Bad news sells, and if it bleeds, it leads.   That’s why it’s important to occasionally step back and reflect upon positive trends and events in our lives and societally.   In that vein, as someone old enough to recall the disgraceful denial of a Supreme Court seat to Robert Bork, and maddening refusals by Republican…

The story plays out the same way virtually every time.  Democrats, egged on by the increasingly powerful progressive base, push some obviously unconstitutional scheme that they contend is needed to preserve "democracy."  The courts inevitably knock down the ploy.  Frustrated, Democrats ratchet up the anger, promising to &…

As we approach America’s 250th birthday, our national story remains one of both aspiration and achievement.   Specifically, the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all men are created equal” didn’t reflect full reality in 1776, but nevertheless offered an ideal, a North Star for the new nation.&…

"Big Brother is watching you" is no longer a fictional admonition. Everywhere you go, your location is recorded by phone technology, license plate readers, Uber and Lyft transactions, and cameras. Privacy? Forget about it. Your location history is in the hands of many tech companies. Can the police and other government agencies force tech…

Lawsuit abuse remains among the most dangerous but underrecognized threats to the American economy and consumer well-being.   It distorts markets, unfairly targets lawful conduct, enriches unscrupulous plaintiff lawyers and too often elevates courtroom theatrics over sound science and evidence.   Against that backdrop, a unanimous…

You aren't going to believe the latest lawsuit fad in America: suing companies as monopoistic for cutting prices to consumers. In legal mumbo jumbo, this is called "predatory pricing" – keeping prices lower than charged by competitors. The idea is to keep prices so low that rival firms can't compete. Quick, throw Walmart…

This week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that hinges on the meaning of Election Day – and it's got Democrats sweating. The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, challenges a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots received long after Election Day to be counted. It's one of 14 states, including populous…

“When seconds matter, the police are only minutes away.”   Reciting that adage in no way disparages police officers.   Rather, it simply acknowledges that during home invasions, assaults or active threats, officers must be contacted, dispatched, drive to the scene, locate the exact point of crisis and act as best they…

During oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor threatened America with a good time, warning that the administration is "asking us to destroy the structure of government." Great. It's about time an unaccountable fourth branch of the state was decimated. Trump v. Slaughter revolves around the president's…

In a world plagued by politicized violence, “doxxing” and harassment, should your voluntary donations to nonprofit groups whose missions you support be made public for anyone with a grudge and an internet connection to see?   The answer should be obvious to any person of good conscience.   Government collection and…

Last month, the FBI announced that its "exhaustive review" of materials in the Jeffrey Epstein case uncovered no client list, no "credible evidence" that Epstein blackmailed any famous people, no evidence to support any new criminal charges and no evidence that Epstein's death was anything other than a suicide. The announcement…

Interviewing for a job or competing for a promotion just got fairer. In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court leveled the legal playing field, saying that everyone deserves the same protection from discrimination, including straight white women and men. In the six decades since Martin Luther King Jr. uttered the aspiration that people…

A left-wing legal group with the misleading name Democracy Forward is proving to be the biggest obstacle to translating President Donald Trump's massive election victory into real change. The group's mission is to thwart the decisions of the 77 million voters who supported Trump for president. It sues the Trump administration repeatedly, venue shopping…

In one sense, it’s sad commentary that it required a federal appellate court to confirm that the Bill of Rights protects twenty-year-old law-abiding citizens just as it does American adults of other ages.   That idea seemed foreign to increasingly desperate gun control advocates and the Biden administration, which fought to prevent…

New web video features legal and policy experts explaining how a series of U.S. court decisions and lopsided PTAB proceedings have weakened America’s patent system. WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) today released a new web video, backed by a digital ad buy, urging Congress to pass the Patent Eligibility Restoration…

After nearly four years in the White House, two central pillars in the emerging Biden/Harris administration legacy have been its inexplicable economic mismanagement and its flagrant administrative state overreach.   In the case of economic mismanagement, the administration’s policies have resulted in deepening hardship for American…

It's difficult to make substantive arguments against the Democrats' Supreme Court "reform" proposal, since everyone knows it's just a cynical ploy to delegitimize both the court and the Constitution. Ask yourself this: Would any Democrat support the president's court-packing scheme if they believed Republicans would win both Houses and the…

July 4th naturally occasions an uptick in reading the Declaration of Independence, whose recitation of transgressions by the king includes the following:  “He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.”   What we now derisively label the &…

Whether you live in a city or a small town, you're a winner because of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, announced on Friday. The Supremes ruled 6-3 that municipalities can ban homeless encampments from sidewalks, parks and other public areas. Sleeping in the rough is not a constitutionally guaranteed right, said…

Things aren't going well at all for the global warming crusaders. Despite hundreds of billions of tax dollars spent on green energy over the past decade, the world and America used more fossil fuels than ever before in history last year.  The electric vehicle movement is stalled out, solar and wind power are both still fringe forms of energy,…

The United States Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress. Yet, over the past century, we've witnessed a disturbing trend of legislators increasingly delegating much of the authority to set the laws that govern the land to the executive branch, which includes unelected officials at administrative agencies. This undermines democratic accountability…

With Memorial Day now behind us and November’s presidential election increasingly within view, electoral trends are becoming increasingly obvious and Joe Biden’s desperation increasingly transparent.   Biden hasn’t led Donald Trump in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls in nearly nine months, since September 10, 2023…

The trial of former President Donald Trump is heading toward a conclusion. For those who at the beginning thought the case was weak and politically motivated, the presentation of the prosecution's evidence has made it seem even weaker and more politically motivated. A conviction will not change that. On the other side, though, some in the anti-Trump…

Perhaps the weirdest, and by far the most unjust, thing about former President Donald Trump's trial in New York is that we do not know precisely what crime Trump is charged with committing. We're in the middle of the trial, with Trump facing a maximum of more than 100 years in prison, and we don't even know what the charges are! It's a surreal situation…

In a Supreme Court showdown Monday over whether the homeless have a "right" to camp in public, almost no one mentioned the actual victims of that crazy idea. Homeless advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court that living on the streets is a "victimless" crime. Victimless? Everyone who has to step over…

Donald Trump was first indicted nearly a year ago, on April 4, 2023, when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced charges against the former president over a nondisclosure agreement Trump used to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he had apparently had a brief sexual encounter. Bragg, an elected Democrat, won office…

We are not the first court to look through forms to the substance and recognize that informal censorship may sufficiently inhibit the circulation of publications to warrant injunctive relief.   That was the United States Supreme Court in Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963), which held that government can violate First Amendment free speech…

In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled states cannot use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to kick former President Donald Trump off state ballots over his alleged "insurrectionist" actions on Jan. 6, 2021. Learning that state officials aren't empowered to simply toss leading presidential candidates off ballots came as a great surprise…

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has a beef with beef. This week James sued the JBS USA Food Company, the U.S. subsidiary of the world's largest beef producer, accusing it of "fraudulent and illegal business activities" and demanding "disgorgement of all profits and ill-gotten gains." Disregard the inflammatory language…

Donald Trump has just a few weeks to find a way to pay, or guarantee that he will pay, the $355 million fine that a New York judge imposed on him in the lawsuit brought by the state's Democratic Attorney General Letitia James. The suit was the culmination of James' campaign to bring financial ruin on the former president, and it might succeed; unless…