SaddleBrooke Republican Club » Law and Civil Liberties

Under ObamaCare, Anti-Discrimination Law Trumps Religious Liberty

Roger Pilon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:42:31 +0000

By Roger Pilon

The three-week battle over ObamaCare’s contraceptive-abortifacient ruling isn’t letting up. Catholics for Choice has a full-page ad in this morning’s Washington Post, urging the president to stay firm. And it’s the lead story today on NPR’s Morning Edition, which in printed form devotes fully 2 of 16 paragraphs—the last 2—to the other side (not bad for [...]

Under ObamaCare, Anti-Discrimination Law Trumps Religious Liberty is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Obamacare Challenge Not Barred By a Weird Technicality

Ilya Shapiro — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:28:45 +0000

By Ilya Shapiro

Cato’s third Supreme Court brief in the Obamacare litigation concerns the issue of whether the federal tax Anti-Injunction Act prevents federal courts from timely reviewing Congress’s most egregious attempt to exceed its power to regulate interstate commerce. The AIA bars courts from enjoining “any tax” before that tax is assessed or collected. One would think [...]

Obamacare Challenge Not Barred By a Weird Technicality is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Prison Terms for Not Installing ADA Ramps?

Walter Olson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:43:02 +0000

By Walter Olson

We’ve often deplored the continued push of criminal prosecution into matters that were once considered more suitable for regulation or for the operation of civil law. A little-noted report a few weeks back in the Los Angeles Times may indicate the next milestone in overcriminalization: The U.S. attorney has launched a fraud investigation to determine [...]

Prison Terms for Not Installing ADA Ramps? is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Waiving Goodbye to the Constitution

Neal McCluskey — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:47:58 +0000

By Neal McCluskey

Today the Obama administration will announce, according to early press reports, that ten states (of eleven that applied) will be receiving waivers from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. That’s right, the 2002 education law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush that absurdly insisted that all children will be proficient in mathematics and reading [...]

Waiving Goodbye to the Constitution is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The Wise Crowds Say Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional

Ilya Shapiro — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:47:30 +0000

By Ilya Shapiro

FantasySCOTUS.net, a project of the Constitution-educating Harlan Institute (on whose non-profit board I sit), has been tracking its 12,000+ members’ predictions in the Obamacare case before the Supreme Court. You can read more in-depth about the current state of the prediction market — with fancy graphs! – but here’s a summary: 90.6% predict that the lawsuit can [...]

The Wise Crowds Say Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

CPAC Panel on the Constitutionality of Obamacare Has No Lawyers

Ilya Shapiro — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:37:42 +0000

By Ilya Shapiro

Some libertarians boycott CPAC because it’s “too conservative,” others embrace it to try to steer the conservative movement in a more liberty-minded direction (on which, see Reason.tv’s excellent interview of Sen. Jim DeMint). I have no principled feelings on the subject. I’ve never attended – wasn’t really on my radar in college, couldn’t make it to DC during [...]

CPAC Panel on the Constitutionality of Obamacare Has No Lawyers is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

This Month’s Cato Unbound: What Is Due Process?

Jason Kuznicki — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:05:34 +0000

By Jason Kuznicki

What is due process? Virtually everyone would agree that “due process” refers to a set of judicial procedures that create at least a strong tendency toward fair results. But why do we have these procedures and not some others? Why do we have trial by jury, and not trial by fire? Why not just flip [...]

This Month’s Cato Unbound: What Is Due Process? is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Gay Marriage Still Has an Uphill Climb

Robert A. Levy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:16:36 +0000

By Robert A. Levy

The right answer to the same-sex marriage question is to remove government from the marriage business altogether. That’s a legislative matter, however, and not something the courts should decree. Until then, because state and federal laws confer benefits based on marital status, the equal protection provisions of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require that same-sex [...]

Gay Marriage Still Has an Uphill Climb is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Appeals Court Upholds Gay Marriage, Sort Of

Ilya Shapiro — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:47:17 +0000

Today’s victory for equal liberty was narrow, but important nonetheless. All that Prop 8 did was to deny gay couples the right to have their relationships labeled “marriage,” without any effect on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities attending that marital designation (which legal incidents California had already granted to gays who entered into civil unions). As [...]

Appeals Court Upholds Gay Marriage, Sort Of is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Our Constitution Is Out of Step with the Rest of the World

Roger Pilon — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:39:10 +0000

Is the Constitution out of date? That’s the impression that comes across from an article in yesterday’s New York Times, written by the paper’s crack Supreme Court reporter, Adam Liptak. It comes in turn from an article he points to by two law professors, David S. Law at Washington University in St. Louis and Mila [...]

Our Constitution Is Out of Step with the Rest of the World is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog