As structured in the Constitution, the federal government consists of three components: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. While most focus primarily on the executive and legislative branches, the judiciary is just as important and casts an expanding shadow over policy debates. With its own set of institutions and opacity, most Americans have only a vague understanding of the legal system and its impact on the economy. As the size and scope of government has grown, the legal system has lost its moorings, with common law being overwhelmed by statutory law—drowning the economy in red tape.
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The Court has exclusive and direct appellate jurisdiction in all California state death penalty cases, although it has sponsored a state constitutional amendment to allow it to assign death penalty appeals to the California Courts of Appeal. It has discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all cases reviewed by the Courts of Appeal; the latter were created by a 1904 constitutional amendment to relieve the Supreme Court of most of its workload so the Court could then focus on dealing with non-frivolous appeals that involved important issues of law.
This morning we learned that the National Security Administration (NSA) has been collecting the phone records of every domestic Verizon customer since at least late April of this year. Under the auspices of "national security" the Obama Administration has been monitoring "meta-data" from Verizon customers. This includes who you're calling, where you're calling from and how long those calls last.
Monday was a bad day for the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled in Maryland v. King, by a vote of 5-4, that it is constitutional for police to take DNA swabs of felony arrestees--who have not yet been convicted of anything--without a warrant. Yikes. All freedom lovers should be disappointed in the SCOTUS’ wrong decision: it’s a violation of our individual liberty and just downright creepy.
This is still America, right? We still have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, correct? Lately, it sure doesn’t seem like it. It seems like we are constantly hearing new stories of our rights being under attack here in America. This week, it’s the Fourth Amendment which is being systematically destroyed.
The Supreme Court's June 28th decision on ObamaCare came as a shock to many. But to others, it was a confusing document full of complexities that the mainstream media simply couldn't explain. There's so much more to the decision than most people know about, but the document itself is long and complicated. That's why we created an easy to read summary for our activists. We call it the Roberts Decision for Non-Lawyers. Download a copy at the bottom of this post.
In Part 1 of this series, we took a look at the Obamacare decision. Part 2 examined how devastating the effects of Obamacare will be on America. In Part 3, we ask the question;
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the flaws in the decision by Chief Justice Roberts to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA (Obamacare)).In this post, we will examine the devastating effects of this new law.How The Statute Will Destroy AmericaSo, for now at least, Obamacare is the law of the land. Here's what the burden will be, according to FreedomWorks:
This week, Americans across the nation on both sides of the Obamacare debate expressed surprise, not only at the decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), but at the reasoning used by Chief Justice Roberts in writing the majority opinion. In fact, the very reading of the decision caused much confusion.
The backlash over the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) new invasive procedures has transcended left vs. right politics. Under the banner of security, American citizens are being subjected to virtual strip searches or intrusive full contact pat downs from armed government bureaucrats. These policies do more to humiliate us and pad the pockets of lobbyists than actually keep us safe.