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    • In Kagan Hearing, Senate Liberals Downplay the Importance of Impartiality

    June 28, 2010 at 5:45 pm

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    In their opening statements today in the confirmation hearings of nominee Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, liberal Senators have taken to arguing that a Justice’s job is not to “call balls and strikes.” Most conservatives rightly believe the law should govern, not judges, and that Supreme Court Justices should … More

    Supreme Court Strikes a Blow Against Overcriminalization

    June 24, 2010 at 5:37 pm

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    Exposing the extent to which criminal law has expanded, the Supreme Court today narrowed the scope of the federal “honest services” fraud statute and called into question the validity of Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling’s conviction.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor and two other “liberal” justices would have gone even further than the … More

    Supreme Court Saves the Mojave Desert Cross – For Now

    April 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm

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    The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed a defeat to activists and other litigants whose extreme views motivate them to try to eliminate from public life almost every symbol and expression of religion. By a slim 5-4 margin, the Court in Salazar v. Buono reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for … More

    One Nation Under Arrest

    April 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm

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    If you did not know that you were supposed to affix a federally mandated sticker to your otherwise lawful UPS package, should you be arrested face down on the pavement by FBI agents training automatic weapons at you? Our hunch is that most reasonable Americans would respond with an emphatic … More

    Outside the Beltway: Illegal Adventures in Babysitting

    October 1, 2009 at 9:10 am

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    The Associated Press reported on Tuesdayon a letter the Michigan Department of Human Services sent to suburban mom Lisa Snyder, warning her to stop watching her neighbors’ children while they waited in the mornings for the school bus. Apparently Snyder was kind enough to do this as a favor for … More

    The Unlimited Prosecution Act

    March 24, 2009 at 3:16 pm

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    In today’s Politico, attorneys Peter Zeidenberg and William Minor point out that the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act of 2009, which recently passed out of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Senate Judiciary Committee, authorizes $100 million for new federal prosecutors and agents to root out “public corruption” using the federal “honest services” … More

    Criminalizing Our Way out of the Crisis

    March 4, 2009 at 9:13 am

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    If you’re a member of Congress, it’s tough to vote or even argue against any bill that has harsher criminal offenses or penalties. No legislator wants to give his reelection opponent the opportunity to label him as being “soft on crime.” Two bills scheduled to be considered by the Senate … More

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    Brian Walsh

    Brian Walsh

    Brian W. Walsh is the Senior Legal Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Walsh directs Heritage's projects on countering the abuse of the criminal law and criminal process, particularly at the federal level. His work also focuses on efforts to ensure that national and homeland security measures include protections for constitutional and other civil liberties.
    The Morning Bell
    Ed Meese: We’ve Seen the Effect of “Amnesty” BeforeExperts can’t always predict exactly how public policy will affect the nation, despite our best efforts. But when it comes to immigration policy, we have tried many of the types of reforms advocated by today’s Gang of Eight—so we should consider the effects these reforms had in the past. In … MoreMore
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