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ACLU Fights for Votes for Felons

By |2010-03-02T09:20:19-05:00March 2nd, 2010|

In Mississippi the Constitution forbids felons from voting for President. The ACLU brought a challenge to that law, but the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Mississippi law was legitimate under the US Constitution. This case should be contrasted with a Ninth Circuit decision ruling that a Washington State law barring felons from voting violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

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Some of the facts for this article, but none of the legal conclusions, come from an article on the website of the Courthouse News Service on 1 March, 2010. It recounts the decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming that the […]

Ken Blackwell: Climate Change Debate Over? It's Just Begun!

By |2010-02-24T10:42:51-05:00February 24th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote a column appearing on Townhall.com on February 24, 2010.

Ronald Reagan used to say of the Soviets they liked the arms race a whole lot better when they were the only ones in it. The same could be said of Al Gore and Global Warming—oops, excuse me: Climate Change. Mr. Gore was very much happier to dash around the world in his water vapor-powered personal jet to preach the green gospel of environmentalism. He would tell us which truths were inconvenient. Any dissenters were shouted down as “deniers.” No Pope would ever make claims as far-reaching, as extravagant, as all-embracing […]

Ken Klukowski: "How Dare He Speak!"

By |2020-04-23T21:53:00-04:00February 18th, 2010|

This piece originally appeared on Townhall.com on February 17, 2010.

The ink isn’t yet dry on January’s landmark Supreme Court campaign finance decision Citizens United v. FEC, and already Round Two has begun. As new legislation is planned to limit political speech and some even call for a constitutional amendment, the courts are addressing the next round of constitutional challenges.

Last month the country’s second-highest court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, heard arguments in SpeechNow.org v. FEC. This case was already pending at the D.C. Circuit before the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens’ United. Some aspects of the […]

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski: Obama's Big Plans for Justice Department Nominee Johnsen

By |2010-02-10T17:35:33-05:00February 10th, 2010|

This column originally appeared on BigGovernment.com on February 8, 2010.

The Senate is about to act on the nomination of militant leftist Dawn Johnsen to be the chief of the U.S. government’s elite legal team. But that post is a stepping-stone for top judicial offices, including the Supreme Court itself. That’s likely Barack Obama’s plans for Johnsen, and it’s why she must be stopped now.

Ultra-liberal activist Dawn Johnsen, currently a professor at Indiana University School of Law, is President Obama’s nominee to be assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). As the OLC chief, Johnsen would shape […]

Ken Blackwell: The President's Confusing Messages on Religion

By |2010-02-10T13:45:35-05:00February 10th, 2010|

This piece originally appeared on The Patriot Post on February 8, 2010.

President Obama attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this week. His own denomination—the United Church of Christ—has been teasingly described as “Unitarians considering Christ.” I don’t know how much he is considering Jesus, but he sure is quiet about it if he is. Even among Christians, the President seems to believe in a Christless Christianity.

He quoted President Kennedy’s Inaugural—always a good idea. “Civility is not a sign of weakness,” he said. But as with omitting Jesus, the President skipped the rest of the JFK quote: “…but sincerity is always subject to […]

Ken Klukowski: Legal A-Team on the Field for SCOTUS Religious Liberty Case

By |2010-02-10T13:24:45-05:00February 10th, 2010|

This column originally appeared on the Townhall website on February 10, 2010.

The first round of briefs has now been filed in the pending religious liberty case Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. This is shaping up to be a big case that everyone should focus on come April.

The case is about religious discrimination. The Christian Legal Society (CLS) requires that its campus leaders be … Christian. Seems like a no-brainer. But not to a modern liberal school like University of California at Hastings. UC denied CLS recognition because the school declared that excluding non-Christians from the leadership of this Christian organization amounted to discrimination […]

Let People Decide, ACRU Says in New Jersey Recall Brief

By |2010-02-08T18:56:42-05:00February 8th, 2010|

Today (Feb. 9) the American Civil Rights Union filed an amicus brief in support of a grassroots citizens effort to petition for recall of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The Sussex County Tea Party and NJ Tea Parties United, which filed the original petition request to gather signatures as The Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez from the United States Senate, contend that Menendez has violated his oath of office by voting for unconstitutional measures such as the attempted government health care takeover bill.

The New Jersey Secretary of State at the time rebuffed the request. So the matter is in court. Menendez is up for […]

COMMITTEE TO RECALL ROBERT MENENDEZ v. NINA WELLS, SECRETARY OF STATE, ET AL.

By |2010-02-08T18:50:27-05:00February 8th, 2010|

February 9, the American Civil Rights Union filed an amicus brief in support of a grassroots citizens effort to petition for recall of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

The Sussex County Tea Party and NJ Tea Parties United, which filed the original petition request to gather signatures as The Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez from the United States Senate, contend that Menendez has violated his oath of office by voting for unconstitutional measures such as the attempted government health care takeover bill.

The New Jersey Secretary of State at the time rebuffed the request. So the matter is in court. Menendez is up for re-election […]

Jan LaRue: Justice Alito Dissents

By |2020-04-23T21:53:00-04:00February 6th, 2010|

This column originally appeared on the American Thinker website on February 6, 2010.

It’s a good bet that the conversation in the Supreme Court break room the morning after the president’s State of the Union speech was about Obama’s drive-by distortion of its ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. Predictably, the spin at The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune was “Alito Disparages Obama’s Supreme Court Criticism.”

Where else but in the Bizarro World of Obama’s branch offices at the Post, Trib, and MS-NBC could we find such a polar opposite version of “reality”? Like their champion, these media corporations are extremely vexed that the Court […]

ACLU-Think Applied to Terrorists

By |2010-02-05T16:37:13-05:00February 5th, 2010|

This morning, in hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee, several Administration leaders defended the idea of giving the would-be Christmas bomber the same rights as ordinary Americans in a criminal trial. This thinking, which mirrors the ideas of the ACLU, offers several ways that tens of thousands of Americans may get killed in future terrorist attacks.

Some of the facts for this article, but none of the legal conclusions, come from an article on UPI.com on 3 February, 2010. The heads of services who testified as a panel before the Senate Intelligence Committee were led by Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA.

On the day […]

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