Bush’s Bogus Theory of Absolute Power by James Bovard April 7, 2006 The Bush administration has a theory to explain why the Founding Fathers secretly intended for the president to have boundless power. Even though the new unitary executive theory is nowhere in the Constitution, White House officials continually invoke it to justify scorning federal law. The fact that the administration is getting away with this charade symbolizes how docile much ...
American Democracy Indicted by Anthony Gregory April 1, 2006 Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 291 pages. “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” So says a popular bumper sticker. Indeed, those of us who have been paying attention to the political scene for ...
Misguided Democracy by George Leef March 1, 2006 Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); 288 pages; $26.95. One of Winston Churchill’s most famous quips is that democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others. The supposition behind the “except” clause is that ...
Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard January 27, 2006 The following is the introduction to James Bovard’s new book, Attention Deficit Democracy. The forms of our free government have outlasted the ends for which they were instituted, and have become a mere mockery of the people for whose benefit they should operate. — “Americus” Delusions about democracy ...
Freedom and the Fourteenth Amendment by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2005 One of the long-standing debates within the libertarian movement involves the Fourteenth Amendment. Some argue that it is detrimental to the cause of freedom because it expands the power of the federal government. Others contend that the amendment expands the ambit of individual liberty. I fall among those who ...
More Bush Insults by Sheldon Richman October 12, 2005 Everybody is good at something, and George Bush is good at insulting our intelligence. As if he hasn’t provided enough evidence, he recently obliged with two more demonstrations. First came his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. By picking Miers he is telling the American people she ...
The New Deal and the Courts, Part 4 by William L. Anderson September 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 No matter who is appointed to replace retiring members of the Supreme Court, the larger issues will remain unchanged, as they have been for nearly seven decades — the New Deal Supreme Court has become a permanent fixture in our country. Changes brought about by Franklin Roosevelt’s ...
Coercion: It’s What’s for Dinner in Postconstitutional America by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2005 Most recent free-speech controversies have been about government efforts to restrict someone’s right to express himself. So it is noteworthy that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving not stifled speech, but rather coerced speech. Alas, it decided the case wrongly. Everyone has seen the generic TV ...
The Courts and the New Deal, Part 3 by William L. Anderson August 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 When Janice Rogers Brown was renominated to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Court of Appeals this year, the New York Times demanded that Democrats filibuster her nomination, one of the reasons being that, in a speech to a gathering of conservative lawyers, Brown had called ...
The Courts and the New Deal, Part 2 by William L. Anderson July 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The system of laws and courts in the United States today hardly resembles that system that came about in the wake of the founding of this republic. This sea change in the law is not due — as some might claim — to the complexities of ...
The Courts and the New Deal, Part 1 by William L. Anderson June 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 In the next few years of the George W. Bush administration, it is almost certain that there will be a number of contentious battles between Democrats and Republicans and between the White House and the U.S. Senate over certain federal court nominees. While the issues will ...
The Bill of Rights: Reserved Powers by Jacob G. Hornberger May 11, 2005 The Constitution brought into existence the most unusual government in history. It was a government whose powers were limited to those enumerated in the document itself. If the power wasn’t enumerated, the government could not exercise it. Fearful that the newly formed government might try to break free of that ...