Constitution | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 13
Accessibility by WAH
Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Constitution Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 28, 2013 4 Comments
The last time we checked on Hobby Lobby after a 60,000 citizen buycott in support of its case against Obamacare, it looked likely that US Supreme Court would take up the case. SCOTUS has now formally done just that.
The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to review the lawsuit filed by Hobby Lobby against the federal government over the Obamacare mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage in their health plans. Hobby Lobby, which is owned by an Oklahoma City family with strong Christian beliefs, says a 1993 law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, protects the company from the mandate. The company is particularly opposed to paying for coverage that includes the morning after pill.
The court also accepted a related case from Pennsylvania involving a Mennonite family with a furniture-making business. In that case, a federal appeals court initially ruled that the owners could not challenge the mandate on religious ground because a company did not enjoy the same rights as individuals.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 03, 2013 214 Comments

I believe Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz to be "natural born Citizens" and eligible to be President.  Here's why. 1. Summary There are few eligibility requirements to be President.  You don't have to be smart, wise, experienced, honest, educated, or a particular gender or race. Article II, Section...

Posted by New Neo on August 18, 2013 38 Comments

The president's latest radio address is a classic example of Obamaspeak. We've grown used to the drill. First, some empty words about how he's going to help the economy and the middle class. Then sanguine projections about what his program (in this case, Obamacare) will do...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 13, 2013 150 Comments

The analysis of the Natural Born Citizen clause in the Constitution as it applies to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. I promised to do this long ago, and did the research with the assistance of a former student, but couldn't bring myself to actually write it...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 12, 2013 39 Comments

Mark Levin's new book, The Liberty Amendments: Restoring The American Republic is out, and it proposes an ambitious set of Amendments to the Constitution: I undertook this project not because I believe the Constitution, as originally structured, is outdated and outmoded, thereby requiring modernization through amendments,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 07, 2013 11 Comments

There's sudden attention being paid to the 3rd Amendment: ‘Forgotten’ Third Amendment Surfaces in Nevada Case A Real Live Third Amendment Case Nevada Family Says Police Occupation of Homes Violated the Third Amendment At Legal Insurrection we supported the 3rd Amendment before it was cool to support the 3rd...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 08, 2013 9 Comments

In light of "questions" by both Lindsay Graham (since clarified) and Dick Durbin as to whether bloggers are entitled to First Amendment protection, I thought these two videos might be worth watching. Floyd Abrams (btw, father of Dan Abrams, television legal commentator and proprietor of Mediaite...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2013 25 Comments

Are bloggers entitled to constitutional protection, Dick Durbin wonders out loud. I have a better question, are Senators entitled to anything? https://twitter.com/realmyiq2xu/status/339112015907938304 ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 23, 2013 23 Comments

Lois Lerner famously purported to invoke the 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination yesterday while appearing before Congress. A number of people have reached out to me to ask me to write about it.  Unfortunately, it's outside my area of experience and I don't have time to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 31, 2012 57 Comments
An Op-Ed in The New York Times from Georgetown Law Professor Louis Michael Seidman, Let’s Give Up on the Constitution:
AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.... Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to be done, we argue about what James Madison might have wanted done 225 years ago.

As someone who has taught constitutional law for almost 40 years, I am ashamed it took me so long to see how bizarre all this is.... Constitutional disobedience may seem radical, but it is as old as the Republic....

No one can predict in detail what our system of government would look like if we freed ourselves from the shackles of constitutional obligation, and I harbor no illusions that any of this will happen soon. But even if we can’t kick our constitutional-law addiction, we can soften the habit.

If we acknowledged what should be obvious — that much constitutional language is broad enough to encompass an almost infinitely wide range of positions — we might have a very different attitude about the obligation to obey.

I find myself agreeing more frequently than ever before with Glenn Greenwald, at least on the issue of the willingness and desire of "progressives" to go where even the demonized George W. Bush was not willing to go, and the willingness with which the progressive intelligentsia embraces such ideas in the service of Obama. Or maybe he's agreeing with me. Update:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 11, 2012 29 Comments

The big shock in the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling was not that the law was upheld.  Most people thought there was a substantial chance Justice Kennedy would side with the four liberal Justices. But almost no one thought that it would be Chief Justice John Roberts...