First Amendment Archives

ACLU Sues to Stop Citizenship Question on Michigan Ballots

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:47-04:00October 1st, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published September 28, 2012 on the American Thinker website.

Only citizens of the United States can legally vote in federal elections. So Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson added a yes/no question on ballot applications that asks: “Are you a United States citizen?”

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, this simple requirement is “an election day disaster in the making.” So the ACLU did what it usually does, which is to sue.

Filed on behalf of the UAW International, which includes the radical Service […]

Appeasement Trumps First Amendment

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:50:21-04:00September 23rd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published September 21, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

I was driving into Washington the other day when a radio clip of Hillary Rodham Clinton got my attention. The secretary of state was emoting hotly, using terms such as “disgusting” and “reprehensible.”

At first, I thought Bill Clinton might have released a candid memoir, but I soon realized that the former first lady was talking about the crude 14-minute “Innocence of Muslims” video that liberals blamed solely for the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies and riots across the Muslim world. Mrs. […]

The Left's Campaign to Destroy the First Amendment

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:50:22-04:00September 6th, 2012|

This article was written by the Carleson Center for Public Policy Policy Board Member and retired president of the Ethan Allen Institute John McClaughry.

President Obama’s remark that he believes that Congress should “seriously consider” a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. FEC will doubtless spur ever more fanatic efforts by inaptly-named “liberals” to do just that.

First, let’s understand the issue.

In 1907 Congress prohibited corporations from contributing to the campaigns of candidates for Federal office. But the subject of Citizens United was whether a 2002 act of Congress could declare a nonprofit advocacy corporation’s […]

ACLU Begs Colorado Springs to Rethink Panhandling Proposal

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:47-04:00August 31st, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published August 31, 2012 on the American Thinker website.

Visitors to downtown Colorado Springs are besieged by panhandlers, according to city officials. So they drafted an anti-solicitation law that prohibits begging in a designated area.

Quicker than you can say “Got a quarter?,” the American Civil Liberties Union issued a warning that the proposal may violate the First Amendment.

“I would advise them not to pass this severely flawed ordinance,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Unspoken is […]

WRONG: Media Claiming Scalia Said SCOTUS to Limit Second Amendment

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:44-04:00August 2nd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published July 30, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Some in the media–including conservative media–are claiming that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia is saying the Supreme Court can limit the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

That’s not exactly what he said.

Scalia has a new book, and he was on Fox News Sunday to discuss it. Given how rarely justices give general-media interviews, it was predictable that host Chris Wallace took most of his time trying to draw Scalia out on hot-button issues, from the Court’s 5-4 (incorrect) decision upholding most of Obamacare, to abortion […]

Supreme Court Might Not Enforce Constitution's Limits in Second Obama Term

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:45-04:00July 17th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell and ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on July 13, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Public officials and pundits are still digesting the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. Yet to be discussed are the extraordinary implications for the size and role of government in a second Obama term in light of President Obama’s new stump speech. It is clear there is not a reliable majority on the Court to restrain government power by enforcing the limits imposed by the Constitution.

Most provisions in the Constitution fall into two categories. The […]

Constitution's Limits Threaten in an Obama Second Term

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:45-04:00July 13th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell and ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on July 12, 2012 on The Huffington Post website.

Public officials and pundits are still digesting the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. Not yet discussed are the extraordinary implications for the size and role of government in a second Obama term in light of President Obama’s new stump speech, as it is clear there is not a reliable majority on the Court to restrain government power by enforcing the limits imposed by the Constitution.

Most provisions in the Constitution fall into […]

ACLU Friends Sex Offenders

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:48-04:00June 15th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published June 14, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

Well, there they go again, carrying water for their army of odd men in raincoats. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana is suing to strike down a state law forbidding convicted sex offenders from using social media such as Facebook.

The state argues that allowing released felons on social media opens up opportunities for them to troll for children on the Internet.

“It’s hard to come up with an example of a sexual predator who doesn’t use some form of […]

Prepared Remarks of the Hon. Ken Blackwell

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:48-04:00May 25th, 2012|

This speech by ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell was delivered May 24, 2012 to the American Religious Freedom Program Conference.

Good afternoon. It is good to be with so many like-minded men and women, people who are committed to defending our most essential freedom – religious liberty.

We tend naturally to focus on religious freedom issues that rise to the national level. Those cases that come before the Supreme Court rank high in public interest and command the attention of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other giants of the main-stream media.

One of the most unprecedented and ominous assaults […]

Pyrrhic Victory for the ACLU in Texas?

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:48-04:00May 17th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published May 17, 2012 on the American Thinker website.

In Lewisville, Texas, there will be a benediction and invocation at the graduation ceremony on June 3rd this year, but thanks to the ACLU, the program will call them something else.

“Our attorneys have made it clear that we can continue to have student-led prayer, but we will call it ‘student remarks,'” Kevin Rogers, chief operating officer of the Lewisville Independent School District, told the Dallas Morning News.

Thus, the ACLU of Texas won a pyrrhic battle in its ongoing campaign to […]