Getting Rights Wrong

It's the Fourth of July, the
day we ought to contemplate and rejoice in Jefferson's radical declaration of
the “self-evident” truth that all individuals
are
equally endowed with “certain unalienable Rights, … among these … Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Alas, the day cannot be one
of unmitigated joy since we have again been reminded that the purported
protectors of our liberties have little understanding of those rights. We thus
live under constant threat from the very people who claim to protect us. As you might guess, I am
referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Second Amendment case, District
of Columbia v. Heller.
More . . .

A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

A Supreme Court to Be Proud Of

In the closing months of the current U.S. Supreme Court session, pundits of every stripe will be assessing the impact of recent changes in the Court’s composition. If the justices themselves are interested in how they measure up, there may be no better standard than the Court’s record under Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller. It’s a [...]

The Supreme Court and the End of Limited Government

The Supreme Court ruling permitting governments
forcibly to transfer property through eminent
domain from one private party to another
for the sake of economic development did not come out
of the blue. Although the Takings Clause in the Fifth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifies “nor shall
private property be taken for public use without just
compensation,” the “Court long ago rejected any literal
requirement that condemned property be put into use
for the general public” (Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff,
1984, cited in the current case, Kelo v. City of New
London).

Protecting Property in a Post-Kelo World

Two years ago, when I began writing a book,
peoples eyes would glaze over when I told them
the subject was eminent domain, the power of
the government to take property by force on just
compensation to the owner. Rarely could I mention the
subject without having to explain it in detail, and
incredulity was a typical response to the realization that
government now takes property for private uses rather
than for the public uses allowed by the
Constitution.

When the Supreme Court Stopped Economic Fascism in America

Seventy years ago, on May 27, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court said no to economic fascism in America.The trend toward bigger and ever-moreintrusive government, unfortunately, was not stopped, but the case nonetheless was a significant event that at that time prevented the institutionalizing of a Mussolini-type corporativist system in America. (Correction: Contrary to a statement in this column, young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps were not compelled to join.)

Truman’s Attempt to Seize the Steel Industry

In U.S. history many of the most drastic incursions on private property rights have sprung from the conjunction of a threatened work stoppage, owing to a union-management dispute, and the government’s desire to expedite a war-production program. Such a conjunction underlay the government’s nationalization of the railroads, the telegraph lines, and the Smith & Wesson [...]

Grutter v. Bollinger: A Constitutional Embarrassment

“All animals are created equal—but some are more equal than others.” So goes the crucial line in George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Grutter v. Bollinger makes one think of that line, since it gives constitutional approval to the policies used at many colleges and universities that group applicants by [...]

The Lochner Court, Myth and Reality: Substantive Due Process from the 1890s to the 1930s

Lochner v. New York is an often-mentioned but misunderstood 1905 Supreme Court decision that lends its name to this excellent analysis of constitutional jurisprudence by Michael J. Phillips. Phillips, professor emeritus of business administration at Indiana University, has written probably the best book by a nonlawyer on any aspect of constitutional law, and the best [...]

Designing Dependence

Government now permeates American life, shaping and determining in countless ways the choices available to us. As Tocqueville feared, the U.S. government has largely succeeded in its efforts to spare us “all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living.” Through Social Security, Medicare, public education, and the rest, the sphere of autonomous [...]