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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on FOXNews.com on June 1, 2010.

And so it begins.

There are about a half-dozen constitutional lawsuits underway already against parts of President Obama’s health care law. Most eyes are on the multistate case filed in Florida, joined by 20 states across America. But a parallel suit is progressing in the Old Dominion, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed that suit on the same day that Obamacare was signed into law in March.

There are several distinctive points in the Virginia suit. First, it was filed in the U.S. District […]

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Jan LaRue wrote a column appearing on Townhall.com on May 31, 2010.

“Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?” Yes, dear daughter, I stuffed Bill Clinton in it.

While the world waits to learn whether President Obama has successfully filled British Petroleum’s hole in the Gulf of Mexico, word has come from the White House that the Joe Sestak hole of felony proportions is plugged.

The Sestak hole opened last February. Rep. Joe Sestak was running in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary opposite Sen. Arlen Specter, who was backed by the White House. Sestak appeared with Larry Kane, host of “Voice […]

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on FOXNews.com on May 25, 2010.

There’s a reason President Obama refuses to secure the borders, and insists that the only way to stop illegals from entering this country is to give them all amnesty.

This week Republican senators—including John McCain—told President Obama that there would be no talk about amnesty or a guest-worker program for illegals until his administration secures the border and enforces the law. But despite saying he’ll send 1,200 troops to the border, Obama doesn’t want to secure it, because his blueprint calls for keeping illegals here, and for fighting Arizona’s […]

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on the AmericanThinker website on May 25, 2010.

What’s a dhimmicrat, you say? It’s not the same thing as a Democrat. A dhimmicrat is a person who, while not Muslim himself, nonetheless clears the path for shariah law to be adopted and incorporated into otherwise free nations.

One prime example of this would be the Right Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. Normally, you would think this top Anglican cleric, who lives in a palace in London, would appreciate Britain’s history as the world’s leader in the Rule of Law. As a minister of the Gospel, […]

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on May 19, 2010.

Monday’s Supreme Court decision holding that sentencing an underage person to life in prison is unconstitutional is yet another disturbing example of judicial activism. More than simply another run-of-the-mill activist decision, the Court has reached a new level of usurping the powers the Constitution entrusts to our elected leaders in the states.

On May 17, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Graham v. Florida. In this case, a 16 year-old habitual criminal named Terrance Graham had served time for armed burglary and assault. When he was released […]