ArcaMax

"No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." -- Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Last year, a detainee at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, filed a writ of habeas corpus in a federal district court in Washington, D.C. -- to which all cases from Guantanamo have been assigned...Read more

Twice last week, the federal government's unconstitutional spying on ordinary Americans was exposed. One of these revelations was made by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who wrote that the FBI is still using warrantless spying in criminal cases, notwithstanding the Constitution and federal laws. The other revelation was a surprise even to ...Read more

A colleague recently asked me if I approved of Big Tech censoring political and cultural voices on their platforms. My colleague believes -- as do I -- in natural rights, minimal government and that owners of private property can use it as they see fit. We both condemned the Big Tech censorship. Then he asked if the government could regulate ...Read more

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." -- Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced his determination to use his powers as the chief executive of the federal government to infringe...Read more

"Which is better -- to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or three thousand tyrants one mile away?" -- Rev. Mather Blyes (1706-1788)

Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston crowd in 1775 by...Read more

That God, which ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

When American colonists were oppressed by governance from Britain, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets and editorials and sermons was ...Read more

What if liberty and democracy are opposites? What if the principle underlying liberty is to restrain the government to maximize individual autonomy? What if the principle underlying democracy is to unleash the government to give the people whatever they want?

What if personal liberty is an individual birthright because we are created in the ...Read more

When Attorney General Merrick Garland was asked at his confirmation hearings earlier this month what his priorities would be if confirmed, he responded immediately that it would be a vigorous pursuit of domestic terrorism. He did not say he would lead vigorous prosecutions, just vigorous pursuits.

This is dangerous business for the Department ...Read more

Two weeks ago, while the House of Representatives was finalizing its 700-page legislation authorizing the Treasury to borrow and spend $1.9 trillion in the next six months, and the Senate was attempting to confirm more of President Joseph R. Biden's cabinet nominees, Biden secretly ordered the Pentagon to bomb militias in Syria.

The United ...Read more

"In short, we do not need good laws to restrain bad men. We need good men to restrain bad laws." -- G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Why do people in power try to silence speech with which they disagree?

Last week produced news about the suppression of speech on university campuses. There, the suppression usually occurs through the power of ...Read more

After listening to Dr. Anthony Fauci suggest last weekend that we should expect to be wearing two masks on our faces everywhere we go until the end of 2022, I began thinking again about first principles.

Fauci is entitled to express his opinions. Yet, because he is the president's chief adviser on COVID-related medical matters, I cringed when I...Read more

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, thus, all government behavior must conform to it. It is, of course, notwithstanding its supremacy, an imperfect document. Its original iteration in 1789 -- and even after the addition of the Bill of Rights in 1791 -- implicitly recognized slavery, permitted the states to limit voters to adult ...Read more