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Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski: Why the ObamaCare Tax Penalty Is Unconstitutional

By |2023-03-10T08:04:52-05:00July 22nd, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell and ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing July 22, 2010, on The Wall Street Journal.

The Justice Department announced last week that it would defend the new federal health-insurance mandate as an exercise of Congress’s “power to lay and collect taxes,” even though Barack Obama had insisted before the bill’s passage that it was “absolutely not a tax increase.” The truth is the mandate is not a tax—and if it were it would be unconstitutional.

A tax is when the government takes money from individuals, puts it in the Treasury, and plans […]

Complaint Filed in North Dakota Supreme Court to Allow Recall of U.S. Senator Kent Conrad

By |2010-07-21T16:55:44-04:00July 21st, 2010|

On July 14, North Dakota joined New Jersey in an effort to recall a U.S. Senator.

RecallND filed a complaint with the North Dakota Supreme Court claiming that the state’s Secretary of State has unconstitutionally blocked a petition to recall U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND).

The complaint indicates that on May 13 North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem published an opinion concluding that the North Dakota State Constitution does not allow for the recall of a U.S. Senator. On the same day, the office of the North Dakota Secretary of State claimed to have no authority to approve the circulation of RecallND’s recall petition.

Ken Blackwell: Secretary Vilsack: Re-Hire Shirley Sherrod

By |2010-07-21T15:48:58-04:00July 21st, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing July 21, 2010, on HuffingtonPost.com.

Mark Twain warned us: Confession is good for the soul, but it’s bad for the reputation.

It’s a good thing for a certain rural Georgia peanut farmer that we didn’t have a 24/7 news cycle when he was coming up. Otherwise, Jimmy Carter’s “lust in his heart” remark would have derailed his political career.

Shirley Sherrod has just become the most famous employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Millions of Americans who have no idea who Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is know who Shirley Sherrod is.

She’s […]

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski: The president's wooden-headed interpretation of our Constitution

By |2010-07-20T22:38:38-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell and ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing July 19, 2010, on DailyCaller.com.

Sometimes you hate being right.

In chapter 4 of our book, The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency, my coauthor Ken Blackwell and I make the point that Team Obama would try to pull a fast one when it comes to Obamacare’s individual mandate that everyone reading this blog post needs to buy health insurance, or be subject to a penalty payable to your good friends at the IRS.

Ken and I first made this argument in […]

Ken Blackwell: Obama Rips Off "Faux Lifers" Fig Leaves

By |2010-07-20T22:36:10-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing July 17, 2010, on Townhall.com.

Last spring, President Obama managed to corral the votes of a half dozen formerly pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives for his takeover of health care. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) had been a staunch supporter of pro-life initiatives for nearly twenty years in Congress. Tragically for him, and even more tragically for the country, Stupak fell in line behind the White House. For months he had held out, bravely. Then, at the eleventh hour, he caved in. He and his cohorts switched from being pro-lifers to being “faux lifers.”

To […]

Ken Blackwell: It's Not Only About the Economy, Stupid

By |2020-04-23T21:57:14-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing July 15, 2010, on The American Spectator website, Spectator.org.

James Carville, Bill Clinton’s political strategist supposedly coined the now infamous: “It’s the economy, stupid.” This admittedly smart strategy, widely attributed to have won Clinton the Presidency, is now being chanted, mantra-like, by the mainstream media and the Washington political elite as they fundamentally misunderstand the brewing anger and frustration amongst everyday Americans.

They think this is all about dollars and cents. They think that it’s all about a $13-trillion debt and trillion-dollar annual deficits far into the future. Washington, in its arrogance, thinks this is all […]

ACLU-Oriented Judge Throws Out Stolen Valor Act

By |2023-03-10T08:04:52-05:00July 20th, 2010|

A federal judge in Denver has decided the case of a man who claimed military awards he hadn’t earned, in an unusual way, and contrary to all other courts to consider such a case. Instead of finding the defendant guilty, he threw out the law, claiming it was unconstitutional.

The facts for this article, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Denver Post on 17 July. A federal judge there has heard the criminal trial of a man who falsely claimed certain military awards. Instead of find the defendant guilty, which he plainly was, the judge ruled that the […]

Jan LaRue: Holder Hangs KSM and Gitmo Around Democrats' Neck

By |2010-07-20T22:20:23-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Jan LaRue wrote a column appearing July 14, 2010, on Townhall.com.

President Obama gave notice to the Democrat-controlled Congress on Sunday that unless it provides funding for a civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center, they will suffer the consequences. Obama is helping voters remember in November that Congress is failing to fulfill his campaign promises.

What else explains why Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, “there’s a real question about whether a terrorist suspect such as self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can face the death penalty […]

Ken Blackwell: Who's Telling the Truth — NASA's Chief or the White House?

By |2010-07-20T22:15:20-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing July 14, 2010, on FOXNews.com.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden must have felt like Astronaut Frank Poole in the cult classic, “Space Odyssey: 2001.” In that film, the menacing computer HAL 9000 cut Poole’s tether and let him drift off into space.

In this case, it was President Obama’s press spokesman Robert Gibbs who, on Tuesday, cut off the former Marine Corps Major General. Gibbs told reporters the general was “wrong” to say that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority for the National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) under the Obama administration.

Ken Blackwell: Who’s Telling the Truth — NASA’s Chief or the White House?

By |2023-05-23T09:52:43-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing July 14, 2010, on FOXNews.com.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden must have felt like Astronaut Frank Poole in the cult classic, “Space Odyssey: 2001.” In that film, the menacing computer HAL 9000 cut Poole’s tether and let him drift off into space.

In this case, it was President Obama’s press spokesman Robert Gibbs who, on Tuesday, cut off the former Marine Corps Major General. Gibbs told reporters the general was “wrong” to say that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority for the National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) under the Obama administration.

When he was in Egypt for […]

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