Constitution

The Catholic Bishops and the Morality of Government Mandates

by Tim Kelly February 13, 2012

The Catholic bishops are absolutely correct in their criticism of the Obama administration’s decision to require all employers, including all religious institutions, to provide health insurance that makes contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs available to their employees. The mandate is both unconstitutional and morally objectionable. The Obama administration appears to be making the political calculation that the controversy will subside ...

A Bill of Guarantees

by Rich Schwartzman December 16, 2011

The best document ever written to preserve the liberty of a free people isn't a complete document at all, but just a part of one. Its the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Those ten paragraphs capture the essence of what it means to govern a government. Are they perfect? No, but how much in ...

Statist Baggage on the Airlines

by Laurence M. Vance December 7, 2011

First it was the TSA; now its the airlines. In addition to getting their bodies squeezed by the TSA, airline passengers are now getting their wallets squeezed by the airlines as well. Some airlines have begun charging $5 for printing out your boarding pass at the airport. Even if you print from a self-service kiosk, you'll still pay a $1 printing ...

President Obama on the Role of Government

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2011

In his speech last week from the East Room of the White House to the American people on deficit reduction and debt-ceiling negotiations, President Obama inadvertently presented us with his view of the role of government: We all want a government that lives within its means, but there are still things we need to pay for as a ...

Rupert Murdoch and Freedom of the Press

by Wendy McElroy July 21, 2011

A scandal rocking the British Isles is slopping onto American shores. In its zeal to scoop the news, a British paper within Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire engaged in illegal and immoral activities. Specifically, the News of the World (the News) bribed police officers for confidential information and hacked into private phone messages. The well-founded accusations are currently ...

Is a Constitutional Convention Necessary?

by Laurence M. Vance June 7, 2011

The evisceration of the Fourth Amendment by the U.S. Supreme Court in the recent case of Kentucky v. King should forever put to bed the idea that we need a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution in order to regain control of the federal government. While seeking a drug bust after a “controlled buy” of crack cocaine, ...

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 ...