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…

Ever heard of transnational legal theory?  If the Obama Administration gets its way, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty being negotiated in New York this month could become the kind of international legal document that transnational judges inside the United States will use to gut the Second Amendment.  One of the leading American lawyers…

There is a good reason why not even most liberal commentators are applauding the actual legal reasoning Chief Justice John Roberts used to avoid striking down the ObamaCare law: The “reasoning” is thinner than unleavened bread, and crumbles to dust not just upon gentle handling, but merely under the weight of a piercing gaze. Let us count…

Years from now, here is the proposition for which law students will study this week’s Supreme Court ObamaCare decision:  Federal power is not unlimited under the commerce clause after all.  Granted, the United States Supreme Court engaged in a contortion worthy of Cirque de Soleil in upholding ObamaCare’s individual mandate as…

“Our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious.”  ~Josephine Terry and Kent Terry, Sr.  The question is simple:  What is the Obama…

Monday, May 21, 2012, signaled a new round in the fight between Catholic institutions and the federal Department of Health and Human Services over HHS’s controversial contraception mandate.  In a coordinated effort, 43 separate Catholic entities – churches, hospitals, schools and other charities – filed lawsuits in every relevant…

In important court cases, it is the rarely the dissenting opinion that becomes a benchmark. In a case decided last Friday by the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, however, Judge Stephen Williams issued a tour de force of a dissent, explaining why the federal government should not (in effect) hold entire states guilty of racial discrimination without…

Hate may be a terrible sin, but is it really a crime? A horrible incident in Mobile, Alabama, April 21 earned well-intentioned pleas for it to be investigated as a “hate crime,” as did the now-infamous Trayvon Martin case in Florida and, unfortunately, a growing raft of allegedly race-motivated crimes. No matter whether the perpetrators…

Corrupt Attorney General Eric Holder’s war on white people continues. In its latest installment, the Justice Department on Monday sued the city of Jacksonville, FL, to force the city to jettison the written promotion exams in its fire department. According to Holder and his leading racialist instigator, civil rights division chief Thomas Perez…

Democrats may rue the day, now nine years ago, they violated the Constitution’s spirit by filibustering to kill the nomination of brilliant attorney Miguel Estrada for a federal appeals judgeship. Senate Republicans now have retained Estrada to plead their case against several “recess” appointments made by President Barack Obama…

The Legislature in Alabama, the home state of perhaps the single most prominent American-born jihadi, is poised to become the latest in a line of states outlawing the application of foreign laws in American courts if those laws violate American constitutional rights. The laws are desperately needed: Confused American trial court judges are surprisingly…

This week, it suddenly dawned on bewildered liberals that ObamaCare’s legality was dubious after all.  Behold New York Times bubble-dweller Linda Greenhouse, prior to this week’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court:  “The notion that Congress somehow lacks the power to regulate, restructure or basically do whatever…