Ah, the good old TSA. When faced with a minute* number of citizens asserting their rights, they simply take those rights away. And what’s worse? They don’t even take the rights away from everyone, only the loudmouths like us cantankerous civil libertarians: Passengers who refuse to show ID, citing a constitutional right to fly without [...]

About a month ago, I blasted an article by a tongue-in-cheek reporter who wanted to use Raul Castro’s easing of restrictions on cell phone ownership as an excuse to criticize cell phones (suggesting– implicitly– that oppression and no phones is better than freedom and phones). I stand by that post, but I stepped over the [...]

When I learned that Bob Barr was going to be a guest on Hannity and Comes, I was excited to see a rare opportunity for a Libertarian candidate to explain the Libertarian philosophy to an audience which is largely unfamiliar with what the Libertarian Party is all about: personal liberty. To my dismay, Barr instead [...]

In my most recent post, I listed the names of the top 5 “porkers” in the House and the Senate according to CAGW’s 2008 edition of the Pig Book. I also listed the amount of pork the three leading candidates for president supported and named the ten members of the House which supported no pork [...]

As if yesterday’s memo asserting unprecedented extra constitutional Executive authority weren’t bad enough, the Associated Press reports today that former Presidential adviser John Yoo also asserted that a key provision of the Bill of Rights could be ignored in the name of the War On Terror: For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 [...]

The Bush Administration yet again demonstrates the depths of it’s depravity: The Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as commander in chief overrode such statutes. [...]

It was indeed the so-called PATRIOT Act that brought Elliot Spitzer down: When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, law-enforcement agencies hailed it as a powerful tool to help track down the confederates of Osama bin Laden. No one expected it would end up helping to snag the likes [...]

First of all, I’ve got to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Stephen’s sentiments, expressed here and here, that Elliot Spitzer pretty much deserved everything that has, and will, come to him. During his time as Attorney General of New York, he was a no-holds-barred zealous prosecutor that cared little for the facts or for [...]

Britain has long been a bellwether for what is coming to the United States. First it was smoking bans, soon it will likely be national health care. And shortly to follow will probably be a federal DNA database. What will follow that? The inevitable stories of DNA database abuses: IT IS an object lesson in [...]

Last week I wrote a post about how Barack Obama was trying to have it both ways on the Second Amendment. Ken Blackwell at Townhall.com, however, believes that Obama’s doublespeak about the Second Amendment (among some of Obama’s other statements) reveals a disturbing pattern in his attitudes about individual rights and a host of other [...]

David Strom asks the question at Town Hall: Liberty has always been a tougher sell than many of us assume. We all want the freedom to do as we like, but few of us are as committed to allowing others to act contrary to our notion of right and wrong. Majorities have always sought and [...]

A dark chapter in American history begins with the signing of an Executive Order: United States Executive Order 9066 was a presidential executive order issued during World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, using his authority as Commander-in-Chief to exercise war powers to send ethnic groups to internment camps. This [...]

Judge Andrew Napolitano gave a speech for Reason Magazine in Washington D.C. in October of last year on the history of Constitutional infidelity. Virtually every president from George Washington to George W. Bush has broken his oath of office to defend the Constitution. President John Adams, the nation’s second president, was the first president who [...]

Apparently, the right to privacy no longer exist for anyone crossing the border as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that they have a right to search, without warrant or probable cause, anyone who comes into this country, including citizens.  Amir Khan says he becomes frustrated and humiliated every time he enters the [...]

CNN is reporting this afternoon that the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to put together a massive database filed with biometric information from American citizens: CLARKSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) — The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better [...]

There’s a very good post up over at Cato@Liberty on the debate that erupted between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over whether states should be permitted to give driver’s licenses to people who are in the country illegally. As the post’s author notes, the right answer to the question has little to do with immigration: [...]

A lawyer in Massachusetts faces wiretapping charges for recording a drug arrest on his cell phone: A 2006 graduate of New England School of Law will stand trial on Jan. 29 in Boston Municipal Court on charges of wiretapping, aiding an escape and disturbing the peace for allegedly using his cell phone to record the [...]

Apparently, there’s not much liberty at the Statue of Liberty these days: Nearly 2 million tourists, many from overseas, descend on Liberty Island each year to commune with that green icon of American freedom, the Statue of Liberty. Most of them will actually get to see the monument—as long they put out their cigarettes, hand [...]

A Department of Homeland Security official thinks we should be required to present federally approved identification when buying prescription drugs: In a presentation aimed at promoting the final identification requirements released Friday, Stewart Baker, the Homeland Security Department’s assistant secretary for policy, suggested the controversial system could help federal agents combat methamphetamine production and abuse [...]

The brainiacs who’ve made air travel almost as fun as a 10-hour Coca-Cola enema have unveiled their new master plan for creating an efficient security system…federally mandated drivers licenses for everybody under the age of 50, which all states will be forced to comply with by 2011, whether they’re capable or doing so or not, [...]