Category Archives: Constitution and Law

Honoring Peter Schramm, American Philosopher and Patriot| Hugh Hewitt |7.13.2015

By Clark S. Judge | Published: July 13, 2015
Last Monday evening, the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, held a tribute for its recently retired executive director, Peter Schramm. It was at once a triumphant, inspiring, and sad occasion. Schramm has recently been diagnosed with an especially aggressive form of cancer. Under Dr. Schramm’s more than quarter century […]
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Lynch Would Be the Wrong AG at Wrong Time| Hugh Hewitt |3.16.2015

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 17, 2015
Eric Holder has received a bad rap. Yes, under his watch the Justice Department has pushed the boundaries of the Constitution and the law over and over in a manner that has turned a harsh spotlight on a now troubled – some would say corrupted – agency. But the abuse of law and power did […]
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Thomas Jefferson, the Constitution and Slavery| HughHewitt.com | 08.13.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: August 13, 2014
It was William Faulkner who wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” How we understand the origins of our institutions and the men and women who shaped them shapes what we value about them now. It informs what we keep and what we change and what we build that’s new. Last month, […]
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How Thomas Jefferson Freed the Slaves | Ricochet.com | 07.14.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: July 14, 2014
It was William Faulkner who wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” On the 4th of July weekend I found myself thinking about Thomas Jefferson and slavery. You know the derision directed at the author of the Declaration of Independence on this topic — and, in some quarters, at the legitimacy of […]
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Administration Lawlessness? Executive Orders Aren’t the Half of It. | HughHewitt.com | 02.19.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: February 27, 2014
Talk about a smokescreen. When President Obama pledged to use executive orders to do what he couldn’t get Congress to do, no one thought such an extreme, in-your-face challenge could be a diversion.  But it now looks as though that is what it might have been. For some of the most extreme unilateral administration actions […]
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Senator Mitch McConnell Shows There is At Least One Adult In The Room | HughHewitt.com | 01.13.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 14, 2014
Perhaps like me you were taught in school that the nation’s founders feared popular rule.  That view is wrong.  The Founders wanted enduring popular rule.  They feared that rule by narrow, fleeting majorities would lead to wild swings of policy, undermining the public’s own trust in popular rule. So to ensure government by durable majorities, they created, […]
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Breaking Bad in Washington | HughHewitt.com | 06.07.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: June 7, 2013
So the morning papers are full of talk about the administration’s massive sweeping up and mining of communications data of all forms in the US.  The New York Times editorializes today that the Obama White House has “lost all credibility” on questions of domestic surveillance.   And the surveillance program does look might broad.  Who called whom […]
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The Scandals and the Unwritten Constitution | HughHewitt.com | 05.29.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 30, 2013
All the talk about the IRS targeting conservative for audits and the Department of Justice hacking into the email files of the Associated Press is disturbing enough.  But it may be only the start. Reports have been circulating in the past week that other agencies have engaged in similarly aggressive behavior towards administration critics.  The […]
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The First Amendment Under Siege | USNews.com | 5.23.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 23, 2013
It has been a bad few weeks for the First Amendment. The sinister commonality to the Internal Revenue Service and AP scandals and the James Rosen affair is that each appears to have been (strike “appears “: each was) an attempt to suppress a core American right. Freedom of the press was clearly the target […]
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Same-Sex Marriage: Links to the briefs and a question about SSM and justice? | HughHewitt.com | 3.26.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 26, 2013
Same-sex marriage is, of course, the topic of the next two days at the Supreme Court. If you haven’t already, you may want to look at some of the briefs in the cases, United States v. Windsor, which focuses on the Defense of Marriage Act (http://tinyurl.com/bl2ew8j), and Hollingworth v. Perry, a challenge to California’s Proposition […]
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Note to Certain Senators: Rand Paul Took the Right Stand on the Right Issue at the Right Time | HughHewitt.com | 03.11.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 11, 2013
I will make this posting short:  I find unsettling and dispiriting – close to unbelievable — the scorn some in the Senate GOP have directed at Rand Paul for his filibuster this week. These critics have suggested that Senator Paul was grandstanding, to the purpose of compromising presidential war powers. How is that again? The […]
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The Framer’s Foresight and the Biggest Question the Nation Faces | Ricochet.com | 2.3.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: February 4, 2013
Over the last year and a half, the President has repeatedly announced that, since Congress won’t act on this or that, he will have to, by decree, uh, executive order and regulation. Challenges to the substance and even legitimacy of the Constitution comprise the biggest question overhanging our republic in this time of many questions. […]
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What The Second Amendment Says And What It Means To Us | Ricochet.com | 2.4.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: February 4, 2013
The President has taken up skeet shooting to show gun owners that his various gun control proposals and executive orders are nothing personal. But, personal or not, the first question in this debate remains not what the President says, but what the Constitution says. The Second Amendment strikes me as particularly anti-federalist in origin and […]
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The Electoral College Is a Bulwark Against Chaos | Los Angeles Times | 12.17.00

By Clark S. Judge | Published: December 17, 2000
When Vice President Al Gore finally conceded the Y2K presidential race, one national institution deserved more credit than any other for keeping our postelection political slamfest from spinning into chaos: the electoral college. In this year of hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads, the college has emerged as much more than a quirky blast from the […]
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