Judge Andrew Napolitano, in a new Fox Business interview with host Stuart Varney, said he applauds Apple CEO Tim Cook for “defending the Constitution” by resisting a United States magistrate judge’s order that Apple aid the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in breaching Apple encryption that protects the customers.
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With the death last week of United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, there is much discussion of whether Scalia was good or bad on the court and whether President Barack Obama and the next president will nominate good or bad people for the court. If you value the protection of liberty, however, it is clear that none of the current or recent justices are on your side and that Obama and the next president are unlikely to appoint anyone who is either.
Ron Paul summed up the situation well in a 2011 Fox News presidential debate. He said regarding the justices, “they are all good and they are all bad.” While they all defend liberty sometimes, Paul noted that none of them consistently defends both personal and economic liberty.
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The violence in Syria has been devastating for years. New military actions in the country by the Turkish government threaten to escalate the situation into a much larger war.
Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Executive Director Daniel McAdams wrote about the most recent developments in the RPI Weekly Update sent out via email early this morning. Because of the great importance of sharing McAdams’ Syria comments with the largest audience possible, those comments from this morning’s email are posted below as well.
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Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano said in a Thursday Fox News interview that the United States Department of Justice will likely seek to make deals with individuals who were top aides to Hillary Clinton so those aides will testify against her if there is a prosecution of Clinton for failure to adequately protect government secrets while she was US Secretary of State.
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Ken Womble has written convincingly regarding legal matters, including the desirability of prosecuting cops who lie about other cops’ killings. However, Womble, in a Monday Mimesis Law article, provides several not-so-convincing arguments for repealing the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution while keeping in place other constitutional provisions Womble lists — “freedom of speech, assembly, due process, voting, etc.”
Womble provides three arguments in support of his conclusion. First, he says that the right to keep and bear arms is distinguishable from other rights mentioned in the Constitution because, “[i]n our nation’s almost 240 years of existence, the 2nd Amendment is the only time our leaders have granted a constitutional right to possess tools.”
When you think about it, this is not much of a distinction. The freedom of speech that Womble seeks to distinguish from the right to bear arms would be of much less value without the ability to use microphones, telephones, video cameras, audio recording equipment, radio and TV, the internet, means of transportation, and many other tools. Indeed, listed rather redundantly in the First Amendment is the freedom of the press along with the freedom of speech. A major tool of the press is the printing press and its modern analogues such as a computer providing word processing, video editing, and website posting capabilities. Say you print your communication on paper, then you can use additional tools, such as trucks to transport the printed communication and distribution bins from which people can pick up the printed communication.
Tools do not play a major role in the exercise of only the freedom of speech and its cousin the freedom of the press. Tools also permeate the exercise of the other rights Womble lists. Assembly uses the tool of a suitable room in which people can meet, along with other tools including microphones, loudspeakers, chairs, and tables. And the tools of speech and press can be used to alert people about a future assembly or about what occurred at a past assembly. Due process would be tough if a defendant were deprived of access the tools with which to conduct legal research and to draft and submit legal briefs. Imagine voting without any tools — no ballots and voter rolls, for example.
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Ron Paul, the prominent libertarian communicator, has said many times that the great interest in the ideas of liberty he finds among young people on university campuses gives him reason for optimism. In fact, Paul has made it a priority to speak at universities often, seeking to help build a greater understanding of liberty among both students and people from the surrounding communities.
Most recently, Paul visited on Tuesday the University of Texas at Arlington to take part in the university’s Maverick Speakers Series. His schedule on campus included a speech to an audience of about 1,500 people in an auditorium, a separate lecture to a smaller group of students, and a book signing.
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In a new Fox Business interview, host Kennedy asks Ron Paul the question many people have considered the last couple days: With Paul’s son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) having dropped out of the presidential race this week, how about the senior Paul jump into the 2016 presidential contest by seeking the Libertarian Party nomination? Paul responds that such a run is “not in the cards.”
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In a new video report at Fox News, former New Jersey Judge Andrew Napolitano predicts that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will “very soon” recommend the prosecution of Hillary Clinton for espionage based on her alleged reckless handling of US government secrets while she was Secretary of State. That indictment recommendation, Napolitano explains, will bring the matter into the “political sphere” in which President Barack Obama will have the power either to allow or prevent a prosecution.
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Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), speaking Tuesday at a hearing of the US House Armed Services Committee, returned to a subject he has addressed many times — the US government’s incredible waste of money and lives in Afghanistan. Providing one example to illustrate the “boondoggles” that permeate US activity in Afghanistan, Jones shed light on the six million dollars the US spent on a program involving importing “rare blonde Italian goats” to Afghanistan. The pricey goats, Jones relates, may have then just been eaten instead of being used to boost the cashmere industry in Afghanistan.
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After months of preparation, national, state, and local police have rolled out a comprehensive mass surveillance effort in the San Francisco Bay Area as the Super Bowl approaches. If you happen to be in the area over the next few days, you can expect much high-tech gadgetry and police time will be used to watch, catalogue, and analyze your activities.
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