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…

At National Review Online on Tuesday, columnist John Fund blasted Attorney General Eric Holder for advocating permanent racial discrimination in favor of black Americans. His column is “must” reading. Holder’s position is mind-boggling. It pushes the extreme edges of racialism. Anything approaching those far edges is immoral.…

Second Amendment antagonists claim that the individual right to keep and bear arms is some sort of anachronism, no longer important since the days of the Redcoat.  Decades of sociological research refute that allegation, of course, demonstrating to the contrary that greater firearm possession by law-abiding citizens correlates with lower crime…

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  --Amendment I, United States Constitution  Freedom of religion is a Constitutional right.  Indeed, it is our nation’s most foundational right.  In contrast, the convenience of government-…

In a devastating smackdown of the Obama administration’s extremist, anti-religious legal philosophy, a unanimous – repeat, unanimous – Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled anew that government usually may not interfere with a religious institution’s hiring and firing practices. The victory for First Amendment religious freedom is…

The Supreme Court’s agreement to consider four separate issues regarding ObamaCare has given rise to fears, mine included, that the court would produce some sort of unsatisfyingly fractured ruling that leaves defenders of liberty sputtering in frustration. The unfortunate model would be the abortion decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which…

If the 1942 decision Wickard v. Filburn doesn’t ring a bell, that’s certainly understandable.  Even informed adults at the time were preoccupied by slightly more immediate threats to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than Wickard.  Nevertheless, it’s poetically appropriate that “Wickard” rhymes with…

[Part one of two] The broad scope of the Supreme Court’s decision to consider the constitutionality of ObamaCare makes it more possible for the court to invalidate at least part of the law, although that same broad scope also increases the possibility for a confusing and fractured ruling that punts the biggest legal issues to a future date.…

“The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems…”  Somehow, that absurdity masquerading as legal reasoning actually survived the editing process, and maintained its prominence within the written opinion of Judge…

Here’s a reliable rule of thumb:  If Senator Marco Rubio (R – Florida) and Representative Marsha Blackburn (R – Tennessee) support proposed legislation, it’s likely an excellent idea.  Here’s corollary rule of thumb:  If the self-described Marxist organization Free Press fiercely opposes proposed legislation…

Imagine a country where outside groups could be punished for offering their opinion about the effects of a government official’s actions, while the government itself could knowingly lie with impunity about whether a document even exists. We would see a political opinion punished as a lie while something that is indisputably a lie would be protected…

On subjects ranging from Black Panthers to black gold, the Obama administration is having a very bad time in courts these days, and rightly so. Again and again the Obamites try to abuse their authority without regard to constitutional or statutory limits. Fortunately, judges shot down Obamite overreach in three important cases within days of each other…

The United States Supreme Court just finished another term, and conservatives can again take comfort in its overall performance.  How long that remains the case, however, may depend upon the 2012 presidential election.  Among the most consequential rulings of the recent term, the Court held by a 5-4 margin in Arizona Free Enterprise Club…

It was bad enough that President Obama last week asked the Supreme Court to apply a law that has not even been enacted. It was worse that four of the Left’s lackeys on the Supreme Court, one short of a majority, were willing to do it. Obama’s attempted intervention to stop the execution of brutal rapist-murderer Humberto Leal Garcia (henceforth…

One reason Supreme Court watching can be a fascinating enterprise is because diametrically opposing sides of a case sometimes both can be, in a supra-legal sense, correct. One such decision occurred this week in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants, when a 7-2 majority ruled unconstitutional a California law banning the sale or rental of “violent…

Professor John Lott, economic scholar and foremost authority on the deadly real-world consequences of gun “control” laws across the globe, labeled Barack Obama “undoubtedly the most anti-gun candidate ever nominated by a major party for President.”  Well, that apparently depends on who possesses the gun.  If you…

The Obama Administration’s attitude toward the American court system is reminiscent of every schoolyard bully: Heads I win; tails you lose.  From healthcare to the environment to jobs, liberal legal elites pay lip service to the rule of law while their friends in the bureaucracy race to entrench liberal policies.  Welcome to the New…

Many politicians claim to know the difference between the U.S. Constitution and “The Communist Manifesto,” but very few take the time to judge legislation by whether it moves society closer to one or the other.  Morgan Philpot is one of the latter.  As a state legislator in Utah, Philpot earned attention by holding up a copy…

“I would ask gun control advocates one question:  name a single place in the entire world where murder rates fell after gun control laws were passed.” That is the powerful challenge from economist Dr. John Lott, Jr., who was kind enough to discuss with CFIF the third edition release of his tectonic book More Guns, Less Crime. …

Capital punishment’s righteous opponents often disingenuously offer the supposed “certainty” of life imprisonment without parole as a bogus alternative to execution.  On the one hand, such activists decry the “cruelty” of execution.  On their other hand, they contradict that purported humanism by assuring us…

Imagine the following terrifying home invasion scenario:  You live in Chicago’s west side Garfield Park community, a neighborhood in which armed home invasions are “all too frequent,” according to news media.  It’s still dark in the pre-dawn hour of 5:20 a.m.  Few people will be awake to hear your pleas for…