Police may continue to question a silent suspect until he invokes his right to remain silent, the U. S. Supreme Court said yesterday in its latest ruling on the "Miranda rights" the Court first proclaimed 44 years ago. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that a defendant's silence does not automatically require an end to an interrogation. The ruling leaves intact the requirement that the police inform the suspect of his right to remain silent and to have the assistance of an attorney. But Tuesday's ruling holds that if he talks to police after that, the suspect has effectively waived his right to silence and whatever he says may be used by prosecutors against him.
There is a sizable bloc of Tea Party supporters calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 17th Amendment establishes direct, popular election of U.S. Senators, superseding Article 1, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 which empowered state legislatures to elect senators.
A partially burned American flag appearing as part of a student art exhibit has drawn opposition from a Veterans of Foreign Wars commander in Franklin, Massachusetts. But school officials have defended the display as a student's exercise of his freedom of speech.
President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force has “unanimously” concluded that 48 detainees at Guantanamo should be detained indefinitely — in essence, a life sentence — without trial, including lifetime detention for some detainees who, the commission concluded, hadn't committed any crimes that “constitute a chargeable offense in either a federal court or military commission.” The Washington Post revealed May 28 that the Task Force decided to repatriate the majority of the 240 detainees they investigated, while other detainees should be tried in criminal court or by “military commissions” the Obama administration would reconstitute.
After the protracted battle for the so-called “Mojave Cross” in California which was finally settled in the Supreme Court in favor of the continued display of the cross, a new challenge to the public display of the central symbol of the Christian faith is emerging in southern Illinois. The Bald Knob Cross of Peace near Alto Pass, Illinois is roughly 350 miles from Chicago, but that’s not stopping a resident of the “Windy City” from being offended by a small government grant intended to restore the cross.
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You have probably griped under your breath, “There ought to be a law to stop these people,” when confronted by a particularly noxious act by a government agent. Because this is such a pervasive sentiment, liberty-minded persons are raising an increasing clamor to make some adjustments to the U.S. Constitution to more effectively rein in an ever-growing public sector that intrudes further into our lives, our families, and our pockets.
No Habeas Corpus for Bagram Detainees
Written by Jack Kenny
A federal court of appeals on May 21 ruled that detainees held by the United States at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have no right to habeas corpus hearings.
When President Obama named Elena Kagan as his nominee for justice of the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, he said she “embodies that same excellence, independence, integrity and passion for the law” as did Justice Stevens. Obama said Kagan is “one of the foremost legal minds” in the country, and is “a trailblazing leader.”
As has been faithfully chronicled by The New American, the attorneys general of 20 states have joined as plaintiffs in a lawsuit aimed at scuppering ObamaCare and having various of its most noxious provisions (most notably the individual mandate) declared unconstitutional.
The Second Amendment prohibits Congress from passing laws that interfere with a citizen’s right to bear arms. A recent amendment proposed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to the “Protecting Americans from Violent Crime Act” allows Americans to carry firearms into national parks.
A new study prepared for The Social Contract Press entitled “The Burden of Plyler v. Doe,” by economic journalist Edwin S. Rubenstein highlights the financial burden imposed on public education by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe (1982). In that landmark case, the justices on the Supreme Court “struck down a Texas statute denying funding for education” of children illegally in the United States.