Blanket Pardons and Commutations

 

As someone who has seen intended and unintended mayhem as a former police officer, I believe that a pardon or commutation should be based upon the specific crime and the specific actions taken by an individual in the commission of a crime.

Regardless of the political beliefs of whomever is in a position to grant pardons or commutations, each case should be judged upon the merits of their case.

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Ilya Somin on the Volokh Conspiracy: Two federal district courts – one in Maryland and one in Washington – recently issued injunctions blocking Donald Trump’s executive order denying birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and those in the US on temporary visas. The Washington decision was written by Judge John Coughenour (a Reagan appointee), and the Maryland […]

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Birthright Citizenship

 

For people interested in the topic of United States “birthright citizenship” that has recently reentered the news discussion, I highly recommend the January 30, 2025 edition of the podcast Case In Point right here on the Ricochet Audio Network. (The recommendation is late because I am behind on my podcast listening.)

The podcast is an interview with Amy Swearer of the Heritage Foundation, based on a law review article by Ms. Swearer.

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A question that seems to me obvious to ask, but I haven’t seen discussed: Might one or more of the decision-makers in the Biden Administration decision to sell off pieces of the border wall potentially be subject to criminal liability for wasting government assets? Preview Open

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United States Supreme Court and “Transgender” Minors

 

The United States Supreme Court heard on Wednesday (December 4) oral arguments on a case in which the federal (national) government and others challenged a law passed by the Tennessee legislature that governs what “treatments” medical personnel can provide to minors (not legal adults) who claim to be “transgender.”

I have not followed this particular case closely, so I am not familiar with the details of the Tennessee legislation nor with the details of the legal points made in the courts (including the Supreme Court).

[Member Post]

 

I was led down a research rabbit hole today by an article reporting the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., complaining about a Russian attack submarine in the portion of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines as an Exclusive Economic Zone. Well, more than one rabbit hole.  Ferdinand Marcos is President of […]

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I have an older Puerto Rican acquaintance who yesterday commented about the desirability of significantly increasing the number of supremes that it sounded right to him – after all, that means a broader, more diversified viewpoint.   Shame on me for not objecting that this eliminated any advantage for the Constitution or for Congress. Preview Open

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J. Edgar’s Ghost

 

A couple of years back, I published a post here that some of you may recognize, If the FBI Asks, Do You Answer? (behind the paywall), where I said:

[On previous occasions] I was presented with natural law enforcement concerns and engaged the situation respectfully and constructively. I am not sure I could do that today. The sheer dishonesty of the FBI’s public conduct suggests any trust in the FBI pursuing its law enforcement mission is misplaced.

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I found myself recalling a brief passage from The Old Patagonian Express, concerning the 1978 vote for a new, old, or some Bolivian president. “There were shootings all over the country, mysterious machine-gunnings, and stuffed ballot boxes. It was generally agreed that the election had been rigged, and then the head of state, General Banzer, […]

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Sorry, but I wasn’t sure how to phrase a change in thinking about living things. Not exactly a BIOLOGICAL crisis! And probably not an intellectual one either. In fact, it may not even be a crisis. An opportunity, maybe I should say. Nothing about which animals are social, but which animals are pensive. Is anyone […]

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Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute legal fellow Brent Skorup about the split in the court of appeals over the Constitution’s 4th Amendment protections concerning law enforcement’s search of location tracking data.

Sen. John Kennedy Queries A Biden Nominee, The Hon. Noel Wise, To Expose Her Prejudice Against Christians

 

As part of the confirmation process for the Biden nominees for federal judgeships, US senators are allowed to question and interview the nominees.

In the queries brought forward by both Sen. John Kennedy and Sen. Josh Hawley, the public has been able to witness the Biden nominee for a Federal judgeship, Noel Wise, having her own words handed back to her by the senators.

The TFR Option

 

I am a firm believer in options, and I think we should especially have options on our ballots. Seven years ago, I suggested one ballot option that I would like to see. But the more I think about it, we need a more extreme option on the ballot, a more American option. An option, indeed, that accords with long-standing, although lately-neglected, American traditions. Having an option to vote for a whistlepig is not strong enough a message in some cases. No, we need the TFR option. TFR is for Tarring, Feathering, and riding out of the (city/county/state/country) on a Rail.

When I first conceived of this idea, I thought it should apply to the entire ballot, but that is unlikely to get results. We need it for each office and the entire ballot, just to make sure.

Threats to the Rule of Law

 

Anyone watching the slugfest within the Democratic Party knows about its deep divisions over whether Joe Biden should run for re-election, or indeed stay in office for the duration of his term. But for all these divisions, Democrats are strongly united on two unassailable propositions. The first is that Joe Biden has been a great president on both domestic and foreign affairs. And second, the transcendent threat to democracy is embodied in Donald J. Trump, even if, as Frank Bruni wrote in the bellwether New York Times last week (before the assassination attempt deeply discredited harsh political denunciations on all sides), that Trump slyly remained on good behavior as Democrats duked it out among themselves. To make matters worse, Trump was going to—according to yet another Times stalwart, Jesse Wegman—strengthen a Supreme Court that goes about gaslighting the public by pretending to be moderate. This is the court, of course, that has handed down decisions like United States v. Rahimi, which held sensibly that nothing in the text or history of the Second Amendment required striking down a federal law that forbade a person guilty of domestic violence to possess a firearm.

One reason the Democrats are so panicky is that they fear they cannot count on Trump to defeat himself in the upcoming election—even more so now that images of a bloodied, defiant Republican candidate have been dominating news pages this week. But there is another narrative even more dangerous to the Democrats’ re-election story that needs airing. Biden and his administration have been far from blameless on key issues of public affairs. Indeed, their deeds are a far greater threat to democracy than Trump’s ill-chosen words. (Despite Trump’s improbable denial that he ever led chants of “lock her up” against Hillary Clinton, for instance, while in office Trump never sought to indict her or any other Democratic insider.)

Licensed to Lie, Sidney Powell

 

It’s surreal to be writing this review on the day after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. This book focuses on the long slide of our “justice” department into a “conviction machine” by a woman who started her career as a starry-eyed believer in the integrity of the DOJ.

As I observed the events of yesterday, I could not believe that a competent Secret Service would not detect a person on a roof with a rifle within 150 yards of a former president/current leading presidential candidate, especially when people in the crowd were pointing and yelling “there is a guy with a gun up there” before the shots fired.