On Monday, the Supreme Court issued an important ruling on the subject of surveillance in light of today’s technologies. Its opinion in United States v. Jones makes the rules for surveillance much less clear, which perhaps is not surprising given the rapid technological change and the need for further legislative and judicial action to address these complex new issues. Law enforcement long has used surveillance to track the comings and goings of suspects, probationers, and parolees as well as suspected spies, terrorists, and the like. Surveillance was oftentimes necessary and …
Testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the National Park Service made clear its legal position for declining to enforce laws against camping on federal land with respect to the Occupy DC protest group. But the Supreme Court has already weighed in on a near-identical case and found that enforcing laws against camping does not violate First Amendment rights, as the NPS claims. “The core of [Occupy DC’s] First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site,” explained NPS director Jonathan Jarvis. In other words, “occupying,” or camping on the land …
Two House committees have scheduled hearings on President Obama’s unconstitutional appointments of four federal officials earlier this month. On Tuesday, the financial services panel of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will examine the role that Richard Cordray will play at the helm of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The hearing will be streamed live at http://oversight.house.gov. Subcommittee chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) called Cordray’s appointment an “apparent contravention of constitutional requirements for a recess appointment” in a Jan. 4 statement. The panel, McHenry added, “is deeply interested in …
Today, the Supreme Court tossed out the work of a district court that attempted to force its own electoral maps on the state of Texas, while ignoring the maps drawn by the Texas legislature. The unanimous decision is a major victory for constitutional federalism, and a blow to runaway judicial activism. Drawing electoral districts is one of the core responsibilities of state legislatures, and a vital part of the democratic process, and the federal courts have at least paid lip service to the principle that legislator-passed electoral maps are due significant …
In the wake of a number of corruption scandals, the Alabama legislature endeavored to reform their system by enacting tough ethics laws. But does that mean that a student can no longer give a teacher a Christmas gift? For some students and parents in the Yellowhammer State, that may mean flirting with serious jail time, according to the state’s ethics commission. Is it too late to return Christmas gifts? In two opinions issued late last year, the commission explained at length that under the amended code “[t]he suggestion that it …
Is Congress about to limit freedom of speech on the Internet? Two bills wending their way through the Senate and the House may do just that. The proposals, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are aimed at stopping foreign-based Web sites from distributing copyrighted material, such as Hollywood movies, in violation of U.S. law. Such online “piracy” is a real problem, and since many of the so-called pirate sites distributing content are based off-shore, they have been able to operate without interference. …
Last night’s Republican presidential debate raised the issue of felon voting. Rick Santorum was challenged over his vote for federal legislation that would automatically restore the voting rights to felons as soon as they are released from prison and have completed any required probation or parole. As I testified nearly two years ago before the House Judiciary Committee, a federal statute of this nature would appear to be both unconstitutional and poor public policy. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment specifically provides that states may abridge the right to vote …
An internal memorandum from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) reveals that Justice Elena Kagan “substantially participated” in a health care case in San Francisco in which the Justice Department argued over the effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This raises grave new doubts about the appropriateness of Kagan’s participation as a justice in the Obamacare lawsuit scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in March. There has been a lot of debate over Kagan’s direct involvement in defending the PPACA while she was …
BREAKING NEWS—Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman will not be on the Virginia GOP ballot. Federal district court Judge John Gibney has just issued a ruling in Richmond finding that the Virginia requirement that ballot petition circulators must be state residents is a violation of the First Amendment. However, he also held that the four GOP candidates who failed to make it onto the Virginia ballot because they did not meet the 10,000-signature requirement had waited too late to raise their constitutional claims. (Perry did not file …
Obama made a big splash last week when he appointed a new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board without confirmation of the Senate even though they were technically in session. These appointments were an abuse of presidential power. Click here to join us right now for our “Lunch with Heritage” chat. We are joined by Heritage’s Hans von Spakovsky and he is taking your questions about the legality of the appointments and the ramifications of them. Lunch with Heritage …
