I’ve taken to reading blogs or foreign newspapers, since there’s no news in American “news” anymore. Every large American paper is now The National Enquirer; every televised “news” program is the Fox show. And of late, there’s been talk in those venues about the Tyranny of the Majority. I think I’ve even mistakenly commented on […]

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Many people agree with me that this election is a matter of electing “the lesser of two evils” and not so much about electing the right man for the job. Many, however, do not; they mistakenly believe that electing the greater evil is electing the right man for the job. In this article, I’m going […]

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Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of people, including (particularly shocking to me) law students, say that we shouldn’t worry about losing a few constitutional freedoms if we have “nothing to hide.”

I wrote an article by that title, pondering what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founders had to hide — and explaining what’s wrong with the concept. The article extensively relies upon Montesquieu, Thomas Paine and the Federalist Papers.

If you’re interested in seeing it, just follow the link in this email!

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Today’s blog entry is meant to encourage people to understand what the Constitution was meant to be, how it has come to be used against us, and how we can put things back the way they were.

Comments are invited. It’s entirely possible to post your comments directly to the website yourself. Comments have to be “approved” by me before they are posted, but I try to adhere to the First Amendment even though I’m not a government! The only posts I have ever blocked so far involve “spam” or advertising.

It can take awhile between when you submit the comment and when it gets posted, though, if I’m away from a computer, as I will be part of today. I’m going to the law library to finish writing a legal memo. But rest assured, I’ll approve all comments either periodically by using a computer at the library, or when I get home this afternoon.

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Abi, over at Sunpig, has a talent I don’t see much of these days — well, yes, she is an intelligent and critical thinker, but that’s not what I meant — she practices bookbinding, by hand, as a hobby. I can’t claim to be any kind of knowledgeable about bookbinding. Probably anything I know about […]

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As part of the research for a motion I’m writing, I’ve been reading City of Chicago v. Morales (1999) 527 U.S. 41 [119 S.Ct. 1849; 144 L.Ed2d 67; 1999 U.S.Lexis 4005]. Justice Scalia — not unpredictably — turns the United States Constitution on its head in his dissenting opinion. (Thank goodness, for now, it’s a […]

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The debate about the First Amendment has remained lively since Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “incident”. The FCC, supported by the administration and many right-wing Christian groups, has reacted by increasing the fines per “obscene” incident. The increases are enough that even Corporate America is taking notice. The result is that those who make a living […]

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It’s hard to imagine two stranger bedfellows: Howard Stern and John Kerry. And it was Janet Jackson that arranged it. Only in America ………

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Since the Case of the Pledge of Allegiance brought by Michael Newdow is such a lightning rod for Christians and since that case was recently argued before the Supreme Court, I decided to read the Oral Arguments. After all, I’m (literally — Hi, Nick!) surrounded by Christians. And it strikes me as interesting that what’s […]

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A very good friend, who happens also to be a very good law student, sent me a link to a Fresno Bee story about a child molester who was freed from a life sentence by an appeals court on a “technicality.” The alleged victim was not available at trial because he had committed suicide. If […]

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