Here’s more on yesterday’s Bill of Rights day: On Dec. 15, 1791, the ten amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights were ratified. In 1941, in honor of the amendments’ 150th anniversary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the date a holiday: Bill of Rights Day. The National Archives this year held a…
Law
Crime, Law, Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Press Release, Taxes/Taxation
Wes [Benedict of the LP] for Wesley Snipes | Libertarian Party
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Libertarian Party issued the following press release about tax protester Wesley Snipes. Note that Snipes was acquitted(!) of tax fraud and conspiracy, but he’s been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on a misdemeanor conviction merely for being a non-filer. Wes for Wesley Snipes Why men can’t jump on Wesley Snipes WASHINGTON – Wes Benedict,…
Cartoons & Comics, Law
About | Law and the Multiverse
by JOHN ADAMS •
Phantom Stranger, and those who enjoy reading about the exploits of the Phantom Stranger and other heroes of comic cooks — here’s the website for you — Law and the Multiverse. If there’s one thing comic book nerds like doing it’s over thinking the smallest details. Here we turn our attention to the hypothetical legal…
Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
The Volokh Conspiracy » Greenwald v. The Nation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Freedom of Speech, Law, Laws/Regulations, Politics
CNN Money: The Absurdity of Campaign Finance Reform
by JOHN ADAMS •
Nina Easton writes about so-called reform that’s both anti-speech, and deeply hypocritical: One narrative of election year 2010 was shaped long before any votes were tabulated. President Barack Obama penned the first chapter with his January condemnation of a Supreme Court ruling that lifted government prohibitions on spending by corporations in elections. The 5-to-4 decision…
Law
A Read-the-Bill Rule for Congress
by JOHN ADAMS •
Hannah Volokh, while at visiting at Emory University’s law school, published an intriguing proposal in the Missouri Law Review: A Read-the-Bill Rule for Congress: In this Article, I argue that legislators have a duty to read the text of proposed legislation before voting to enact it. A Read the Bill political movement has formed in…
Law
Second Amendment Rights (and implicitly First Amendment rights, too)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier this month, Madison police cited two men (of a group of five) for obstruction of justice for failing to identify themselves to officers at a Culver’s restaurant. The men were openly carrying firearms, as Wisconsin law allows. (One can’t openly carry a gun anywhere, but it’s lawful to carry one in a Culver’s, for…
Law, Laws/Regulations
Ieshuh Griffin on The Daily Show: Slogan’s Hero
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written before about Ieshuh Griffin, the Wisconsin candidate who wanted to use “NOT the whiteman’s bitch” as her description of candidacy on the November ballot. She’s now hit the big time — a mention on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Government Accountability Board denied Griffin’s request to use that description, and a…
Law
Wisconsin Attorney General Hosts Public Records Seminar
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Wisconsin’s Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen, will host an open records seminar this week in Madison. The Wisconsin Department of Justice will hold several public records seminars, live or video-taped, over the next few weeks. See, Wis. AG to host first open records seminar. Free registration for the seminars…
Freedom of Speech, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
From the Institute for Justice: Defending the Right to Ordinary Speech
by JOHN ADAMS •
Is it possible, in America, that government will not allow citizens to make a living describing national landmarks without holding a license from the state? A license, literally, to speak about our democratic heritage. Not a business license — no, a second license from government — by which government claims to permit a person to…
Law, Liberty
Im Not Going to Be Interrogated As a Pre-Condition of Re-Entering My Own Country – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s justifiable pride in being an American citizen: America is an extraordinary place, a free, beautiful republic. There are countless reasons to be proud of being a citizen, so many reasons to love the American way of life. Unfortunately, the encroachment of government regulations is so considerable that federal officials often assert authority that they…
Law, Libertarians, Liberty
Reason.tv: Anyone Care About Economic Liberty Anymore? George Thomas on the 14th Amendment
by JOHN ADAMS •
George Thomas of Claremont McKenna College discusses economic liberties. Reason.tv’s interview is a solid contribution to the topic. I have embedded the video, and a description of it, below. (By the way, if you’re looking for those who take economic liberties seriously, there’s no better place to start than the “merry band of litigators” at…
Government Spending, Law, Laws/Regulations
Wisconsin: State Journal: Shame those who hide state contracts
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Government Accountability Board deserves credit for trying to put some teeth into the law that requires state agencies to post online the details of any contracts that involve more than $10,000 in state money…. Problem is, that website [to post details] has been mostly blank, as agencies have routinely ignored the requirement for online…
Law, Police
Balko on Concealment and Dishonesty in Northern Virginia
by JOHN ADAMS •
The battle for openness in government is a difficult but necessary one. In some parts of the country, notably northern Virgina, some police departments are doing everything they can to prevent greater openness. Radley Balko of Reason writes about how departments in that state batten on the legitimate need for public safety to justify their…
