First Amendment Archives

Why the 2nd Amendment

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:45-04:00January 3rd, 2013|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published January 2, 2013 on Townhall.com.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, said: “The British are not coming. … We don’t need all these guns to kill people.” Lewis’ vision, shared by many, represents a gross ignorance of why the framers of the Constitution gave us the Second Amendment. How about a few quotes from the period and you decide whether our Founding Fathers harbored a fear of foreign tyrants.

Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can hope for concerning […]

New York Times: Throw Off Bondage of "Evil" Constitution

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:57:07-04:00January 2nd, 2013|

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

The biggest liberal newspaper in the country has printed a column from a top progressive scholar calling on the American people to ignore the Constitution with its “evil provisions,” revealing the far-left agenda for what it is and making sense of several major actions of the Obama administration.

Those who love liberty and our Constitution need to speak up and be heard. The Constitution is the cornerstone of the United States of America as a nation. It holds us together, gives us our national […]

Federal Appeals Court Sides with Religious Liberty on HHS Mandate

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:46-04:00January 1st, 2013|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on January 1, 2013 on Breitbart.com.

Just last week Breitbart News reported on the threat to religious liberty from the HHS Mandate: starting today, Hobby Lobby is subject to penalties of $1.3 million per day for its owners refusing to violate their Christian beliefs after a federal appeals court and Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined to grant emergency relief.

Now another federal appeals court has gone the other way, siding with religious liberty and setting the stage for a Supreme Court showdown.

K & L Contractors is a construction company […]

Hobby Lobby Defies Obama Administration with Civil Disobedience for Religious Liberty

By ACRU Staff|2023-03-10T08:04:44-05:00December 30th, 2012|

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

“We must obey God rather than men!”–Acts 5:29.

Now that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied Hobby Lobby’s application for an emergency injunction protecting them from Obamacare’s HHS Mandate on abortion and birth control, Hobby Lobby has decided to defy the federal government to remain true to their religious beliefs, at enormous risk and financial cost.

Hobby Lobby is wholly owned and controlled by the Green family, who are evangelical Christians. The Greens are committed to running their business in accordance with […]

Justice Sotomayor Denies Hobby Lobby Request on HHS Mandate

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:46-04:00December 27th, 2012|

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

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied Hobby Lobby’s emergency application to be exempted from the HHS Mandate on abortion services, but that should not be considered a sign that the HHS Mandate will survive its legal challenges in the end.

The war on religious liberty continues. Despite repeated promises from President Barack Obama and his allies that they would not use Obamacare to force people to violate their religious beliefs regarding abortion, Obama handpicked an abortion-hardliner as secretary of the U.S. Department of […]

Appeals Court Oral Arguments Signal Trouble for Obamacare HHS Mandate

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:46-04:00December 16th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on December 15, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

A top federal appeals court signaled Friday that it might act on Obamacare’s HHS Mandate–requiring employers to cover birth control and abortion-related services.

After repeated assurances that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would not mandate abortion or people of faith violating their religious beliefs, the Obama administration issued a mandate requiring both, when Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) saying that a vague provision in the ACA requiring employers provide “preventive care” means that employer healthcare policies must […]

Free Speech vs. Sound of Silence

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:46-04:00December 10th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published December 7, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

In George Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984, a tyrannical government masks its activities through the use of Newspeak — saying or doing something opposite of a word’s meaning.

The Ministry of Plenty oversees rationing and starvation; the Ministry of Peace wages war; the Ministry of Truth dispenses propaganda; and the Ministry of Love conducts torture. The operative slogans are: “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.”

A current variant comes to mind, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) […]

Federal Courts Split on Religious Liberty and Obamacare

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:46-04:00November 26th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on November 25, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Can an American citizen exercise his religion through his privately-owned business? The fate of Obamacare’s disturbing HHS contraception mandate turns on that question, and now the federal courts are split on the answer regarding an issue very likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since the Supreme Court (wrongly) upheld Obamacare’s Individual Mandate as a tax in NFIB v. Sebelius, a second round of litigation has commenced going after several other aspects of the federal government’s takeover of America’s healthcare system. Of […]

Justice Alito Discusses Obama Administration at Federalist Society Convention

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:47-04:00November 23rd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on November 19, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

President Barack Obama’s lawyers are claiming vast and sweeping powers in arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Justice Samuel Alito in an address to the Federalist Society last week.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary as America’s premiere conservative and libertarian debate organization, the Federalist Society held its National Lawyers Convention on Nov. 15, 16, and 17 in Washington, D.C. Alito headlined the gala dinner at the Marriot Wardman Park, his third such appearance filling an annual speaking spot that in recent years has also been filled by […]

Dismissed Obamacare Lawsuit May Return to Lower Court

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:47-04:00November 9th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on November 2, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Just when most people thought all legal challenges to the Individual Mandate were dead and buried, one springs back to life, and with a twist.

Unless they’ve been living under a rock, most Americans have heard that the Supreme Court decided a constitutional challenge to Obamacare’s infamous Individual Mandate in NFIB v. Sebelius. Plenty of Americans are unaware, however, that out of over 30 cases challenging the Mandate, NFIB was only one of five challenges that were considered serious and credible.

Another one […]