“First came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then …

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Jefferson
 The signors of the Declaration of Independence understood the potentially lethal consequences of their actions yet opted to, “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” by formally severing ties …

Of course I’m not going to do it,”
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele
 
Despite judicial orders, President Trump remains defiant when it comes to repatriating a wrongfully arrested and deported legally-protected El Salvadoran immigrant who has lived in the country for a decade, is married to an American citizen with whom …

“Between and Rock and a Hard Place”
Anon
 
Candidates running for office face a major challenge, trying to appeal to and appease their base while not alienating swing voters … who ultimately dictate most election outcomes.
President Biden’s campaign continues to struggle with a perception chasm between the actual state of the economy …

“A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void.”
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
 In a concurring opinion supporting the Alabama Supreme Court ruling frozen embryos are people, Chief Justice Tom Parker leaned heavily on Christian scripture, “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God,” and “All human …

'Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview.'"

Speaker Mike Johnson

Newly-minted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has made it clear his actions are driven by his faith and looks to the Gospels to form policy positions.  Echoing evangelical and Christian Nationalists ideologies, he …

“Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.”

Adlai Stevenson

America’s 244-year experiment in representative democracy and the freedoms it has bestowed on its citizens has endured …

“I hate prejudice, discrimination, and snobbishness of any kind – it always reflects on the person judging and not the person being judged. Everyone should be treated equally.”

Gordon Brown

For nearly a century, successive Administrations championed the expansion of the rights of disenfranchised Americans, whether based on gender, race, nationality, religion, …

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Certain recent Supreme Court decisions have embraced high-priority political objectives of conservative, primarily Christian Right, activists; justifying their opinions on “originalism” and questionable interpretations of the First Amendment.

These range from …

Be Careful What You Wish For

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”

Margaret J. Wheatley

Last week, to the dismay of Democrats, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a women constitutional right for an abortion.  The Court’s …

“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

Justice Antonin Scalia – District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

Only 21 weeks in to the year and the United States has witnessed 213 mass shootings, a staggering average of 10 per week … with 27 having taken place …

“Liberty is the power to do everything that does not interfere with the rights of others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every individual has no limits save those that assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights.”

Thomas Paine

If the recently released draft opinion …

“To promote the general Welfare”

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

In the wake of the recent Canadian trucker’s demonstrations in Ottawa, the conservative-leaning Great American Patriot Project has urged and recruited American truckers to participate in a “Freedom Convoy”, a copycat cross-county caravan to protest “the unscientific, unconstitutional government overreach in regards …

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”

D. H. Lawrence

An imperative to the health and survivability of a democracy are both open, free and fair elections and public faith …

“When people fear their government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty”

Thomas Jefferson

With just days before the 2020 election, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice within a week decided not to decide whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling to require ballots postmarked on or before …

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Justices Thomas and Alito recently demonstrated ideology holds sway over their alleged “strict constructionist” view of the U.S. Constitution when they lambasted the religious liberty implications of the Court’s …

“Respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base”

Donald Trump (July 21, 2020)

After being rebuked by the Supreme Court when he tried to have the 2020 census exclude undocumented aliens, President Trump has predictably sought new …

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

Thomas Paine

During recent trips to a Honeywell plant in Arizona and an Owens & Minor warehouse in Pennsylvania  both supplying Personal Protective Equipment, President Trump stood out by not using a face mask; showing disrespect …

“It’s not the FBI’s role to investigate Ford’s claims”.

President Donald J. Trump

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans seem committed to send Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate next week despite recent allegations he may have committed a prior sexual assault; and while thousands of pages of his …

“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.”
James Bovard (1994)
By the 2010 census, our nation’s population had grown to 308,745,538.  Buried in that figure are changes in the populations of the fifty states.  The Constitution mandates Congressional seats be apportioned …

“Be careful what you wish for …”
Adage – author unknown
Supreme Court appointments can be a president’s most important and enduring legacy. While rarely registering on lists of voter concerns, the untimely passing of Justice Scalia has made such appointments toxic political fodder for presidential wannabees!
Under the Constitution, a president’s term …

” the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better.”
President Obama (January 2016)
 
While President Obama lamented on the increasing polarization during his Administration, he needs only to look in the mirror. His demonizing those who disagree with him, unwillingness to compromise other than on his terms …

“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
 Justice Louis Brandeis (1928)
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be …