“Innocent until proven guilty” is an unconditional canon within our legal system, right?  Not always.  As a first-year associate fresh out of law school, my very first assignment centered on the legal issue known as “spoliation of evidence.”  Pronouncing the term correctly (spō-lē-Ā-shŭn)…

“Does the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbid what its text plainly requires?  Needless to say (except that this case obliges us to say it), the question answers itself.”   -Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Clearly, no moral or political issue has divided and agonized America throughout its history…

If hyper-liberal retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gets his way, here’s how the Second Amendment would read:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, when serving in the militia, shall not be infringed.”  Consider it a liberal…

“Petitioner has made an uncontroverted showing that on past occasions revelation of the identity of its rank-and-file members has exposed these members to economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility.  Under these circumstances, we think it apparent that compelled disclosure…

Pop quiz:  The paramount principle that drew America’s first permanent settlers across the Atlantic, and upon which our nation was founded, was:  (a)  The freedom to practice one’s religion beyond government interference;  or (b) The right to force private employers to provide birth control and abortive drugs…

A new proposal by Trey Gowdy seems tailor-made to save Barack Obama from impeachment. But so far the president isn’t listening. Gowdy, a Republican, is a former federal prosecutor representing South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. He is also the author of H.R. 4138, better known as the “Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe…

One conspicuous casualty of the Obama Administration’s ongoing boondoggle of lawlessness and ideological fiat is something that was once a reliable conservative grievance.  Namely, the increasingly rare complaint of “judicial activism” – properly defined not as overturning democratically enacted statutes that happen to…

In a unanimous decision employing startling but justifiably harsh terms, the nation’s second-highest court handed the Obama Administration and its rogue Internal Revenue Service (IRS) an embarrassing new legal defeat this week:  “If we were to accept the IRS’s interpretation of Section 330, the IRS would be empowered for the…

History will not be kind to Barack Obama. Once the luster of his personality has receded into the past and his media disciples have all hung up their credentials, the only thing left will be his record. And it’s not pretty. Even now, with three years left in his tenure, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that his will be a presidency…

“Certain fundamental rights are protected by the Constitution, put outside government’s reach, including the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense under the Second Amendment.  This right must also include the right to acquire a firearm, although that acquisition right is far from absolute:  there are many long-standing…

Apparently, the Obama Administration either lacks any sense of irony whatsoever, or it simply maintains no interest in propriety or any appearance thereof.  The latest occasion for that observation comes from a new partisan stunt originating out of Obama’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  That’s not a misprint – the same…

Does the Constitution prohibit states from outlawing the racial discrimination regime euphemistically known as “affirmative action?”  Stated differently, does the Equal Protection Clause prohibit laws requiring equal protection?  Believe it or not, the U.S. Supreme Court is actually being forced to answer that question. …

“The Commission fundamentally miscalculated the scope of its discretion.”  These days, it seems the only thing rougher on Barack Obama than Russian President Vladimir Putin is our own judicial branch.  The quote above came from the written opinion of federal Judge John D. Bates, in vacating a Securities and Exchange Commission…

“The President and federal agencies may not ignore statutory mandates or prohibitions merely because of policy disagreements with Congress.”  That rudimentary truth, familiar to any freshman political science major, should not be necessary instruction for a former professor of constitutional law like Barack Obama.  The fact…

This month, America passed a surprising and significant milestone.  According to Gallup, George W. Bush now exceeds Barack Obama in public approval.  Looking back to four short years ago, how many would have predicted that reversal of fortunes?  Who expected that it would only take one term of getting to know Obama to reduce him from…

Something is always boiling in the legal world. Sometimes so much boils at once that some worthy cases and stories don’t get the attention they deserve. Such is the situation in the past few weeks, with several cases about which I’ve written right here at CFIF, or thematically related to those cases, all seeing important developments in…

Did America violate the due process rights of the murderous Boston terrorist – we won’t publicly recite his name – by interrogating him prior to itemizing his Miranda rights?  The straightforward answer is “no,” and claims to the contrary from some hand-wringing alarmists do not withstand legal or logical scrutiny…

The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) this week filed an appeal in one of the most heart-rending legal cases I’ve ever covered, one perfectly emblematic of the growing twin problems of A) federal “overcriminalization” of iffy, minor infractions and B) prosecutorial abuse. Indeed, I’ve written a book chapter and a full…

Since its inception, “affirmative action” has barely survived judicial scrutiny.  That it has survived at all is a wonder of judicial contortion.  The 14th Amendment, ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, mandates, inter alia, equal protection of individuals under law:  “No State shall make or enforce any law…

“The Congress shall have the Power To … promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”  (Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8)  Our Founding Fathers considered…

Joe Biden suggested this week that the Obama Administration can simply bypass the democratic process and impose new federal gun regulations.  This is the same man who, during debate with Sarah Palin in 2008, incorrectly referred to Article I as the source of executive branch power under the Constitution.  Americans can rest comfortably,…

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) this week published a new policy paper entitled, “The Constitutional and Historical Foundations of Copyright Protection.”  The paper, authored by noted legal experts Paul Clement, Viet Dinh and Jeffrey Harris of the law firm Bancroft PLLC, is a detailed…

The latest billion-dollar giveaway for unproven discrimination at the United States Department of Agriculture was recently announced by Secretary Tom Vilsack.  The $1.33 billion settlement with Hispanic and women farmers is part of Vilsack’s “new era of civil rights” at USDA that is robbing taxpayers of their day in court. …

The Daily Caller story this week on then-candidate Barack Obama making racially charged statements in 2007 should not be seen as an anomaly. Not just in words but in policies, the Obama administration has often pushed a racially charged agenda, sometimes quite obviously in contravention of the Constitution and federal civil rights laws. A prime example…

Imagine the following harrowing scenario.  You’re an ordinary citizen.  You live in an ordinary community, leading a relatively normal American life.  Perhaps you own a small business.  You struggle to stay afloat in a difficult economy made worse by adverse regulatory headwinds.  Lacking the spare thousands of dollars…

This summer, five justices on the United States Supreme Court rewrote ObamaCare to say that its individual mandate to buy health insurance is a tax, not a penalty.  But if that’s true, it raises another constitutional question that the Court did not address.  Did the process of passing ObamaCare into law violate the Origination Clause…

The Center for Individual Freedom’s “State Sovereignty Project” is being planted in soil already made fertile by resolute actions of conservative state attorneys general. The antiquated term of “states’ rights” doesn’t do justice to their efforts, because they really are defending the states&rsquo…

Governmental coercion, without benefit of due legal process, is just as wrong when used against an individual as when used against a state. A legal case about which I have written numerous times, regarding how the federal government is wrongfully conditioning earned Social Security benefits on the acceptance of unwanted Medicare benefits, has now…

News on four fronts in one week give further evidence, as if any still were needed, that the Obama administration actively and fiercely acts from an ugly, racialist mindset. The first two developments are attitudinal; the other two, more serious in the long term, involve specific legal positions taken, or ducked, by Attorney General Eric Holder&rsquo…

The extent of the damage from bad decisions can sometimes extend beyond the original, obvious victims. Such was the case in the wake of Chief Justice John Roberts’ supremely ill-considered decision allowing ObamaCare to be implemented as a “tax.” Lost in the shuffle, after the decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, was the Supreme Court&rsquo…