Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a decision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on the basis that board member Craig Becker had been appointed in violation of the Constitution. In a 2–1 decision, Judge D. Brooks Smith determined that Becker’s appointment on March …
Any conservative who takes his bearings from America’s founding principles can’t help but miss the candor with which the early Progressives dismissed our founding documents as antiquated relics of a bygone era. Unlike liberal politicians from FDR onward who couch their statist agenda in the rhetoric of the Founding, Woodrow …
This week, PBS premiered part one of a four-part series on the Constitution. In it, Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, rode around America astride a decked-out flag motorcycle to investigate the Constitution in modern America. And the first leg of his journey was surprisingly good. …
The horrific terrorist attack in Boston this week, and the ensuing investigation to find the person or persons responsible, once again highlight the age-old question: How must America balance security and liberty? We at The Heritage Foundation cherish both individual liberty and security and have written about both before and …
This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry, a constitutional challenge to California’s definition of marriage as the union of a man and woman. During the oral argument, both Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito noted that same-sex marriage was a very recent experiment—just over a …
George Will opens his recent column criticizing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on federalism grounds by quoting from a 1948 Supreme Court case: “[U]nder the Constitution, the regulation and control of marital and family relationships are reserved to the States.” What he doesn’t point out is that the citation …
Severe flaws and limitations exist in the scientific research into the relatively new phenomenon of same-sex parenting, argue preeminent political scientists Leon R. Kass and Harvey C. Mansfield in a brief filed with the Supreme Court by Nelson Lund. The scholars urge the Court not to redefine marriage based on …
On February 26, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Human Rights issued a white paper on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which concludes that “the proposed ATT is consistent with the Second Amendment.” This conclusion neglects important facts about the treaty and the processes surrounding it, which we …
Senator Rob Portman (R–OH) announced this morning that he now supports the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples. He was clear, however, that the Supreme Court should not impose this redefinition. Americans and their elected officials have constitutional authority to make marriage policy. When Americans hear the case for …
Budget cutters, cultural conservatives, and national defense hawks ought to be able to rally around a common standard. But what is that standard? In order to properly unite our forces, author Peter Berkowitz recommends that we must first temper our tempers. In his new book Constitutional Conservatism, Berkowitz writes that …
