Politics, Moderate
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A Gun Ruling Highlights the Tricks Congress Uses to Evade Limits on Its Power: The Commerce Clause Has Replaced the Taxing Clause as an Excuse for Federal Legislation
Second Amendment groups applauded last week after a federal judge in Texas ruled that several national firearm regulations were unconstitutional. But the decision did not hinge on gun rights. Rather, it affirmed a broader principle: The federal government's powers are limited to those explicitly granted by the Constitution.
The case involved ...Read more
Dropped Cases Against Alleged Reflecting Pool Vandals Reflect a Rush to Judgment: Trump Still Seems to Think the Question of Individual Guilt or Innocence Is Irrelevant
At a press conference on July 2, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said she had "tremendous evidence" proving that David Hearn had deliberately caused more than $1,000 in damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, making him guilty of a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. That was not true, Pirro ...Read more
Trump Keeps Pushing Legally Dubious Tariffs: His Latest Round of Broad Import Taxes, Like the Previous Two, Treats His Statutory Authority as an Afterthought
When you start with a predetermined policy and then go looking for a legal pretext to justify it, you are building on shaky ground. President Donald Trump illustrated that point once again last week, when he announced a third round of broad tariffs after his first two attempts were rejected by federal courts.
Shortly after taking office last ...Read more
Trump's Threats to Yank Broadcast Licenses Are Part of a Speech-Chilling Intimidation Campaign: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Seems to Think TV Stations Are Legally Obligated to Please the President
Imagine how Republicans would react if a Democratic president reflexively threatened to yank the broadcast licenses of TV stations because he did not like their news coverage or programming decisions. President Donald Trump has been doing that since his first term, and he did it again last week after ABC and NBC declined to offer live coverage...Read more
By Blessing Corruption, Todd Blanche Has Disqualified Himself From the Job He Wants: Trump's Nominee for Attorney General Has Repeatedly Subverted Justice to Benefit His Boss
"I'm guessing I'll be in line," former FBI Director James Comey quipped after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a "settlement agreement" between President Donald Trump and the IRS that included $1.8 billion in taxpayer money for targets of "lawfare and weaponization." Comey's joke encompasses two reasons why the Senate should not ...Read more
SCOTUS Begins Answering Lingering Questions About Constitutional Constraints on Gun Control: After Upholding the Second Amendment Rights of Drug Users and Carry Permit Holders, the Court Will Address the Constitutionality of 'Assault Weapon' Bans
Over the course of 12 days last month, the Supreme Court upheld the gun rights of cannabis consumers, rejected Hawaii's default rule against firearms on private property open to the public, and agreed to address the constitutionality of "assault weapon" bans. That flurry of Second Amendment activity underlines the point that supposedly ...Read more
Neil Gorsuch Urges SCOTUS to Correct Two Wrong Turns That Undermined Civil Liberties: The Justice Criticizes the Supreme Court's Endorsement of Coercive Plea Bargaining and Its Embrace of Dubious Fourth Amendment Doctrines
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that "an agreement not to appeal a sentence is unenforceable when it would result in a miscarriage of justice." This week, the court held that a government-ordered analysis of cellphone location data qualifies as a "search" under the Fourth Amendment.
In both cases, Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed with the ...Read more
SCOTUS Unanimously Ruled That the Second Amendment Trumps Anti-Drug Sentiment: The Decision Is a Modest but Welcome Step Toward Rectifying the Injustice of Criminalizing Conduct That Violates No One's Rights
The Supreme Court has a history of facilitating the war on drugs by whittling away at civil liberties, to the point that critics have long perceived a "drug exception" to the Bill of Rights. But last week, when the justices unanimously upheld the gun rights of cannabis consumers, they made it clear that there is no drug exception to the Second...Read more
The Trump Administration Seriously Considered Unilaterally Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus: The Proposal Was Nixed Only After White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf Explained Why It Was Legally Dubious
Since illegal immigration is an "invasion," Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters in May 2025, the Trump administration was "actively looking" at suspending the writ of habeas corpus to facilitate its mass deportation campaign. It turns out that Miller was not just spitballing: According to recent reporting by The New...Read more
Trump's Position in the White House Ballroom Case Reflects His General Resistance to Judicial Review: The President Has Repeatedly Argued That Courts Have No Business Deciding Whether His Actions Are Legal
Even if President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project is illegal, the Justice Department argued last week, federal courts are powerless to stop it. That assertion was consistent with Trump's general attitude toward judicial review, which he considers legitimate only when it allows him to do what he wants.
Last October, Trump ...Read more
Trump's Self-Promotion Is Always Shameless and Sometimes Illegal: The President Tramples the Rule of Law in His Rush to Glorify Himself
President Donald Trump has a long history of naming things after himself, including Trump Tower, the Trump National Golf Club, the Trump Taj Mahal casino, Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka and Trump: The Game. But as he discovered last week, such self-promotion can be legally problematic when it requires congressional approval.
On ...Read more
Even Republicans Are Rebelling at Trump's Blatantly Corrupt 'Anti-Weaponization Fund': Using Taxpayer Money to Reward the President's Allies Has Nothing to Do With His Claims Against the IRS
Last week, Republican senators grilled Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" created by President Donald Trump's settlement of his lawsuit against the IRS. About 45 senators attended the meeting, and "at least half of them were blasting the attorney general," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reported. "...Read more
A State Assault Case Against an ICE Agent Could Illustrate the Limits of Supremacy Clause Immunity: That Defense Applies Only When an Officer 'Reasonably' Believed He Was Acting Within His Federal Authority
The day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro shot Minneapolis resident Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg, Kristi Noem, then the secretary of Homeland Security, described that use of force as a clearly justified response to "an attempted murder." Sosa-Celis and two other Venezuelans had "ambushed and attacked" Castro...Read more
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