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Ken Klukowski: The Gun Rights Decision in McDonald v. Chicago

By |2020-04-23T21:54:04-04:00June 29th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on June 29, 2010.

On June 28, the Supreme Court handed down the most consequential decision of this term in the historic gun-rights case, McDonald v. Chicago. Now the Second Amendment right to own a gun extends against every level of government, in a complex 5-4 decision that shows President Obama is using the Supreme Court to push a gun-control agenda.

After the 2008 Heller case holding that the Second Amendment secures an individual right, the biggest question for anyone working in constitutional law was simple: Does the Second Amendment provide a right […]

Ken Klukowski: Court Gets Federal Honest-Services Law Half-Right

By |2010-06-29T19:25:42-04:00June 29th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on June 28, 2010.

On June 24, the Supreme Court sent back for a new hearings one of the Enron villains, Jeffrey Skilling, and two other unrelated defendants. The Court did this in part by severely curtailing the scope of the federal honest-services fraud law. But the Court should have just struck the law down, so they got this one only half-right.

Federal law makes it a crime to use the U.S. mail or wire-transfer services in a fraudulent scheme. Over time the lower federal courts developed a much broader doctrine, saying that […]

John Armor: Poor Richard's Internet

By |2020-04-23T21:52:57-04:00June 26th, 2010|

ACRU legal counsel John Armor wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on June 26, 2010.

Let’s raise two questions: What would Ben Franklin think of the Internet? And, what would be his opinion of efforts by the current Administration to censor Internet content, or even shut it down in “an emergency?”

Events in Franklin’s life may answer those questions. A recent two-hour TV special on him made one point that deserves repeating: Of all the Framers who created the United States of America in law and in fact, the one who would be “most at home in the modern world” was […]

Ken Klukowski: DISCLOSE Act Attacks Freedom of Speech

By |2020-04-23T21:52:57-04:00June 25th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on WashingtonExaminer.com on June 24, 2010.

Congress is considering a censorship law to muzzle conservative groups, one that exempts pro-Democrat groups from its requirements, called the DISCLOSE Act. This blatant assault on the First Amendment is worse in some respects than McCain-Feingold, and should be a major focus during Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Modern campaign finance started with the 1976 Supreme Court case Buckley v. Valeo, where among other things the Court held that campaign contributions were protected by the First Amendment, but less protected than speech, and subject to disclosure requirements. Ever […]

Ken Blackwell: Pushing Back for Truth

By |2020-04-23T21:52:57-04:00June 24th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on BigGovernment.com on June 24, 2010.

Left wing blogs have their dander up. They’re attacking me for saying that Elena Kagan favors cloning human beings. Once again, they are trying to confuse the public about what’s involved in cloning humans. Just because they favor killing the embryonic human being after they are done experimenting upon it, but before implanting it in a woman’s womb, they think they are against cloning humans. But they’re not. And neither is Kagan.

It’s almost the same thing as when semantic gymnasts in the pro-cloning camp say they’re not cloning humans, […]

Ken Blackwell: Markets and Morals

By |2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00June 22nd, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on HuffingtonPost.com on June 20, 2010.

There’s an old joke about a Transylvanian cookbook. The recipe for an omelet starts off with this: “First, steal two eggs.” If that note really appeared in some country’s cookbook, don’t look for constitutional government or a free market system to arise there anytime soon. That’s because democracy is not something you can just plant, like shaking seeds out of an envelope.

Americans were blessed to have extensive experience of self-government when we made our bid for independence in the 1770s. And Americans at that time — all the most […]

Ken Klukowski: Supreme Court Ducks Question on Taking Property

By |2010-06-21T15:57:57-04:00June 21st, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on June 21, 2010.

The legal world has been focused on a constitutional property-rights case before the Supreme Court. Last week the Court handed down its decision, and disappointed those waiting for this decision by deferring the big question to a future case. So it remains unclear whether courts can take your property without compensating you.

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that the federal government cannot take your private property unless it’s for public use, and the government gives you “just compensation” (usually fair market value) for the property. In […]

Ken Blackwell: Justice in the Capitol: The Philip Reid Room

By |2010-06-18T10:39:08-04:00June 18th, 2010|

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

I had an extraordinary experience today. I was welcomed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the U.S. Capitol. She was greeting those guests who had come to honor the memory of the slaves who contributed immeasurably to building this Temple of Freedom. I sat with my longtime friends—former Congressman J.C. Watts (R-OK) and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele.

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)—who marched with Dr. King for civil rights in the 1960s—spoke movingly of the role of those enslaved black Americans who toiled through Washington’s sultry summers and […]

Ken Blackwell: Stop START

By |2010-06-10T17:22:35-04:00June 10th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on the Townhall.com website on June 5, 2010.

President Obama believes he has developed a closer relationship with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev than was enjoyed by his predecessor, George W. Bush. I am doubtful about that, but even if it is so, of what consequence is it? Although the Russian constitution makes the president of the republic the number one figure at the apex of Russia’s governing elite, the reality is that the Russian constitution is what Vladimir Putin says it is. Putin is only No. 2 on paper. He is the premier. But the reality is […]

Ken Blackwell: Will Our Peace Prizewinner Lead Us Into a New War?

By |2010-06-07T15:45:31-04:00June 7th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on the Townhall website on June 3, 2010.

“During his campaign for the 2008 election, Mr. Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide.” That’s how the left-wing BBC described one of Barack Obama’s promises in his most successful election campaign of two springs ago. It seemed so easy then to satisfy every group of voters. Everyone, it seemed, was getting in step behind the pied piper.

Now, we see the fruits of that campaign. Or, as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright might say: The Mideast chickens are coming home to roost. Last March, when the Democratic-dominated […]

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