Politics, Moderate
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The Gun-Free School Zones Act Is Doubly Dubious: The Federal Law Relies on a Risible Reading of the Commerce Clause to Restrict a Constitutional Right
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) last week reintroduced a bill that would repeal the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act, which he says jeopardizes student and teacher safety by prohibiting armed defense against violent intruders. As I explain in my new book "Beyond Control," that law is also problematic for two constitutional reasons.
The GFSZA, ...Read more
Compensation for Legal Fees Is a Critical Protection Against Civil Forfeiture Abuses: A Federal Appeals Court Decision Underlines the Importance of That Safeguard
On a Friday in March 2021, Brian Moore, an aspiring rap artist, was about to catch a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where he planned to produce a video that he hoped would promote his musical career. To pay for the video, he was carrying $8,500 in cash, money he had inherited from his late grandfather.
Federal drug agents put an end to ...Read more
Nine Years Ago, Marco Rubio Explained Why Donald Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order Is Unconstitutional: The 2016 Brief Defended the Understanding of the 14th Amendment That the President Wants to Overturn
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Marco Rubio defended the conventional understanding of birthright citizenship, which contradicts the view embraced by the administration he currently serves as secretary of state. The contrast is especially striking because Rubio is one of the defendants in federal lawsuits challenging President Donald ...Read more
Automated License Plate Readers Are Watching You: The Technology Enables Routine Surveillance of a Sort That Would Have Troubled the Fourth Amendment's Framers
Last month, Charlie Wolf attended a meeting of the Greers Ferry, Arkansas, city council to complain about a license plate camera that he said was violating the Fourth Amendment by regularly taking pictures of his driveway and front yard. Greers Ferry Police Chief Kallen Lacy acknowledged Wolf's "distress" but rejected his legal analysis, ...Read more
Federal Circuit Judges Question Trump's Discovery of Vast Tariff Powers: The President Is Claiming 'Unbounded Authority' to Impose Import Taxes Based on a Law That Does Not Mention Them
Nearly half a century ago, according to the Trump administration, Congress enacted a law that gave the president sweeping authority to completely rewrite U.S. tariff schedules. But for some reason, no president took advantage of that power until last February.
That story received a skeptical reception last week at the U.S. Court of Appeals ...Read more
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's Meddling in Broadcast Journalism Contradicts His Own Avowed Views: As a Minority FCC Member During the Bush Administration, Carr Condemned Government Interference With Newsroom Decisions
You may have heard that Skydance Media is merging with Paramount, which owns CBS. When the Federal Communications Commission approved that $8 billion deal last week, its chairman bragged that the agency had extracted concessions that would bring "significant changes" to the network's journalism.
Brendan Carr, a Republican whom President ...Read more
Lawmakers Wonder Why a Mountain Climber Was Prosecuted for Climbing a Mountain: Two Members of the House Judiciary Committee Say the Case Against Michelino Sunseri Epitomizes the Overcriminalization That the President Decries
When mountain runner Michelino Sunseri climbed and descended Grand Teton in record time last September, he posted information about his route on social media. According to the National Park Service and the Justice Department, Sunseri thereby implicated himself in a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.
Although the NPS ...Read more
The Real Reason for Ditching the TSA's Shoe Rule: The Widely Resented and Ridiculed Policy, Which the U.S. Was Nearly Alone in Enforcing, Never Made Much Sense
The Transportation Security Administration did not officially start requiring travelers to take off their shoes at the airport until August 2006. That was nearly five years after Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to ignite explosives in his sneakers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.
The fear of Reid copycats was the ...Read more
The Trump Administration Says Its Speech-Based Deportation Policy 'Does Not Exist': The Government's Lawyers Also Say That Supposedly Nonexistent Policy Is Perfectly Consistent With the First Amendment
In a case that went to trial in Boston this week, the Trump administration argues that its policy of arresting, detaining and deporting international students for expressing anti-Israel opinions "does not exist." The government's lawyers also maintain that the supposedly nonexistent policy is perfectly consistent with the First Amendment -- a ...Read more
Trump's 'Giant Win' Does Not Validate His Unconstitutional Birthright Citizenship Order: Tellingly, the President Avoided Defending His Dubious Interpretation of the 14th Amendment at the Supreme Court
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against "universal injunctions" last week, President Donald Trump hailed the decision as a "GIANT WIN" for his administration. Trump added that "the Birthright Citizenship Hoax" -- by which he meant the conventional understanding of the 14th Amendment -- also had been "hit hard," albeit "indirectly."
That ...Read more
The Rationale for Deporting Mahmoud Khalil Is Alarmingly Vague and Broad: Marco Rubio's Nebulous Invocation of Foreign Policy Interests Is Bound to Have a Chilling Impact on Freedom of Speech
Mahmoud Khalil, the first target of President Donald Trump's crusade against international students he describes as "terrorist sympathizers," was released from custody on Friday after more than three months of detention. But the Trump administration is still trying to deport Khalil, a legal permanent resident, based on his participation in ...Read more
Federal Courts Shrug at Potentially Lethal Wrong-Door Raids: Cops Should Not Be Free to Forgo the Modicum of Care Required to Make Sure They're in the Right Place
Early on a Wednesday morning in October 2017, FBI agents terrorized three innocent people, including a 7-year-old boy, by breaking into their home in Atlanta. The agents tossed a flashbang grenade, rousted the two adults from the closet where they were hiding, manhandled and handcuffed one of them, and threatened them with guns before ...Read more
Trump's Threats Against Musk and Newsom Reflect an Authoritarian Intolerance of Dissent: Even If the President Was Joking in Both Cases, He Already Has Used His Powers to Punish People Whose Views Offend Him
On Monday, President Donald Trump endorsed the arrest of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who irked him by criticizing his militarized response to Los Angeles protests against his administration's immigration raids. Just four days earlier, Trump had suggested that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, his former ally, could lose his government ...Read more
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