This retired general fought for his country. Now he’s fighting for his property.
After an impressive military career protecting the United States against foreign threats, Brigadier General Bill Don Farris is now fighting his own government for the right to exclude dangerous hunting dogs from his property. Billy Don Farris grew up in a military family in Northeast Texas. His father served, his two brothers served, and there ...
A Supreme Court preview : PLF cases at the long conference
The Supreme Court formally begins its new fall term with oral arguments on October 5. It will hold its "long conference" the week prior to consider the petitions submitted during its summer recess. This year, the Justices will consider three PLF petitions challenging warrantless surveillance and compelled speech. A lobsterman's fight for his Fourt ...
239 years later, the Constitution still depends on the people
On September 17, 1787, delegates in Philadelphia signed the finalized U.S. Constitution. Two hundred thirty-nine years later, Constitution Day seems to hit a little harder than it has before. Perhaps it's because we just celebrated America's 250th birthday two months ago. Or maybe it's because we lost constitutional scholar Gordon S. Wood a few wee ...
The Washington Post : ‘Black boxes’ on lobster boats set a dangerous precedent for America
Eating enough lobster could kill me; eating even a little could ruin my day. Nevertheless, I took two flights and drove 85 miles up the rainy Maine coast to get from Sacramento to the Maine Lobster Festival. My work usually takes me to public policy conferences. This time, I found myself sitting in a sprawling market, surrounded by vendors selli ...
National Review : It’s Not Just the Economics, Stupid
In her new book, Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right, Stephanie Slade sets out to describe and recover a political philosophy that faded in the years after it succeeded. Fusionism helped shape the movement that Ronald Reagan led. But what it fused — liberty and virtue — came apart over the four decades since he left ...
In Divided Maine, Privacy from the Government Transcends Party Lines
This year's Maine Lobster Festival hosted a motley political crew. Ardent Trump supporters, bleeding-heart liberals, and everyone in between gathered to eat their favorite crustacean. One political issue cut through the food-centric affair. And attendees overwhelmingly agreed. The government should not be tracking lobstermen. Beyond the mass ...
A guide to your rights and searches of personal property when traveling
Americans do not surrender their constitutional rights when they travel. Yet, currently, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy hands U.S. border officials broad authority to conduct warrantless searches and seizures of electronic devices at ports of entry and of vehicles at checkpoints within 100 miles of the border. That policy is doing ...
The making of John Locke—and the ideas that made America
America's 250th birthday has provided plenty of reasons to revisit the men and ideas behind the country's Founding. But another birthday passed at the end of August with considerably less fanfare, despite belonging to a man without whom the American experiment might have looked very different. On August 29, 1632, English philosopher John Locke w ...
Agri-Pulse : How one state’s poultry lawsuit became a warrant-free search of another state’s farms
What is a state to do when it cannot regulate farmers outside its borders? The answer, apparently, is to sue someone else for 20 years, then force an unconstitutional settlement that binds farmers unrelated to the lawsuit. In 2005, Oklahoma did exactly that. It sued six large poultry companies for alleged pollution in the Illinois River Watershe ...