In the Courts Archives - Page 50 of 82

Obama's Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament

By ACRU Staff|2012-04-04T15:29:09-04:00April 4th, 2012|

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published April 4, 2012 on The American Spectator website.

Perhaps you do not know that President Obama has asked the Pentagon to develop plans to reduce America’s nuclear arsenal by up to 80 percent. That would ultimately leave America with just about 300 nuclear weapons, down from a high of over 31,000 at the height of the Cold War.

In 2010, President Obama completed negotiations with Russia for a New Start Treaty, which reduces America’s nuclear warheads to 1,550. There were effectively no reductions in […]

Dupes for the State

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:57:09-04:00April 4th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published April 4, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Public misunderstanding, ignorance and possibly contempt for liberty play into the hands of people who want to control our lives. Responses to my recent column “Compliant Americans” brought this home to me. In it, I argued that the anti-tobacco movement became the template and inspiration for other forms of government intrusion, such as bans on restaurants serving foie gras, McDonald’s giving Happy Meals with toys, and confiscating a child’s home-prepared lunch because it didn’t meet Department of Agriculture guidelines. A […]

From Hugs to Hand-Wringing: Watching the Legal Left Freak Out at the Supreme Court

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:01-04:00April 2nd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published April 1, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Over the past several years, I’ve been to the Supreme Court dozens of times to cover cases. Some of them have been blockbusters such as the Citizens United v. FEC campaign finance case, the Snyder v. Phelps (crazy Westboro protesters) free speech case, and the McDonald v. Chicago Second Amendment case.

Yet the Obamacare case is in a class by itself.

There were national heavyweights in the courtroom each of the three days, but it was the red-carpet crowd on Tuesday for the individual […]

Obamacare Day 3: Does Medicaid Expansion Violate 10th Amendment?

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:58:18-04:00April 2nd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 31, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

For a century, legal scholars wondered if a federal spending program could ever violate the 10th Amendment by coercing the states to go along, since the states are sovereign and equal in stature to the federal government. The final issue the Supreme Court will decide is whether Obamacare’s massive expansion of Medicaid–and sticking the states with part of the price tag–is the first program to cross this constitutional limit.

As Paul Clement–the lawyer representing 26 states in the Obamacare case–summarized to the Court: “The expansion […]

Obamacare Day 3: Court May Strike Down Entire Law, Not Just Mandate

By ACRU Staff|2012-03-30T18:35:15-04:00March 30th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 28, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare’s individual mandate (which is very likely after yesterday), will it also strike down President Obama’s entire 2,700-page law? The justices signaled they might do so during the third day of Supreme Court arguments.

Most of the time when part of a law is invalid, courts “sever” that part from the rest of the law and save the rest. This ruling of “severability” often coincides with the law at issue having a severability clause, where Congress declares that if […]

Washington Post Misleads Readers About Paul Ryan, Tax Rates and Deficits

By ACRU Staff|2012-03-30T13:52:39-04:00March 30th, 2012|

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published March 29, 2012 on Forbes.com.

The Washington Post proclaimed editorially on March 21, “There is no credible path to deficit reduction without a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases.” They insisted that this “is the fundamental failure of the budget blueprint released Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.”

But this criticism is factually wrong as a matter of simple mathematics. Under CBO’s score of the Ryan budget, federal revenues virtually double over the next 10 years from […]

Day 2: Supreme Court Will Likely Strike Down Obamacare, 5-4

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:57:09-04:00March 29th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 28, 2012 on Brietbart.com.

On Day Two, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that Obamacare “changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in a very fundamental way.”

With those words, the individual mandate–the centerpiece of Obamacare–is likely doomed.

Liberal law professors–and some conservatives–speculated beforehand that President Barack Obama might win 6?3, or maybe even 7?2. They predicted that Chief Justice John Roberts might join Kennedy to uphold the mandate. Others said Justice Antonin Scalia might join them. One liberal even predicted that Roberts would write the opinion himself.

There’s exactly […]

Obamacare, Day 1: Supreme Court Will Declare Game On

By ACRU Staff|2023-03-10T08:04:46-05:00March 29th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 27, 2012 on Brietbart.com.

The Supreme Court appears to reject the argument that it lacks jurisdiction to decide Obamacare’s fate until 2015. We should all expect the red-hot issues surrounding Obamacare to be decided by the end of June, for better or worse. And the Obama administration is trying to have its cake and eat it, too.

It’s well known that many are challenging the legitimacy of Obamacare’s individual mandate. Fewer know that there is a second issue of whether Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid is unconstitutional, and whether striking down either provision also […]

Our Constitutional Freedom to Listen

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:49-04:00March 28th, 2012|

ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara and former ACRU intern and researcher Carlos Ramirez explain in a Liberty Law Review article why the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech is violated if the corollary freedom to listen is not enforced.

Download the article here. (PDF)

Profiling

By ACRU Staff|2012-03-28T10:14:03-04:00March 28th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published March 28, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Right now, there isn’t enough known about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a black, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old part-Hispanic, during his neighborhood watch tour in an Orlando, Fla., suburb. If evidence emerges that Zimmerman’s actions were not justified, he should be prosecuted and punished; however, there’s a larger issue that few people understand or have the courage to acknowledge, namely that black and young has become synonymous with crime and, hence, suspicion. To make […]