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ACRU Parker Cross-Petition Argument

By |2023-05-20T09:40:49-04:00October 15th, 2007|

The American Civil Rights Union filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court on Friday, October 12 in the case of Parker v. District of Columbia urging the Court to grant the requested writ of certiorari on behalf of 5 of the original 6 plaintiffs seeking to strike down the District’s gun control laws as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had found that these 5 plaintiffs did not have standing in the case and dismissed them from the suit.

However, in regard to the remaining plaintiff, Dick Anthony Heller, the D.C. Circuit […]

Spotlighting Speech Codes with FIRE's Widget

By |2023-05-20T09:40:49-04:00October 11th, 2007|

Over the last several years, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has conducted a thorough survey of campus speech codes at over 350 American colleges and universities and compiled the data in one location on FIRE’s website, Spotlight: The Campus Freedom Resource. For each of these schools, FIRE provides a rating based on whether and to what extent its policies violate constitutional speech protections. A green-light rating indicates that a university’s policies do not impinge on free expression, a yellow-light institution has policies that could excessively regulate or ban protected speech, and a red-light rating is given to institutions with at least one policy that […]

Three Noteworthy Cases on 9th Circuit Docket

By |2023-05-20T09:41:30-04:00July 17th, 2007|

The Honolulu Advertizer has picked up my latest Op-Ed. Here it is:

Three noteworthy cases on 9th Circuit docket

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is proving itself once again to be a powerhouse among the circuits. And based on some of the cases that it will decide this year it might actually edge out the D.C. Circuit as the most influential circuit court in the nation.

With its headquarters in San Francisco, the 9th Circuit is the largest of the 13 courts of appeals, and this term there’s a lot happening. Three of the cases awaiting final disposition by the 9th Circuit are quite noteworthy. And depending […]

Press Release: ACRU Applauds Another Step Towards a Colorblind Society

By |2023-05-20T09:38:57-04:00June 29th, 2007|

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled on an affirmative action case involving a Seattle school district. The ACRU supports the challenge to the school district’s race-based student assignment plan. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, the school district argued its decision to use race is entitled to deference, a presumption of correctness before the law.

ACRU Senior Fellow and constitutional law expert Horace Cooper said that, “The Supreme Court today barred school assignment plans that take account of students’ race. It is a shame that more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided by […]

Supreme Court's School Segregation Decision

By |2023-05-20T09:38:58-04:00June 29th, 2007|

Executive Summary

The Seattle District case, decided 28 June by the Supreme Court, is unique in the way that the 5 Justice majority and the 4 Justice dissent attack each other for abusing the Court’s prior cases, essentially of intellectual dishonesty. The majority holds that assigning children to a school solely on the basis of their race, offends the Constitution. The minority would hold that school administrations have the right to do that, in the interests of “diversity.”

Both sides claim to be in the tradition of the classic decision, Brown v. Board of Education, and accuses the other side of betraying that decision.

In my judgment as […]

The New York Times ignores the Constitution, again

By |2023-05-20T09:39:03-04:00June 7th, 2007|

Here’s my latest op-ed, published in today’s Washington Examiner (though they spelled my name incorrectly):

WASHINGTON – A review by Adam Cohen of a new book, Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas, appeared earlier this week in The New York Times.

The review demonstrates that neither Cohen, nor the authors of the book, nor the editors of The Times have a clue about what it means to have a constitution and how such a document operates.

The review began with Cohen getting his knickers in a twist over the fact that Justice Thomas does not ask questions during oral argument. It […]

Anti-Death Penalty Sleight of Hand By Liberal Justices

By |2023-05-20T09:39:05-04:00June 4th, 2007|

Uttecht v. Brown, Case No. 05-413, 2 June 2008:

Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Souter, Ginsberg and Breyer, claimed in Dissent that the Court is “violating” its own prior cases, by allowing a trial judge to exclude a juror who expressed opposition to the death penalty, in a death penalty case. The Dissent made clear the belief by these four Justices that every possible step to prevent a jury from imposing

a penalty of death, should be taken.

Note this incredible statement in footnote 1 of the Dissent:

“The Court opens its opinion with a graphic description of the underlying facts of […]

The Most Dangerous Branch (cont'd)

By |2023-05-20T09:39:21-04:00May 2nd, 2007|

The Supreme Court’s overturning of the death sentence in Smith v. Texas is an apt example of how activist judges subvert popular will (see my previous post on this subject). The point here is not that the majority opinion is incorrect on the merits, although it is for the reasons ably stated by the four dissenters. The point is to illustrate how, little by little, and under the pretense of restraint, major issues of public policy are being decided by the courts instead of by the elected branches.

No fair reading of the record in Smith v. Texas leaves any doubt that the defendant […]

The Most Dangerous Branch

By |2023-05-20T09:39:21-04:00May 2nd, 2007|

John Armor performs a crucial service with his three recent blog entries about liberals’ use of the courts to counteract democratic self-rule (see John’s article today about the Supreme Court opinion in Smith v. Texas, and his two articles about the “ACLU Against Wisconsin”). Ostensibly, the articles have different subjects: The article about the Texas case discusses adjudicating capital punishment, and the articles about Wisconsin discuss efforts by allies of the losing candidate (and of the ACLU) effectively to reverse the outcome of a judicial election. In fact, the articles bring great insight to the same pernicious development, i.e., the role of liberals in […]

The Hazleton Rebellion

By |2023-05-20T09:38:15-04:00March 2nd, 2007|

There have been several rebellions in American history which were important--not for their military power--but for their politics...

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