This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published April 23, 2011 on The Washington Examiner website.

Federal law allows state officials to sue each other in federal court, but it’s unconstitutional to sue a state for refusing to allow misbehaving inmates to attend religious services. Thus said the Supreme Court in two decisions this week, both by a 62 vote. (Justice Elena Kagan was recused from both cases.) And they could affect Obamacare.

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the 11th Amendment makes any state immune from being sued in federal court without the state’s consent. These cases are 11th Amendment cases.

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Policy Director for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published April 22, 2011 on Forbes website.

A fundamental misconception about America’s welfare state misleads millions of voters to reflexively support ever bigger and more generous government. William Voegeli fingers the attitude in his book, Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State: “no matter how large the welfare state, liberal politicians and writers have accused it of being shamefully small” and “contemptibly austere.”

Barbara Ehrenreich expresses the attitude in her book, Nickled and Dimed: “guilt doesn’t go anywhere near far enough; the […]

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published April 23, 2011 on The Washington Times website.

With spring in the air, all but the truly soul-dead feel the pull of not only natural but spiritual renewal. The surge of new life after winter’s dormancy is so magnificent that it can shake us to our core. Capricious breezes, the greening of the landscape and the cherry, redbud and dogwood blossoms peppering the woods like wedding lace bespeak – for the believer – a marvelous Maker. So, too, do more sobering events, such as powerful, deadly storms. All in all, it’s conducive […]

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell was published April 19, 2011 on The Cincinnati Enquirer website.

During a recent speech at Cleveland State focused on small business in Ohio, President Barack Obama described a goal of “knocking down barriers that stand in the way of your growth.” Unfortunately, his EPA couldn’t be more in the dark about how to translate that message into practice – with the agency poised to adopt more than 30 new, major regulations and over 170 major policy rules in the next several months.

Even with 14 million Americans out of work and an economy […]

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published April 19, 2011 on The Washington Examiner website.

It appeared yesterday during oral arguments in a case raising important constitutional and political issues that members of the U.S. Supreme Court doubt the wisdom of allowing federal judges the power to regulate carbon emissions.

The case was AEP v. Connecticut in which eight states sued American Electric Power and other electricity providers over carbon emissions. They allege that although there is no authorizing federal statute, that federal “common law” — centuries-old legal doctrines of practice and tradition — entitle them to have federal courts designate […]

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published April 18, 2011 on The Washington Examiner website.

Property rights and economics are at the heart of a Microsoft case that pitted a top Bush lawyer against top Clinton and Obama lawyers in arguments before the Supreme Court yesterday.

Justices heard arguments in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i. At issue was whether i4i’s patent was infringed upon by a feature in Microsoft Word (being used to write this column, ironically).

The case turns on Congress’s language in the 1952 Patent Act, and what burden it places on parties challenging a patent. Although statutory interpretation […]