Daily Articles

How Brown v. Board of Education Throttled Black Schooling

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2004

The Law of Unintended Consequences is always in force. Given the inherent uncertainty of the future and the interconnectedness of things, any action is subject to the likelihood that some effects will be unexpected. Among these, some will be welcome, others distasteful. There is, in this law, a practical argument for ...

FBI Blunders and the First World Trade Center Bombing

by James Bovard August 1, 2004

As Americans continue trying to understand how the government failed to stop the 9/11 hijack conspiracy, important clues can be garnered from examining the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. This bombing — the most economically destructive terrorist attack ever to occur in the United States up to that time — was partly ...

The Colonial Venture of Ireland, Part 4

by Wendy McElroy August 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 In the North, treatment of Catholics deteriorated as one of the most infamous measures in Irish history was passed — the Special Powers Act of 1922. Catholic-rights advocate Bernadette Devlin explained, It gave the authorities power to arrest people without a warrant on suspicion “of acting or ...

The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, Part 2

by Michael Hogan August 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 Most of those who had settled in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries had no real sense of national identity. Those in Virginia considered themselves Virginians, those in Texas, Texans or “Texicans,” and those from Maine, “Down Easters.” Allegiances were territorial rather than nationalistic. When the victorious American army finally entered Mexico ...

Pentagon Learns About the Sixth Amendment

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2004

The Pentagon is learning that things work differently here in the United States than they do in Iraq. In this country, when the judiciary issues an order, the Pentagon is required to obey it. That’s why the government is now permitting Ali Saleh al-Marri to meet ...

Should We Have Faith in the Government?

by Sheldon Richman July 30, 2004

Ever since the attacks of 9/11, unsanctioned alternative explanations of what happened and why have been in ample supply. What are the American people to make of these explanations? That depends on the alternative offered. My purpose here is not to lend credence to any of them, but rather ...

Spreading the Word

by Bart Frazier July 23, 2004

Date: July 23, 2004 To: Friends and Supporters of The Future of Freedom Foundation From: Bart Frazier, program director Subject: FFF Op-Ed Program Most of you associate FFF with our Email Update. Every day you get the best news culled from the internet addressing issues ...

Free Martha! Free Bobby!

by Sheldon Richman July 21, 2004

The U.S. government has moved closer to nabbing two prized catches. Martha Stewart has been sentenced to five months in prison, five months under house arrest, and a $30,000 fine for lying about noncriminal activity. She will remain free while appealing her convictions. Former world chess champion Bobby ...

Exactly How Has Bush’s War Made Us Safer?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 19, 2004

President Bush claims that his war on Iraq has made Americans safer. His primary rationale is that by removing from power a foreign dictator who was supposedly bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, Americans are safer as a result. Unfortunately for the American people, however, Bush’s reasoning is both ...

Padilla, Hamdi, and Rasul: Charge Them or Release Them

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 16, 2004

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Yaser Hamdi and Shafiq Rasul (and other Guantanamo detainees) are entitled to seek habeas corpus relief in U.S. federal district courts to challenge their detention by U.S. military officials, the question naturally arises: What relief should the federal district courts ...

War Is No Blank Check

by Sheldon Richman July 14, 2004

“A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.” Those words from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor are music to the ears of every friend of freedom. That line is a direct slap at President George ...

The Draft Is Fascist

by Sheldon Richman July 9, 2004

A former speechwriter for President Richard Nixon thinks his old boss made a mistake when he ended the military draft in the early 1970s during the war in Vietnam. Noel Koch reports that Nixon himself came to believe he erred and “ that the draft be restored.” Well, that’s too bad. ...