To schedule an interview with an ACRU representative, please contact:
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This column originally appeared on the American Thinker website on February 6, 2010. It's a good bet that the conversation in the Supreme Court break room the morning after the president's State of the Union speech was about Obama's drive-by...

Do the citizens of the states have a constitutional right to recall their Members of Congress before the end of their set terms, if they become satisfied that their Members are seriously harming the interests of the people who elected them?

On January 21, the U.S. Supreme Court empowered ordinary Americans to speak out on an equal footing with millionaires and the media in U.S. elections. Threatened by people being able to freely speak their minds, the president of the United States deceived the American people when discussing this court decision in the State of the Union.

Sad to say, the highlight of President Obama's first State of the Union address on Wednesday was when he took the opportunity to openly condemn the Supreme Court. For the first time in memory, a president lashed out with the justices seated just a few feet away from him. Talk about "in your face"! The attack from the president prompted his equally-partisan supporters in Congress to erupt in raucous applause. This marks a low point for constitutional government in America, where the third branch of government is publicly humiliated by our head of state, and where an entire political party joined in this shameful display of disrespect for our Constitution.

Dawn Johnsen is President Obama's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). It's arguably the most important office at DoJ. OLC sets policy for the entire federal government.

Cameron Lefler lives his life according to the Boy Scout motto: "Be prepared." "Two of the most powerful words to live by," says Lefler, whose résumé includes going into battle as a Marine, saving lives and keeping order as a sheriff's department patrol sergeant, being a husband and father, and volunteering as an adult leader for Boy Scout Troop 174 of Puyallup, Wash. – the troop he belonged to as a boy.

There is growing tension between the pro-gun parties to the upcoming Supreme Court gun-rights case. Perhaps concerned about the direction this case was going, the Court has taken the unusual step of granting the NRA's motion to be given separate time to speak during oral arguments. Round One in this historic fight for the right to bear arms goes to the NRA.

There is a way to fight back against a runaway Congress. Here's how it works. Over the past year, Congress has seemed to be out of control. From health care to global warming to stimulus spending, corporate bailouts, deficits, federal debt and beyond, Congressional leaders have been dismissive of alternative views, insisting that they know best. They have responded to critics with name-calling, calling them everything from "yahoos," to "Nazis," and "tea baggers."

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday, every American should be worried when the president of the United States starts threatening the highest court in the land.

In 1804, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Abigail Adams on the free exercise of individual conscience in America, and its indispensability to our freedoms. We may disagree, wrote the Founder, but that disagreement is to be welcomed, not crushed: "I tolerate with utmost latitude the right of others to differ with me in opinion without imputing to them criminality. I know too well all the weaknesses and uncertainty of human reason to wonder at its different results."

On January 12, the Supreme Court heard a case involving a federal law that empowers the federal government to keep dangerous people locked up after their prison sentences are over. Enough justices seemed skeptical, however, so the law may be struck down as unconstitutional.

Think of the Christmas "just wait 'til I get my Hanes on you" bomber as a deadly disease in your body next time the topic of Obamacare is raised. Despite having all the information needed, the U.S. government failed to catch the al Qaeda-trained terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, before he boarded the Detroit-bound plane with a high explosive hidden in his underwear.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's, D-Nev., buyoffs to Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., for their votes for Obamacare are up against an important legal fact: They're unconstitutional.

President Obama's team has scared the nation over the past week with pronouncements so crazy they leave you breathless. But worse still are the decisions they've made, decisions that show America is in danger, and that those charged with protecting us are failing to treat this life-and-death struggle as the war that it really is.

Two ongoing trends I chronicled during 2009 highlight an ironic situation: Leftists remain tough on their domestic political opponents, while lax when it comes to our real common enemies. As we recently saw with the Christmas airplane-bombing attempt, leftists seem bent on treating terrorists with kid gloves, insisting they receive rights normally reserved for U.S. citizens (even when this means failing to extract timely information that might save lives).

The editor of the New Yorker was once asked about the hip, cool, insider writing that graced his journal. Didn't its stylish prose go over people's heads? "We don't write it for the little old lady from Dubuque," he replied. Not pitching your case to the little old lady from Dubuque, Iowa, became a hallmark of modern sophisticated liberalism--a liberalism more characterized by point-of-view than by policy point papers. So when the New Yorker's Christmas week number hit newsstands, it was bound to attract attention.

America is careening in overdrive in exactly the wrong direction, and the American people know it. All across this nation, people crave a new vision of leadership to restore traditional American prosperity and the American Dream, which they rightly see slipping away.

This column originally appeared on The American Spectator website on December 30, 2009. The health policy atrocity that Washington Democrats are now finalizing represents an ugly new turn in American politics. From almost the founding of the Republic, we have...

President Obama's health-care bill is now moving toward final passage. The policy issues may be coming to an end, but the legal issues are certain to continue because key provisions of this dangerous legislation are unconstitutional. Legally speaking, this legislation creates a target-rich environment. We will focus on three of its more glaring constitutional defects.

"Ever since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform in 1912, seven presidents -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- have taken up the cause of reform time and time again," President Obama said in a statement hailing the Christmas Eve Senate vote to take over 1/6 of the nation's economy. "Such efforts have been blocked by special-interests lobbyists who have perpetrated the status quo that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people."

Pollsters like to say their surveys are like a snapshot, limited to the time and the picture frame in which they are taken. What we are seeing in polling on the takeover of health care by the federal government is a consistent opposition by the American people. No major poll shows the people supporting the House or Senate bill.

John Maynard Keynes is considered one of the leading lights of liberal economics. Challenged by a critic who said that in the long run, Keynesian economics would lead to national bankruptcy, Keynes memorably responded with a witticism: "In the long run, we're all dead."

In 2005, the National Rifle Association of America enacted a law that probably saved the American gun-making industry from bankruptcy. And just this last week, the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to this landmark legislation, ensuring this law stays on the books to preserve America's culture of lawful firearm ownership.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is the proprietor of the influential liberal blog Daily Kos. The blog is a must-visit site for those who are serious about the direction of the Democratic party. The blog was influential in the rise of Vermont's former Gov. Howard Dean in the run-up to the 2004 election.

As Fiscal Year 2010 finally begins, a judge has struck down Congress' law ending federal funding of ACORN. It's ironic in that de-funding ACORN was the only example of fiscal restraint we've seen from Barack Obama, even more so since he's now stacking the courts with judges that will continue to issue such rulings. And perhaps that's what he's wanted all along.

Asked about the constitutionality of his healthcare bill's key provision, President Obama said it's legal because people have to buy car insurance. That statement is so dead wrong as a matter of constitutional law that it makes anyone who practices constitutional law wonder how the Harvard Law School faculty would now grade their most famous graduate.

Media and the public are fixated on the burgeoning band of brazen bimbos telling tales of their shameless trysts with Tiger Woods. The Woods adultery scandal has eclipsed the news about the marital infidelities of prominent politicians, which doesn't bode well for citizens dependent upon representative government.

President Barack Obama has completed his months-long "deliberations" over his latest Afghanistan policy. He got more applause from Republicans than from Democrats after his long-running Hamlet act. The Prince of Denmark was famous for his indecision: "To be or not to be..."

Many have heard about the historic gun rights case going to the Supreme Court. Fewer have heard that this is also a major case for businesses and family values. It could lead to anything from court-ordered Obamacare to same-sex marriage. This is the biggest case of the year, and everyone has a stake in it.

What if there was a federal law stating that anytime you owe anyone a duty to be honest and you violate that duty, you're committing a federal felony? Guess what--there already is. And now the Supreme Court is deciding whether to strike it down.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case over an executive-branch agency that is completely outside presidential control. Team Obama argued that the Court should keep it that way, leaving in place an agency that meddles in business affairs, but cannot be stopped by the public and for which Obama cannot be blamed.

Congress wants the White House staff director involved in the now-infamous "gatecrasher" dinner to explain what happened. She won't, because President Obama is invoking executive privilege. While there's a decent claim for executive privilege here, Barack Obama's hypocrisy is nothing short of stunning.

The American people are fed up with an out-of-control government, largely run by unaccountable officials like President Obama's "czars." The Constitution strictly limits how officials can get their jobs and their power, and the Supreme Court is about to weigh in on one of those cases.

If government action takes your property, the Constitution says government must give you fair market value for it. But what if a court takes your property? That's what the Supreme Court is going to decide.

Ex-White House counsel Greg Craig thought it was a good idea to transfer Eliàn Gonzalez from the arms of his loving family in Miami into the arms of Fidel Castro. Transfer Eliàn from Florida to Cuba. Bad idea. Attorney General Janet Reno thought she might have to prove her toughness by transferring dozens of women and children from a Waco cult headquarters to eternity. Really bad idea.

When the ACLU loses on a security issue, America wins. And vice versa. On Monday, the ACLU lost when the Supreme Court overturned the Second Circuit's order to release photos of alleged detainee abuse. The ACLU had sued to get the photos despite concerns that they could be used by our enemies to endanger American soldiers.

We don't yet know how bad the Ft. Hood shooter's case was. We do not know--and we must find out--how it was possible for an Army medical officer to openly express treasonous statements and not be court martialed. We do not know if the shooter or his family members were under surveillance by the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies. We must soon find out.

I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. Nor is Steve Pearlstein a doctor. Pearlstein is the respected business columnist of the Washington Post. His weekly column scorched President Obama's Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her decision to override an impartial expert panel's advice on mammograms.

The U.S. Senate is now trying to speed-read the 2,074 pages of the health care takeover bill after 60 senators voted to proceed on Nov. 21. It only took an insertion of $300 million to buy wavering Sen. Mary Landrieu's vote in what some call the second "Louisiana Purchase."

Kevin Anderson is a junior at Southern Lehigh High School near Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is also a longstanding member of Boy Scout Troop 301 in the Lehigh Valley. Kevin needed to do an Eagle Scout project to complete the requirements for the Eagle Scout rank. He decided to clear a 1,000 foot hiking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park in east Allentown, completing a missing link in the 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Trail. The completed trail would allow visitors to walk along the Lehigh River.

This column originally appeared on the American Thinker website on November 21, 2009. The Obama administration's absurd, unnecessary, and dangerous decision to prosecute 9/11 terrorists in a civilian court is plumbing the depths of what Charles Krauthammer has labeled "Bush...

One of the reasons liberals are so hostile to public expressions of Christianity is because it threatens the monopoly that the religion of liberalism enjoys in the public square. The late Ted Kennedy was more than a leading senator, to liberal supporters. He was a secular saint. His appeal was essentially religious. He made it fairly explicit in his famous concession speech to the Democratic National Convention that re-nominated President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy reduced thousands of liberal delegates to tears with this emotional peroration:

If I were asked to defend 9/11 terror suspect Khalid Sheik Mohammed here's what I'd tell him. Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Nov. 13 that the Obama administration would be transferring handpicked terrorists to New York City for a civilian trial, giving them every constitutional right enjoyed by Americans. This creates a legal nightmare, endangering our national security and jeopardizing our war effort. And President Obama may end up as a political casualty, having abdicated his constitutional responsibility on this issue to his subordinate.

"The Worst Bill Ever." That is the title the always calm and rational Wall Street Journal put on its editorial on November 1 about the government health care takeover bill that passed the House last week on virtually a party line vote, 220-215. But even this label doesn't fully communicate the outright assault on the American people involved in this legislation. The bill is a serious threat not only to your freedom and prosperity, but to your very life as well.

On Nov. 10, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acted to bring to the Senate floor the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to be a federal appeals judge. Presidents have a constitutional right to nominate judges.

Listening to government leaders and media avoid any connection between Islamist terrorism and the murderous attack at Ft. Hood is, to use their terminology, about as "twisted" and "nuts" as it gets.

On Nov. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases on whether it violates the Eighth Amendment for a minor (under age 18) to be sentenced to life in prison without parole where there's no homicide involved. The answer to that question should be "no," but it's not clear which way the Court will go.

In recent months, at least three major newspapers have carried columns attempting to push Chief Justice John Roberts into voting to uphold a grossly unconstitutional federal law. But their cheap distortions and Chicken Little yammering will fail. The chief justice will do his job, and the country will be better off for it.

Stung by a rising tide of resistance and a closing window of opportunity, House Democrats have unleashed a new version of ObamaCare, weighing in at 1,990 pages and with a $1 trillion price tag. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promises to ram it through quickly, exhibiting a disdain for her countrymen that makes Marie Antoinette look like a populist.

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Mr. Gibbs: On Oct. 20, Politico published my column in which I explained how the individual mandate in the health care bill is unconstitutional, since there is no constitutional provision authorizing such legislation and it falls outside the scope of the Constitution's Commerce Clause.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was the Imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, died in a shoot-out on Oct. 28 after firing on FBI agents during a raid in Dearborn, Michigan. Another seven Muslims were apprehended, and various weapons seized.

President Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seems determined to go after a small Catholic college in North Carolina. Readers of First Things, the thoughtful journal founded by Rev. Richard Neuhaus, are familiar with the funny ads regularly run by Belmont Abbey. "Got Monks?" reads the white-on-black ad that encourages serious young Catholics to consider a college where the Benedictine monks seek God and where the students seek truth.

My Oct. 20 column in POLITICO ("Making Individuals Buy Insurance Is Unconstitutional") explained why Obamacare's individual mandate is unconstitutional. Erwin Chemerinsky then wrote a rebuttal Oct. 23 ("Health Care Reform Is Constitutional"), claiming to explain how I was wrong.

If your company was in a financial fix, would you (a) try to attract top talent or (b) cut salaries so low that top talent wouldn't return your calls?

A situation is unfolding in Florida that is illustrative of how far American culture has listed toward a militantly-secular society that is overtly hostile to expressions of faith and Judeo-Christian traditions. This unfortunate episode is the predictable result of the Supreme Court's half-century of deviation from the constitutional design for religious liberty, a deviation now reinforced by legal principles that are foundational to the American system of law. Religious liberty must be reinstated by the Supreme Court if society is again to enjoy the benefits of our young people receiving moral instruction.

At last. For years, I thought I had no redress for hours of pain and excruciating discomfort that occurred in numerous settings. From the aisles of Safeway to malls, drug stores, gas stations, restaurants, department stores and even in doctors' offices, I and countless others have endured what no one should.

Doctors are waking up to the reality that Obamacare would end their profession as they know it. But many are still half asleep to the consequences and must learn the truth before it's too late for all of us.

Whether the White House's "war" against Fox News is a ruse to divert attention from President Barack Obama's plummeting poll numbers and unfavorable policies, or an all-out attack to exclude Fox News from the White House press pool, the self-proclaimed government "watch dogs" are virtually AWOL or turncoats.

As would-be presidential advisors go, the gay rights movement is nothing if not cheeky. The Michael Palm Center, a "think tank" in California at UC Santa Barbara that gives academic cover to the campaign to bring open homosexuality to our nation's armed forces, issued a 29-page memo in May.

In 2008, the Supreme Court decided a major voting-rights case, making it clear that laws requiring voters to show identification are constitutional if certain safeguards are in place. Now, it's not so clear anymore. An Indiana appeals court has now struck down that same law and the Indiana Supreme Court must override that decision.

The Senate Finance Committee-passed health care bill includes an "individual mandate" that Americans must buy an insurance policy or pay a fine, an approach that tracks President Barack Obama's health care proposals. But if enacted into law, this mandate would be glaringly unconstitutional.

The Obama White House hesitated not at all in labeling the AHIP study "an insurance industry hatchet job." The study in question was one conducted by a policy group that is funded by the industry.

The House has now rammed through a provision making it a hate crime to target gays. Should this provision become law, it's on shaky constitutional ground, though not for the reason most people expect.

Do you think Congress should vote on bills without reading them? How about voting on bills that don't even exist yet, except in fragments?

The Supreme Court joined in a fight between the ACLU and the federal government over a World War I memorial in the shape of a cross. While neither legal team hit the ball over the fence, the majority seems inclined to save this cross in what will be the first religious liberty case of the new Court.

Where is Art Carney when you need him? The straight man for the classic Honeymooners TV show could deliver a line sorely needed at today's Supreme Court hearing on the fate of the Mojave Desert war memorial cross: "Simmer down, Ralphie boy!"

Our voter registration system is a disaster, and I have the scars to prove it. I spent eight years in the partisan cross hairs of election administration while serving as Ohio's chief election official. No element of election administration is more fraught with controversy than how we register voters.

Here's a bulletin based on an unscientific survey and verified by friends: Obama stickers are getting harder to spot. That's right. The ubiquitous blue stickers with the round, red-white-and blue symbol are coming off the bumpers. Even in northern Virginia, which has large pockets of yellow dog Democrats, the stickers are disappearing.

The courts should vindicate the First Amendment rights of the reporters and media outlets involved in breaking the ACORN scandal wide open. And they should strike down the oppressive and absurd Maryland law that makes it a crime to record someone's conversation without their knowledge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held an "emotional" press conference to caution the rest of us "about the language" we use. "We all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words" and "any incitement they may cause." Some people aren't as "balanced" as we may think, Pelosi pontificated.

President Obama has no greater friend and supporter than Newsweek editor Evan Thomas. Actually, it's not really accurate to describe Evan Thomas as a friend of the President; he's more like a worshiper. It was Evan Thomas who managed what we all thought was an impossible feat: He one-upped Chris Matthews. Matthews had famously said that he felt a "tingling going up and down his leg" when he heard candidate Obama speak. Few thought it was possible to exceed that for adulation. But Evan Thomas said that Obama at Normandy "hovered above all like a God." You'd have to go to North Korea to find more fulsome praise of a dear leader.

In the wake of Fox News reporting on the unfolding ACORN scandal, ACORN is now threatening to sue the network. Now that Fox is actually breaking news on this story by showing new videos, ACORN might just do it. Fox News should pray that ACORN does sue, because it would blow the doors off this story, possibly destroying ACORN and erupting into a political scandal in Washington.

The Ku Klux Klan may start marketing a line of baby bigot wear if they fall for Newsweek's Sept. 14, cover story, "See Baby Discriminate." According to the editors at the "we've fallen for him and we can't get up" Barack Obama fan magazine: "Kids as young as 6 months judge others based on skin color." Thanks to Newsweek, we now know why babies are comfortable in hoods-at least white ones-both babies and hoods, that is.

I've been bashing the Washington Post lately and am starting to feel bad about it. So maybe if I do it a bit more, I'll feel better. If you were an editor, how and where would you play a story with these elements?

People are again talking about fighting terrorism in the wake of Scotland freeing a man who murdered 180 Americans on Pam Am 103 over Lockerbie and Eric Holder's criminal investigation of the CIA. In the midst of that discussion, Barack Obama has let a terrorist detainee go free.

September 9, 2009 was a historic day at the U.S. Supreme Court. Meeting in special session, the Court considered a legal challenge pitting Barack Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer against a living legend in a major First Amendment case that will forever shape how elections are conducted in America. And in her Supreme Court debut, Sonia Sotomayor gave the first hint of what kind of justice she will be.

If Woodstock in 1969 presaged the free-wheeling '70s, then Saturday's massive TEA party rally at the Capitol against Big Government may be the Constitutionalists' equivalent and harbinger of hope for the next decade.

Now that a third ACORN video has surfaced, a pattern emerges of ACORN workers willing to help people engage in prostitution, tax fraud, housing fraud, and even human trafficking. Under federal law, a RICO investigation is now warranted. Three strikes and you're out, ACORN.

Allegations are breaking against one of the most controversial organizations in the country. If true, then people could be going to prison, and Congress should immediately stop funneling taxpayer money to this organization until law enforcement has investigated the matter.

The American people enjoy the legal right to buy, sell, and own gold and silver, including gold and silver coins, as specifically recognized by Federal statute. This includes newly minted coins or medallions produced by private companies, as the right to own gold and silver is not limited to trading coins that were already produced before a certain date.

If a new videotape is genuine, then it shows extremely serious criminal activity perpetrated by some ACORN individuals. Law enforcement needs to investigate this matter and Congress needs to de-fund ACORN and exclude it from all government programs until investigation is complete.

Have you ever been to a White House event? I have. Before they let me anywhere near the place, I had to submit basic info that allowed them to vet me. But that was back when W lived there.

Former White House aide Van Jones, who resigned at midnight Saturday night on Labor Day weekend, explained in his resignation letter,

If Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s prosecutor knocks on Dick Cheney's door asking about CIA interrogations, Mr. Cheney should refuse to say a single word. If the Holder Justice Department tries to drag the former vice president into court to force him to speak, President Obama will be on the receiving end of a stern judicial rebuke.

Most people have now heard that President Obama is going to address America's school children on September 8. He'll be speaking to them directly, without their parents there to serve as a filter.

President Obama has decided that the CIA is a greater threat to America than Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism. If that decision turns out to be wrong, with thousands of Americans dying in another terrorist attack, President Obama and the Democrat Party will end up paying a grievous political price, which would be well deserved.

The Washington Post's behavior lately goes so far beyond mere bias that it looks like a caricature cooked up by a comedian or saboteur. The paper's bid to fix the Virginia gubernatorial election is right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

September 1, 1939. Seventy years ago, the Second World War began in Europe. German troops crossed the Polish border. German airplanes bombed fleeing civilians. This unprovoked attack prompted Britain and France--after an agonizing delay--to keep their commitment to Poland and declare war on Hitler.

Liberals can't stop talking about "death panels." Sarah Palin introduced the term on her Facebook page to describe the likelihood that faceless Obamacare bureaucrats would decide people's fates. Predictably, Mrs. Palin is being assailed from every corner of the media for providing the catch phrase for what everyone else is thinking.

ObamaCare needs a crash cart. It's so ominous that President Barack Obama is partnering with God and the God-squad to keep the American people from pulling the plug.

The Associated Press reported Friday that lawyers for certain Guantanamo Bay detainees have possibly violated federal criminal law by releasing the identity of CIA covert operatives. The current Justice Department investigation connects to both the Valerie Plame matter a few years ago, and the current issue of where and how Guantanamo Bay detainees should be charged and tried. First, the Plame Affair. According to the mainstream media, that was about the "outing" of a CIA "covert operative" in violation of federal law.

Now that Barack Obama has decided to push for a hyper-partisan healthcare bill, the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions is front-and-center. The current proposals would lead to this taxpayer mandate, and could even drive conscientiously objecting doctors out of medicine.

Independence Pass, Colorado - At 12,095 feet, this breathtaking portal on State Highway 82 to Aspen is open only from Memorial Day to October, when the snow starts flying. Depending on your worldview, the majestic mountains here at the Continental Divide are spectacular proof that God is the master Creator or just another reason to bash humans.

Even little kids know when they've been had. Like the little girl in the bank commercial who gets a tiny plastic pony while the other little girl gets a real pony, and the little boy who gets the cardboard truck, most Americans think President Barack Obama is hiding behind the fine print in his incomprehensible health care plan.

Three Florida school employees will go to federal court on September 17 to see if they'll be thrown behind bars. The reason? Prayer. Their school made a deal with the ACLU to stop praying and this ridiculous situation proves that you can't make a deal with the devil.

Since time began, the devil has done his best work by sowing doubt. In recent years, many people have abandoned the search for transcendent truth, replacing it with a quest for personal fulfillment. This is the alluring but poisonous siren song of relativism.

"I recommend that you seriously consider a "do not resuscitate" order, said the seemingly nice man in the white coat. "He has diminishing quality of life. And, if he has an infection or illness, we can provide comfort care for him."

Sonia Sotomayor is the Supreme Court's newest justice. And now the fallout begins. The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will impact this nation for decades, on issues ranging from free speech to racial preferences to gun rights. It will also become a major issue in the 2010 midterm elections and the 2012 presidential election, an issue that more likely than not will backfire on Barack Obama to the benefit of the Republican Party.

My son just bought his first car this week at age sixteen. Not sixteen years; he's only sixteen months. Yet Congress just forced my toddler to buy a car this week, a car that he'll never even drive.

Posted this morning at Heartland.org is my new comprehensive study: The Obama Health Plan: Rationing, Higher Taxes, and Lower Quality Care. The study explains in full detail, based on the pending Congressional legislation, exactly how the Obama Health Plan would impose government rationing that will deny you health care, severely restrict your freedom of choice and control over your health care, raise, not lower, health costs, impose sharp tax increases that would leave America uncompetitive in the world economy, and increase federal spending, deficits and debt.

Forthcoming this week from the Heartland Institute will be my comprehensive study on the Obama/Democrat government takeover of health care. That study presents my thorough analysis of the health care overhaul bills supported by President Obama now working their way through Congress.

Imagine the Ku Klux Klan in full regalia standing before a polling place deep in Dixieland hurling racial insults at black people arriving to vote in the last election. Imagine further a Republican-run U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) dropping the civil complaint against the KKK that had been filed by a Democrat-run DOJ.

Gun owners are increasingly concerned with the White House's citing of foreign law when it comes to gun rights. Look no further than the recent Senate confirmation of Professor Harold Koh to be State Department legal advisor in June. Koh, a committed transnationalist, is a passionate opponent of gun ownership.

A key element of President Obama's plan for a government takeover of health care is to create what he calls "the government option." He wants his government option to compete with private insurers. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) says that this government option will compete with private insurers the way an alligator "competes" with ducks. It's a pretty safe bet that the ducks always lose.

There were too many falsehoods in President Obama's healthcare press conference to cram into one column. But three of them show just how far this president is willing to ignore the truth to push his political agenda. And people are starting to catch on.

Over the next two weeks, one of the critical issues will be your civil rights on guns. Senators could benefit from context to understand the importance of this civil right to protect families, especially racial minorities. Given Judge Sotomayor's long record, her confirmation must be more than "transparent," it must be penetrating and the Senators must dig deep.

Democrats are playing the race card with Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in more ways than one. The White House and Senate Democrats want a vote on Sotomayor's nomination before the August congressional recess. If Senate Republicans surrender to the Democrats' race pace card, it means a fast, uninformed vote on a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court.

People are praying in a city hall in Michigan, and atheists are up in arms. People of faith should hope the secularists push this into court, because this time the believers should win. There's something happening in Warren, Michigan. This town has been hit hard by layoffs, like the rest of the state. (Michigan's unemployment rate is over 14%--the worst in the nation, thanks in no small part to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm imposing big-government taxes, entitlements and union labor policies on the people there.)

Next year, the Supreme Court can throw open the doors for voters to learn the truth about those seeking power in America. Or not. In an unusual move, the Court declined to decide a case on Americans' right to speak out on candidates during presidential elections that was argued this year. Instead, they will rehear it this fall, focusing on a new legal issue in a case that will pit two legal heavyweights against each other.

Cultural relativists like to talk about dialogue. They tell us that we need to engage in dialogue with people who are different from ourselves so that we can understand their perspective and become more tolerant. They tell us that we must listen to the voices of the marginalized and the excluded so that we can rethink our assumptions about the world.

Among its many defects, the proposed federal hate crimes bill virtually ensures that some defendants will face double jeopardy, whatever the outcome of their cases. It all depends on the whims of the folks occupying the Attorney General's office, who may want to score political points at a defendant's expense.

The Supreme Court's decision today in the racial preferences case Ricci v. DeStefano will be a major story. Less noticed but equally important, the Supreme Court's decision on voting rights last week heralds a sea change in racial politics in this country. Taken with the Ricci decision, it's clear that a new era is dawning on race in America.

In Dearborn, Michigan, where the local mosque's call to prayer is broadcast over the town by loudspeakers, a group of Christian evangelists were told that they could not pass out Bibles on the sidewalk during a festival. This is part of a growing national trend to disfavor Christian expression and traditional speech, and reflects a disturbing direction in public policy in America today.

"We're not going to win this case, but that's okay. Once we get 'hate crime' laws on the books, we're going to go after the Scouts and all the other bigots." This was a remark made in the gallery by the Clinton White House liaison for "gay" issues during U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Boy Scouts case in 2000. She had whispered it to the Rev. Rob Schenck, whom she mistakenly thought was one of those liberal clerics who think God is still making up His mind about sexual morality.

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claim that her Second Amendment rulings are examples of "judicial restraint." The problem is that she's restraining the Second Amendment.

Raging members of Congress, agitated TV commentators and hyperventilating bloggers have called for prosecuting George W. Bush administration officials they claim broke the law and committed war crimes by participating in what they say was illegal "torture" of captured high-level accused terrorists.

Last week President Obama appointed yet another "czar" with massive government power, answering only to him. Even before this latest appointment, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate wrote President Obama a letter saying that these czars are unconstitutional. President Obama's "czar strategy" is an unprecedented power grab centralizing authority in the White House, outside congressional oversight and in violation of the Constitution.

Anti-Second Amendment politicians have a high-caliber hypocrisy second to none. Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and his anti-gun supporters at The Washington Post are heralding the shooting skills of the Special Police Officers at the Holocaust Museum: "Fast Action By Guards Saved Lives, Officials Say":

The first terrorist detained in Guantanamo Bay is on U.S. soil and is now in the civilian court system. Democratic officials and operatives are lauding President Obama's commitment to close Gitmo. They say that we can simply lock up all these convicted terrorists in U.S. federal prisons. But one question exposes the fatal flaw with this plan: What convicted terrorists?

In President Barack Obama's moral and constitutional universe, unfettering abortion and coddling terrorists trump innocent life. But most Americans reject his anti-life calculations.

Fresh from grabbing much of the U.S. auto and banking industries, the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats are moving briskly toward nationalized health care.

Recent events reveal how far to the left President Obama really is. When the president's Cairo speech, taken with his reactions to the deaths of an abortion doctor and a U.S. soldier, are weighed against his Department of Homeland Security report and his Supreme Court decisions, a pattern emerges. The president is indicating that conservatives can in many ways be equated with terrorists. Such a comparison is outrageous, and the possibility that this mindset could end up on the U.S. Supreme Court makes it all the more dangerous.

The contrast between President Obama's reaction to the murder of a late-term abortionist and the murder of a U.S. Army Recruiter could not be more stark. Obama raced to send U.S. Marshals into abortion facilities. He denounced the murder in the strongest terms in a statement which is posted on the White House website:

This week a federal appeals court held that the Second Amendment does not apply to state or city gun laws. Supporters of Judge Sonia Sotomayor incorrectly argue that this affirms her recent gun-control case. Now the NRA is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, and in doing so heats up the gun-rights issue to potentially become the dominant topic in Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

The 2005 nomination hearings for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts provided a moment of unifying clarity for our politically and ideologically riven nation. Roberts explained the role of a judge as like an umpire in a baseball game. The umpire is supposed to call balls and strikes and fairly and objectively apply the rules of the game. The umpire is not supposed to get in the game and play for one team or another, whatever his personal "empathies" might be. This immediately calmed the nomination atmosphere, as the entire nation, including liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, seemed to join in saying "Amen," that is exactly what a judge is supposed to do.

If you believe the myth that Democrats are champions of equality for women, racial minorities, and folks with "compelling" life stories, maybe you've been spending more time tracking Big Foot than judicial nominations.

When Senators get a chance to vet Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, there are some important questions that they may want to get to the bottom of. Judicial philosophy - Ms. Sotomayor, in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, you...

President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a declaration of war against America's gun owners and the Second Amendment to our Constitution. If gun owners mobilize and unite, it's possible (though unlikely) to stop this radical nominee

The White House is touting the fact that Judge Sonia Sotomayor has a longer judicial record than any of the current justices on the Court. That fact, however, endangers her confirmation because of what it will mean for pro-gun senators during the August recess.

Donald Trump, the billionaire co-owner of the Miss Universe organization, decided this week not to throw Miss California to the sharks. But he let them nibble at her until she bled. And the guy who should have walked the plank, the scurrilous Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton, is still aboard the Good Ship Trump.

Retiring Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter has handed President Barack Obama his first chance to nominate a judge to the nation's highest court. Sand-blasting "Equal Justice Under Law" from the Courthouse should commence if the Senate confirms a nominee who matches Obama's criteria for judges.

Iowans may as well issue a formal declaration of surrender to the oligarchs on their supreme court if the governor and state legislature are allowed to forfeit their duties to uphold the state constitution. Why waste billions of dollars keeping them in office? Death to liberty needn't be so expensive.

Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party is a political earthquake that will have far-reaching consequences for a host of policy and political issues. Of all these, none is more significant than the potential consequences for the United States Supreme Court. As a result of this decision, the future of the Supreme Court may ironically rest with... the Supreme Court.

While most Americans readily embrace the opportunity to honor our nation's fallen, increasingly some have become critical if not hostile to this effort, particularly when religion or expressions of faith are involved.

When President Obama announced his new budget a few weeks ago involving record spending, tax increases, deficits and debt, he did so with soaring rhetoric about spending cuts (non-existent), tax cuts for 95% of workers (misleading), and cutting the deficit in half in 5 years (good luck). This misdirection rhetoric is now a common Obama pattern.

Recently, a federal court issued a decision that may be the next Supreme Court case in the War on Terror. The court ruled that terrorists held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan are entitled to the writ of habeas corpus, extending a panoply of rights to these detainees. This ruling could have a stunning impact on this and future wars, and bears out just how wrong last year's major Supreme Court habeas case was.

The pain of facing criminal prosecution in Spain has ended for six senior Bush administration officials who allegedly provided "legal cover for the torture of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay," according to The Washington Post. What remains of greater concern for all Americans is the core legal philosophy behind the prosecution and Harold Hongju Koh, President Barack Obama's nominee to be legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State.

People who don't know much about freedom of the press (or don't care much about it) often say that the government has a right to regulate the content of broadcast media because "the public owns the airways." If that were true, the government would have a right to censor your personal phone calls and e-mails.

While President Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to attack conservative talk radio with some version of the Fairness Doctrine, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in open court last week may have thrown a bombshell into those plans.

On Mar. 24, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Citizens United v. FEC, the latest installment in an ongoing series of challenges to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), better known as McCain-Feingold. This case has far-reaching implications for the future of campaign activities, and draws an important line between the right of citizens to speak out and the power of government to imprison them if they do.

This op-ed originally appeared on American Thinker on March 27, 2009. While campaigning for the U.S. Senate and then the presidency, Barack Obama said he believed in the individual right to bear arms. Those aware of his record and rhetoric...

Under President Obama, it was expected that porn pushers might find a sympathetic ear, given the smut industry's generous support of liberal politicians and causes. But the fox is no longer circling the henhouse. He's made it inside. On March 12, the "world's greatest deliberative body," the U.S. Senate, voted 65 to 28 to elevate porn attorney David Ogden to be deputy attorney general.

Barack Obama's administration has taken an extreme position on coercing doctors to participate in performing abortions even if those doctors are religiously-opposed to abortion. If this new policy becomes law, it would violate medical professionals' right to act in accordance with their conscience and violate a doctor's oath to do no harm. Should President Obama force this regulation through, the Supreme Court should strike it down.

What do President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have in common? Besides their socialist economic policies, they don't abide media critics well. The Obama White House has Rush Limbaugh, king of talk radio, in its crosshairs. When a president of the United States targets one media personality for criticism, those who live and breathe by the First Amendment should be aware they're on life-support. The executive branch can pull their plug via the FCC, which decides who gets or keeps a broadcast license.

This column originally appeared on Townhall.com on March 3, 2009. There's much commentary about civil rights and government power. But rights are only secure if a good judge is presiding over your case when you try to assert those rights....

On Feb. 23, a federal court will consider the latest attempt to secularize America, led by militant atheist lawyer Michael Newdow. His lawsuit, Newdow v. Roberts, seeks to purge all references to God from presidential inaugurations.

A grandma using an ATM machine should have at least as much protection under the law as a man walking out of a "gay" bar. But under "hate crimes" laws that include "sexual orientation," an assailant of a man perceived as homosexual would be subjected to greater penalties than grandma's mugger.

This column originally appeared in the Washington Times on February 20, 2009. One of the most contentious social and political debates of our time pits the opposing goals of equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome. Some would claim the...

Bill Clinton says America needs the Fairness Doctrine because conservative talk radio is sounding "a blatant drumbeat" against the stimulus package. He complained on a liberal talk show on Feb. 12 that "there has always been a lot of big money to support the right-wing talk shows."

The census is one of the most important functions performed by the federal government because the integrity our representative democracy depends on it. Because both parties understand its importance, the census has always been insulated from political corruption.

This column originally appeared on WorldNetDaily.com on February 17, 2009 I recently visited Ronald Reagan's Rancho Del Cielo for the first time. Credit for the ranch's preservation goes to the Young America's Foundation. There are many beautiful things about the...

Dr. Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Oakland-based Independent Institute, penned an article in The Christian Science Monitor (2/9/2009) that suggests the most intelligent recommendation that I've read to fix our current economic mess. The title of his article gives his recommendation away: "Instead of stimulus, do nothing -- seriously."

Making the decision to close Guantanamo Bay without any real plan for dealing with the prisoners demonstrates the pervasive lack of understanding policymakers and the public have about the entire system. There are many gross misconceptions about the differences between trials of the Gitmo prisoners in military tribunals and criminal trials in the U.S., but few people understand them. And if the people don't know these differences and state their opinions, additional Americans may die as a result of the presidential order about Gitmo.

This column originally appeared on Townhall.com on February 9, 2009. It's been a taxing two weeks for President Obama and his nominees. And there's another nominee with bigger disqualifiers than unpaid taxes. Imagine. A veteran pornography defense attorney takes a...

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for pancreatic cancer. While Americans pray for her recovery, this sad news is a sobering reminder that President Obama is likely to appoint several justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in the aftermath of last year's landmark decision on the Second Amendment, gun owners need to zero in on what these events mean for the future of the right to bear arms.

This column originally appeared in the Washington Times on January 28, 2009. Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign is charging that cheating has occurred in Minnesota, where Al Franken has mysteriously pulled ahead in a recount of the U.S. Senate race. The...

We usually think of freedom of speech as involving the right of speakers to speak, whether through public addresses, in writing, or over radio and television airwaves. But the courts have recognized an additional dimension to First Amendment free speech rights: the right to listen and watch. This right takes center stage in a current challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law and could play a role in the debate about the Fairness Doctrine.

Michael Newdow, the professional atheist who tried to have "one nation under God" stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance, has lost his crusade to prevent the mention of God at the inauguration. Though it's not written into the Constitution, presidents usually close their oath with the words "So help me God." Newdow wanted a court to tell President-elect Obama that he cannot say those words, and he also wanted to ban the tradition of inaugural prayers. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton threw out Mr. Newdow's attempt to establish his religion -- the religion of atheism.

This op-ed originally appeared in the Washington Times on December 29, 2008. It is fitting that during this season we take time to acknowledge our nation's religious heritage. In the Mayflower Compact - the agreement made by the earliest American...

President-Elect Barack Obama's nomination of Eric Holder to be attorney general surprised many. There are reasons that Holder ought not to be confirmed, but regardless of that, his nomination tells us quite a bit about Obama and the Supreme Court he will likely give this country.

It should be a well settled idea that in a democracy, freedom of speech and debate are crucial bulwarks of liberty. Unfortunately, that is not a notion widely held today by the self-appointed political censors of the 21st century; especially those who deplore the rightward tilt of talk radio. These critics of talk radio disregard the overwhelming left-wing viewpoint dominance in newspapers and television and zealously seek to impose speech limits until that same dominance is brought to bear on talk radio. It is laughable that talk radio's political speech should require government control and it is tragic that if the critics succeed they will threaten one of the most precious freedoms that our nation was founded upon and that the Constitution protects -- freedom of expression.

This column originally appeared on National Review Online on November 10, 2008. Two things are evident from the 2008 election. The first is that the American people voted for change, embodied in President-Elect Barack Obama. The second is that this...

Barack Obama's shocking statements from 2001 about the U.S. Supreme Court offer a deeply disturbing insight into what he hopes to achieve through remaking our highest court. Taken with what is currently at stake in the Court, it paints a picture that should cost him millions of votes on Election Day.

This op-ed originally appeared in The American Spectator on October 22, 2008. In 1980, fresh out of school and working on Wall Street, I also worked for the Reagan campaign. I had the job every night at around 11 p.m....

This op-ed originally appeared in the Washington Times on October 21, 2008. While we hear a lot about "partisan politics" in the media, most Americans do not define themselves, first and foremost, by their political party. Many people's beliefs do...

This column originally appeared in the New York Post on October 6, 2008. ELECTION Day this year may bring the kind of chaos you expect from a category-five hurricane - with radical groups sending the nation into a protracted legal...

As negotiations over Congress's emergency rescue bill continued over the weekend, repeated rumors leaked out that the Democrats were trying to funnel money to a hyper-partisan organization involved in criminal voter fraud. I'm speaking of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- known by its acronym, ACORN. Although ACORN was cut from the final legislation, it's important to understand this organization and its long history with, of all people, Barack Obama. And it's important to see how partisan this emergency legislation has become.

The key to understanding the Presidential election this year is that the two candidates are diametrically opposed on almost every major issue. In probably no other election since the Civil War have the differences between the two candidates been so stark.

Last week saw three human rights episodes play out in Russia, China and the United States. These events show us how America stacks up against the rest of the world. This past week the world saw the resurgent danger of the old Soviet Union in the modern Russian Federation. Russian military forces invaded the sovereign neighboring nation of Georgia. Although Russia claims to be aiding people in the disputed Georgian province of South Ossetia, the reality is that covert Russian agents have been fomenting upheaval, and Russia had been moving forces into place for this invasion.

When you buy a car, a blender, a hair dryer, whatever, you also get an owner's manual. Many of us start using the device without reading about it and get ourselves into trouble. Some Americans, for many reasons, have concluded that our government is failing or has already failed. But how many of us have read the nation's owner's manual recently, or even read it in our adult lives? The manual is, of course, our Constitution.

It behooves us all, especially in this pivotal election year, to reflect on the words of our nations Founders in light of medical sciences capacity to infringe upon the first human right, the right to life.

At this week's G8 Summit, the cost of gasoline is one of the main topics of discussion. With the price of crude oil hovering around $136 a barrel, the industrialized world is looking for answers. But none seem to exist right now.

On January 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments for one of the biggest election law cases in years. This case might decide who becomes president of America, and shape the future of the country.

Most Americans don't know there was another U.S. government, before the Constitution was drafted. Simplified books and courses leave out the Articles of Confederation, the government of the U.S. for its first 11 years. There were several fatal defects in the Articles; one was its presidency.

Led by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a phalanx of Democrats and liberal pressure groups are urging a return to "The Fairness Doctrine." What could be more American than "fairness"?

House Speaker Pelosi is hinting at reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, and many of her liberal colleagues in Congress are doing the same in both chambers. Alleging the press isnt balanced, they say government should be making sure all viewpoints meaning the lefts are fairly represented. I agree the press isnt balanced, but Mrs. Pelosi has it backward; liberalism dominates the press, including the three major networks and most major newspapers.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 opinion in Boumediene v. Bush will go down as one of the most egregiously-wrong decisions in history. Breaking 200 years of settled precedent, the Court has rewritten the Constitution's allocation of national security powers. In essence, the narrow majority attacked the actions of a Commander-in-Chief in time of war. It attacked the law as rewritten by Congress in response to a prior decision of this very Court. And. it attacked the Court by aggressively ignoring its own prior decisions. The "logic" of this case sets up a bare majority of the Justices as supreme over the President, the Congress, and even other decisions of the Court itself.

On Thursday June 12, 2008, a narrow five-member majority struck down the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the so-called military tribunals' law.This law was passed by Congress to set up procedures for the legal treatment of unlawful enemy combatants in order to prevent terrorists from flooding our federal courts.Not only does the decision in the case, Boumediene v. Bush, run contrary to precedent and the Constitution, but it is yet another dangerous example of the judiciary usurping the constitutional authority of the political branches of government.

Few realize that two aspects of California's same-sex marriages are unlike Massachusetts', and could redefine marriage in every state. And most people might not realize it before November's election.

The United States Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments about an issue which for many Americans shouldn't be too complicated. The question is: who should decide the punishment for a crime, the legislature or the courts? In particular, when determining what crimes merit the death penalty, should state governments have a say or should this power be left to judges? According to the Death Penalty Information Center (as of February of this year) there are more than 3,200 persons on death row. As the result of the execrable actions of Louisiana resident Patrick Kennedy (one of only two on death row awaiting execution for crimes that don't involve murder), the court will issue a ruling this summer in a case called Kennedy v. Louisiana.

One issue that is not being discussed much at the moment is what's at stake with our federal courts. Some federal judges are now telling pastors and priests what they can and cannot say during prayers. And some of it is happening in Indiana -- the May 6 primary state.

The presidential candidates need to speak out while the spotlight is on Pennsylvania. There is an opportunity for voters in Pennsylvania and across America to know where the candidates stand on an important constitutional issue.

Recently a landmark ruling that stunned many parents and could have legal repercussions for families across the country was handed down by a California state appellate court. Judge H. Walter Croskey wrote a court opinion that declared California children were only allowed to be taught by teachers credentialed by the state. Such a decision was a stark about-face from the previous California policy that provided parents with options in determining how best to educate their children.

The two red-hot issues fused by the District of Columbia v. Heller case -- guns and judges -- are two of the most divisive in American politics. D.C. v. Heller could become one of the most important cases in American history, with profound political and policy implications.

As a historic Supreme Court case on the Second Amendment looms, District of Columbia v. Heller, two unexpected perspectives show what is at stake in this case for all Americans. Between the two of us as authors, our commitment to the Second Amendment, coupled with our real-life experiences, explodes the stereotypical images of gun owners in America. We are living proof that the Second Amendment is a blessing for all Americans, and that all Americans have a vested interest in the pending court case.

There can no longer be any doubt about whether the lapse of the Protect America Act has harmed America's intelligence-gathering capabilities. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and the apolitical Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell confirmed this reality in a Feb. 22 letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes.

Across the country, governors are rushing to pour more and more tax dollars into state-run preschool programs. Today, all but ten states offer some sort of taxpayer-funded preschool for some three and four year olds - primarily based on need.

Rather than pass a permanent renewal of America's foreign intelligence surveillance capability, Congress continues to debate the need for the Protect America Act. After waiting six months, they've now passed a 15-day extension of the act giving them more time to bicker over the issue. If they fail to act, it is essential that President Bush use his inherent executive power to continue the electronic surveillance program.

In his State of the Union address next week, it is imperative that President Bush push for the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Setting aside foolish partisan politics and ad hominem arguments, FISA is necessary for the national security of America and the safety of Americans.

The youth of Philadelphia are in danger. Nearly 112,000 children -- over 30 percent of children in the city -- live beneath the poverty line. There are as many as 3,900 homeless families in Philadelphia. Only about half of Philadelphia ninth-graders graduate from high school within four years, and last year's state standardized math and reading tests came back to 11th graders in Philadelphia public schools with 70 percent of scores below proficient. In 2006, 1,030 young Philadelphians between the ages of 7 and 24 were shot; 179 kids were murdered.

Et tu, Brute? In the waning days of the Bush Administration, Justice Department lawyers have filed a curious amicus brief in the DC gun ban case before the US Supreme Court. The attorneys took a middle-of-the-road approach to Second Amendment freedoms. They argued that gun ownership is not a "fundamental" right. Instead, they say, it is a right deserving only an "intermediate" level of protection.

An overwhelming 88% of Americans approve of the reference to "One Nation Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, with 78% strongly approving. Only 11% disapprove, with 7% strongly disapproving.

The Washington Post this week stepped delicately around the thuggish tactics employed by Philadelphia City Solicitor Romulo Diaz, who has engineered a coup against the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Many Congress watchers assumed that the fight between the House Judiciary Committee and the White House over subpoenas to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten would end when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned.

Almost 80 years ago, the City of Philadelphia granted to the local Boy Scouts a low-cost rent on land at 22d and Winter Streets, "in perpetuity." This has proven to be a valuable partnership, both for the city and for its most important youth organization. But last week, the city penalized the Boy Scouts for its membership policies by raising the rent from $1 to $200,000 a year. This was wrong.

To be a Boy Scout in the twenty-first century entails some consequences. It means that you may not get funding from the United Way. It means that you cannot have summer camp in a city park (as a federal judge has told the Scouts in San Diego). It means that your troop cannot be sponsored by a public school (lest your school be sued by the ACLU). It means that you will get booed at a national political convention (the party starts with the letter D). It means that you will be compared with the Taliban, which the Philadelphia Daily News did a few years ago.

In the wake of President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Congress is preparing for another showdown with the White House. But this time the dispute won't be over health care spending for children, instead the dispute has consequences for all Americans because it is over which branch of government is best suited to know which ground rules are needed for fighting the war on terror.

Federal spending has hovered around 20% of gross domestic product for more than 50 years now, ever since it settled down after World War II. Despite all the battles over taxes and spending in that time, the federal share of our economy has remained fairly stable.

The bill extending the State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP) program that President Bush just vetoed would have increased spending on the program by 140%, costing $60 billion over just the next five years.

All Americans should be equally subject to law. Not even the president has a "right" to evade the law. Chief Justice John Marshall established this principle when he required President Thomas Jefferson to give evidence in Aaron Burr's treason trial. That concept was later applied to presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

Yes, President Bush, please do veto the massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that the Democrats are rolling through Congress, as you pledged to do in Thursday's press conference.

President Bush's announcement of the name of the person who would replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was eagerly anticipated by many in Washington. Gonzales, caricatured as inept and bumbling by critics of the President, had decided in August that he wouldn't continue in his designated role as Washington's whipping boy du jour.

The promises made by our current Federal entitlement programs would require Federal taxes and spending to double by 2040 as a percent of gross domestic product. The Democrat response: Add new entitlements. Congressional Democrats are moving to double Federal spending on the State Children's Health Insurance program (SCHIP), quite explicitly on their way to the biggest mega-entitlement of all, national health insurance.

The supposedly anti-war group, A.N.S.W.E.R, has had the chutzpah to sue the District of Columbia for fining it for defacing city property with its posters. The group is claiming discrimination. The honesty of its claim can be gauged from the fact that one of its primary leaders is Ramsey Clark, the lawyer who claimed that Saddam Hussein was innocent, and being discriminated against.

Retired federal judges, retired US diplomats, retired flag officers, and European politicians both current and retired, have filed briefs in the US Supreme Court demanding that illegal enemy combatants held at Gitmo have full access to US courts. These filings support the ACLU position, but fly in the face of a 1942 unanimous Supreme Court decision concerning German saboteurs in WW II.

Score another one for the politics of personal destruction. Democrats have managed to run out of town one of President Bush's longest serving aides from Texas -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.' But they may want to put the champagne glasses down because this resignation may end up for the Democrats being a case of "be careful what you ask for."

The latest spate of articles accusing the Bush Administration of trampling the US Constitution in prosecuting the War in Iraq have quoted Bruce Fein, cited variously as a "conservative lawyer" and "a deputy attorney general in the Reagan Administration." He is not being quoted because he is a reliable source but because he says what the opponents of the war want said. Factual inquiry stops there.

Barack Obama announced last week his policy agenda to combat urban poverty. As president, he would spend an additional $6 billion a year for such things as:

The Supreme Court teeters on a knife's edge regarding lawsuits against faith expression in the public square. So, conservatives better redouble their efforts to restore a court faithful to our Founders' vision, or lose all that has been gained in recent decisions after the 2008 presidential sweepstakes.

A review by Adam Cohen of a new book "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas" appeared earlier this week in The New York Times. The review demonstrates that neither Cohen, nor the authors of the book, nor the editors of The Times have a clue about what it means to have a constitution and how such a document operates.

It wasn't that long ago when liberals, to their credit, fought for freedom of conscience. For decades, they spoke up, in public and in court, for the rights of workers whose religious convictions prevented them from working on the Sabbath; for American Indians whose religious rituals involved the use of peyote; and for young men whose religious scruples forbade them from taking up arms, no matter how urgent the country's military needs. In each instance, liberals rose to defend the religious freedom of small and sometimes despised minorities.

It is not very often that the American Civil Rights Union has kind words for the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Nor does the US Supreme Court have many kind words for them, either. That Court...

No one doubts that Congress has the right, if not the obligation, to inquire into malfeasance by the executive branch. But the current campaign against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales reeks of the very political infection it purports to deplore.

The conservative movement won an historic victory last Friday. In the case of Parker v. District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does, indeed, protect a right for individual citizens to keep and bear arms for self-defense and other legal uses.

By Peter Ferrara--Left wing crusades to shut down religious expression are becoming big business in America, with funding from you, the American taxpayer. Federal legislation enacted 30 years ago provides that attorneys successfully suing federal, state or local governments for violations of constitutional or civil rights are entitled to recover attorneys' fees

Suppose you are in a car accident. You file a claim with your insurance company, but inexplicably the company refuses to pay. So you hire an attorney and sue the insurance company. But the Judge rules against you, on the grounds that your attorney is a professed Christian.

The Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure is a critical protection for the civil liberties of Americans, and should not be lightly cast aside. But liberal/Left critics of President Bush's War on Terror are quite wrong in suggesting to the American people that this Amendment requires a judicially issued search warrant before any search or seizure can be made.

By John Armor — You're a homeowner. A lawyer wins a court order to tear down part of your house. You pay him a fat fee, encouraging him to file yet another case to tear down yet another part of your house.

Louis Barletta, mayor of Hazleton, Pa., has thrown down the gauntlet to those who think America belongs to anyone who can walk across the border. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a Puerto Rican group have taken up the challenge. And the mayor has upped the ante by hiring as defense counsel the former head of immigration in the Justice Department.