Constitution

Make Bill of Rights Day Americas Anti-Politician Day

by James Bovard December 14, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, is the 219th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day should be the preeminent Anti-Politician Day on the American calendar. Instead, it has become simply another pretext for rulers to delude the ruled. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1787, “A Bill of Rights is ...

Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Bill of Rights should actually have been called the Bill of Prohibitions because it actually doesn’t give any rights to anyone. Instead, it expressly prohibits the federal government from infringing the fundamental rights of the people. Our American ancestors understood that people’s rights don’t come from the government or from ...

Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Throughout most of history, it was a given that government had the legitimate authority to wield omnipotent power over its citizenry. If the king wanted a person’s land, he took it. If he wanted a share of its produce, he confiscated it. If he wanted to punish people for worshiping ...

States Rights, the Constitution, and Individual Liberty (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 13, 2010

Speech given at Virginia Liberty Fest //

Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 We live in a country whose economic system is a welfare state and a government-managed economy and whose foreign policy is now based on an extensive overseas military empire and perpetual war, along with ever-increasing infringements on the civil liberties of the people. The economic consequences of the welfare-warfare state have ...

The Declaration, the Constitution, and Liberty in Our Time

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 21, 2010

The following is a non-verbatim transcript of a speech delivered by Jacob Hornberger at the Virginia Campaign for Liberty’s Liberty Fest in Richmond, Virginia, on September 18, 2010. Ever since the dawn of recorded history, people’s minds have been inculcated with the notion that government is the master and the people are the servants. Hardly anyone, for example, has questioned ...

The Black Hole of Bagram

by Andy Worthington May 24, 2010

On Friday, the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., delivered a genuinely disturbing ruling (PDF) regarding prisoners in the U.S. prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, which has turned the clock back to the darkest days of the Bush administration, before prisoners seized in the war on terror had any recourse to justice if they claimed they ...

The Rule of Law, Part 2

by Ridgway K. Foley Jr. March 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Note well that any contention that the United States of America was born out of a well-developed and unbridled libertarian philosophy does not square with historical fact. Ordinary candor and historical precision compel recognition that not all residents in the 13 colonies (or even a majority of those hardy men) would describe or agree ...

The Rule of Law, Part 1

by Ridgway K. Foley Jr. February 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 Americans laud the rule of law. They invoke its majesty during common discussion and learned discourse. They applaud their storied adherence to this grand old concept and disparage nations and cultures that seem less inclined to live by its guidance. Despite this adulation, I suspect that few of those employing the doctrine could ...

The Bush Secrecy Legacy

by James Bovard January 1, 2010

Many Americans assumed that the Bush administration’s peril to their freedom ended when George Bush exited the White House on January 20, 2009. Unfortunately, the precedents the administration established continue to threaten Americans’ rights and liberties. This is stark on government secrecy. Shortly after the 2000 election, Vice President-elect Richard Cheney convened a task force on energy policy. After he ...

The Supreme Court’s Attacks on Freedom, Part 2

by George Leef October 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor (Sentinel, 2008); 299 pages. Bennis v. Michigan (1996) This case gave Supreme Court approval to ...

The Supreme Court’s Attacks on Freedom, Part 1

by George Leef September 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor (Sentinel, 2008); 299 pages. Americans like lists. Most often, we get “Top Ten” lists, but this book is a ...