Civil Liberties
Have you caught wind of this story? Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage. The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They…
You know, it’s stories like this that make the ACLU — periodically correct positions notwithstanding — seem like an extremist group: The ACLU claims [Woonsocket public schools’ dress code] policy, adopted April 14, violates the right to free speech by prohibiting students from expressing their views on any topic. “Uniforms may be useful in prison…
… only they can’t, because the people who govern Rhode Island have decided that bond ratings justify a sort of economic martial law. They simply don’t believe that democracy works. So, bond rating agencies’ threat to devalue Rhode Island’s ability to borrow more money (which it shouldn’t be doing, anyway) has given a single man,…
By way of an update on the local situation, here’s a press release from Tiverton Citizens for Change (TCC) President David Nelson: Citing the important free speech issues involved in the case, the ACLU of Rhode Island today announced it has agreed to represent Tiverton resident David Nelson, the president of a local tax reform…
Wheaton College philosophy of law professor Stephen Mathis argues against the belief that the Second Amendment seeks to ensure, in part, that the citizens of the United States cannot be bullied by their government — creating a “right to revolution,” as he puts it. His points, however, are self contradictory and conceptually flawed. First the…
Justin’s post announcing Arruda and Durfee’s despicable lawsuit against Dave Nelson here. The following press release from the defendant was in my in-box this morning. Note well the second paragraph describing a demand that Dave rat out his fellow concerned citizens, apparently for the crime of behaving like … concerned citizens. A principle of democracy…
Between its efforts to scrub religious heritage from the public square, the ACLU does occasionally address issues of wider concern, and I agree with its Rhode Island head on the issue of the state’s placing Central Falls in receivership: Brown’s problem with the receivership law is Article XIII of the state Constitution, which concerns home…
Randy Barnett has been following litigation in response to the individual mandate of the healthcare legislation that the Democrats rammed through Congress. Noting that the Obama administration’s reliance on a claim of Congress’s taxation power proves that arguments against the legislation’s claims of Commerce Clause authority were never “frivolous,” Barnett explains that the law, itself,…
The controversy surrounding the banner displayed at Cranston High School West which uses the words “Heavenly Father” and “Amen” has unintentionally revealed another issue concerning the principle of “separation of church and state” in the City of Cranston. As was reported by Maria Armental in the Projo, Cranston’s School Committee maintains an official policy telling…
It’s difficult to believe that this is real, but it appears to be: Nearly a dozen uniformed police officers descend upon a few young men handing out English/Arabic copies of the Gospel of St. John on a public street outside an Arab festival in Michigan, take them into custody, and release them with instructions not…
