Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama Justice Department would appeal a U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson’s order to release 9/11 terrorist operative Mohamedou Ould Slahi. This is a good decision by Holder. Our nation would be less safe if Slahi was released from U.S. custody. But the very need for the appeal underscores how the Obama administration’s larger approach to detainee treatment is seriously undermining our national security. Former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and current National Review Institute senior …
In a stunning display of political cowardice, the Obama administration has decided not to seek specific congressional authorization for a prolonged detention statute for Guantanamo Bay detainees deemed too dangerous to set free. It’s the latest troubling flip flop by the president, an utter abdication of the lofty promises he made during his much-heralded National Archives Speech just this May. This decision not only weakens U.S. detention policy, it will regrettably serve as an invitation to the courts to expand their role in national-security affairs — an area that is …
The Heritage Foundation released the following statement yesterday by former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III concerning the announcement of Justice David Souter’s pending retirement from the Supreme Court. Meese is chairman of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. “Justice Souter’s decision to retire presents President Obama and the U.S. Senate with a decision of great and lasting importance. Although no originalist, Justice Souter rejected a liberal, activist approach on a number of important cases, particularly in the areas of crime, punishment, and lawsuit abuse. Supreme Court appointments are …
In 1979, Robert Schuettinger and Eamonn Butler wrote a book called “Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls,” detailing 4,000 years of disastrous attempts by government to control market prices. Tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee will vote on adding a 41st century to that litany of failure. The target: credit card “interchange fees.” Interchange fees are the fees paid by one bank to another, and passed on to merchants, as the price for processing a credit card purchase. They are set by credit card associations, such as MasterCard and Visa …
Here’s a preview of the week ahead in Washington. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGtSIVoMj9Y[/youtube] The liberals continue to block President Bush’s conservative judicial nominees in the hope they can pack the courts with liberal judges in a potential Democrat administration. The federal courts are important because they are the training ground for our future Supreme Court nominees. Conservatives need to make sure that the table is not set for judges that will legislate a so-called constitutional right of same-sex marriage, take away the right to keep and bear arms and strike down any mention …
