In today’s Oregonian, Charles Krauthammer says there are two arguments for gay marriage — empathy and rights. President Obama started with the case from empathy and moved quickly to rights. But he also says it should be up to the states. Krauthammer argues that he can’t have it both ways. If it’s a right, it [...]
A Speech Delivered to Portland Rotary — May 1, 2012 – Can Congress mandate that you and I purchase health insurance on penalty of payment of a fine if we do not? As a matter of raw political power? Absolutely. We saw it happen in 2010, complete with Cornhusker kickbacks and Louisiana purchases. But [...]
IT’S NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OR STATES’ RIGHTS; IT’S ABOUT POWER: Originally published in The Daily Caller — April 26, 2012 – In his coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing on the validity of Arizona’s immigration law (S.B. 1070), ABC News reporter Terry Moran stated that the issue before the court is: “Does Arizona [...]
This report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that the five conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court are skeptical of the government’s claim that the individual mandate of Obamacare fits within prior commerce clause precedent. Justice Kennedy says there is a “heavy burden on the government.” Read the story here.
INDIVIDUAL MANDATE CASE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BEGIN RESTORING FRAMERS’ VISION: Originally published in The Daily Caller — 3-26-12 – Today the United States Supreme Court began three days of hearings on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Challengers claim the law’s mandate that individuals purchase insurance or pay a [...]
Originally published in The Daily Caller — 03/22/12 — With the biggest federalism case in decades about to be argued before the Supreme Court, the political left and right are clearly divided. Conservatives are hopeful that at least five justices will find the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. If that happens, liberals will [...]
Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Jonah Goldberg argues that the partisan divide in Washington can be reduced by reducing the federal government’s role in our lives. It is really a case for restoring the federal system intended by the framers in which local people solve local problems — what the Europeans call subsidiarity. Read [...]
BY MICHAEL BARONE, WASHINGTON EXAMINER 09/28/11 – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels did not attract as large a crowd when he spoke at American Enterprise Institute (where I am a resident fellow) earlier this week as he did when several months ago, before he disappointed admirers by announcing that he wouldn’t run for president. I saw [...]
For many conservatives, the steady expansion of federal power since the New Deal is the product of the sort of relentless power grab anticipated by the framers of the Constitution. It represents a failure of the Supreme Court to enforce the vertical separation of powers anticipated in the constitutional enumeration of the powers of Congress. [...]
Epiphanies are rare, especially those of the mass variety. More people are opening their eyes, though, to the fact that actions, even well-meaning ones, do have consequences; most of them unintended, and many of them bad. So begins our climb back up to the shining city on the hill. What Frederic Bastiat called “The seen [...]
As a lifelong educator, I am very sympathetic with Portland State University President Wim Wiewel’s plea (in today’s Oregonian) for no cuts to the federal Pell grant program. That program provides much needed support for low income college students. It is a worthy program that yields significant benefits to the beneficiary students. The problem is [...]
One of the many good things about a federal system of government is that the states can serve as laboratories testing different solutions to similar problems. Texas and California provide a stark contrast in approaches to fiscal management, with starkly different results. Read more in Jay Ambrose’s commentary in The Orange County Register.
The “individual mandate” aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) has naturally drawn the most attention due to the multiple lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. However, section 2572 of Obamacare, titled “NUTRITION LABELING OF STANDARD MENU ITEMS AT CHAIN RESTAURANTS AND OF ARTICLES OF FOOD SOLD FROM VENDING MACHINES,” presents an interesting [...]
Many Americans have come to believe that the core value of the United States Constitution is democracy. Our national political leaders, and many commentators, often assert that democracy is the solution other nations should pursue in modernizing their governments. We have heard much about democracy in the ongoing uprisings in the Middle East and Northern [...]
American statesman George P. Shultz writes in today’s Wall Street Journal that “[a] pattern of governance has emerged in Washington that departs substantially from that envisaged in our Constitution.” That pattern is the rising reliance on czars in the executive branch of our government. On January 7, 2011, Fox News reported that the Obama Administration [...]
[via Oregonlive] The Oregonian editorial board describes the recent ruling by federal Judge Roger Vinson of Florida striking down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as “an exemplar of outrageous judicial acrobatics.” In support of this “harsh” judgment, Willamette University law professor Norman Williams is quoted to the effect that even “serious conservative constitutional [...]
