The Foundry

Archive for the ‘Rule of Law’ Category

• The Case for Justices Staying Home

  Posted February 5th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Rule of Law with 17 comments

  The New York Times highlighted a speech that Justice Clarence Thomas delivered at a Florida law school in which he defended the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. FEC.  In that speech, Thomas also addressed why he chose to forgo the president’s state of the union address: “I don’t go because it [...] More

• Outside the Beltway: States Consider Prohibiting the Individual Mandate

  Posted February 2nd, 2010 at 9:17am in Health Care, Rule of Law with 7 comments

  According to the Associated Press, an increasing number of state legislatures have begun considering legislation that would prohibit the imposition of the individual mandate — a feature of both the current House and Senate bills. The individual mandate, an attempt to keep the costs of the reform package in line by forcing all citizens to purchase health insurance, has concerned many Americans and has led to a public backlash against the proposal. More

• The Truth About President Obama and Citizens United

  Posted January 28th, 2010 at 6:24pm in Rule of Law with 36 comments

  I have to admit that if I had been sitting in the House chamber during President Obama’s State of the Union address, I would have had to fight the urge to have a Joe Wilson moment when the President unjustly criticized the Supreme Court, six of whose members were there. Why? Because the two [...] More

• Citizens United v. FEC: A Landmark Decision in Favor of Free Speech

  Posted January 21st, 2010 at 7:34pm in Rule of Law with 60 comments

  The “First Principles” on which this country were founded are the principles that the Heritage Foundation works to advance everyday. In today’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court upheld some of the most important principles: the right to engage in free speech, particularly [...] More

• Supreme Court Already Overturning Prop 8 Judge’s “Eleventh Hour” Decisions

  Posted January 15th, 2010 at 11:01am in Family and Religion, Rule of Law with 5 comments

  On Monday, The New York Times carried an op-ed by Heritage Foundation scholar and former US Attorney General Ed Meese titled “Stacking the Deck Against Proposition 8.” In that piece, Mr. Meese criticized a series of pre-trial rulings issued by Judge Vaughn R. Walker in the landmark same-sex marriage case currently underway in [...] More

• No Cameras in Prop 8 Marriage Case

  Posted January 14th, 2010 at 11:00am in Family and Religion, Rule of Law with 6 comments

  The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 late yesterday that a federal judge in San Francisco had acted improperly in altering longstanding rules barring the televising of federal court proceedings. As a result, the federal trial of Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment on the definition of marriage adopted in November 2008 by California voters, will [...] More

• California Public Safety Committee Votes to Revictimize Victims

  Posted January 13th, 2010 at 2:01pm in Rule of Law with 3 comments

  Yesterday, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 4 – 2 to approve Senate Bill No. 399, which allows any prisoner to petition the sentencing court for “recall” (i.e., cancellation) if they have served at least 10 years of a life-without-parole sentence for any crime committed before turning 18 . These juvenile offenders, almost all of whom [...] More

• Prop. 8 Not A Show Trial Yet

  Posted January 11th, 2010 at 7:35pm in Family and Religion, Rule of Law with 9 comments

  The U.S. Supreme Court, with one justice writing in dissent, agreed today with attorneys who argued against the broadcasting and posting of the trial proceedings in Perry v. Schwarzenegger – the case challenging the constitutionality of California’s popularly approved Proposition 8 preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court [...] More

• Federal Court Fines Obama Administration for Lack of Transparency

  Posted January 7th, 2010 at 11:32am in Rule of Law with 16 comments

  For the last nine months, the Justice Department has been stonewalling requests for more information about its dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther party. The department has denied requests for information about the case from newspapers and members of Congress, and is refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. [...] More

• The Nebraska Compromise and the Constitution

  Posted January 5th, 2010 at 10:20am in Health Care, Rule of Law with 3 comments

  In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), dated December 30, 2009, the Attorneys General of 13 States have objected to the so-called Nebraska Compromise that reportedly won the crucial support of Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) for the Senate health care takeover bill. The deal is [...] More