Congress power to regulate the source and amount of campaign contributions and expenditures. The background and meaning of the Constitution’s “Time, Places and Manner Clause”—which Congress uses to justify such laws—strongly suggests not. The Time, Places and Manner Clause is Article […]
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United Corporate Campaign case Should Be Controversial—But Not for the Reason You Think
If you have any doubt about the ability of the political Left to set the agenda in this country, look at the controversy over the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United corporate campaign finance case. What most people have heard about the case is that it “allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts in federal elections,” a […]
Contraceptives and Catholic hospitals: The primary issue is Obamacare, not the First Amendment
Does the mandate forcing Catholic hospitals to offer abortifacients and contraception violate the First Amendment? The surprising answer is: Probably not. True, there are serious moral and political issues inherent in requiring religious institutions to offer “treatments” they find theologically offensive. But, despite the claims of many Catholic and conservative commentators, the U.S. Department of […]
Supreme Court’s New First Amendment Decision Unrelated to the First Amendment
Commentators and journalists sometimes describe the current U.S. Supreme Court as “conservative.” But that’s not true if your definition of a conservative justice is a traditional or “originalist” jurist—that is, one who applies the Constitution as the American people understood it when they adopted it. Consider, for example, the Court’s latest First Amendment case. The […]
Big First Amendment Win in United States v. Stevens
Originally published on Volokh.com At issue: a federal statute bans commercials depictions of “animal cruelty,” namely a depiction “in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed,” if killing or other action violates the law where the “the creation, sale, or possession takes place.” The statute would therefore outlaw the sale in […]
