bill of rights

Grand Jury Rejects Indictment of Teen Arrested for Rap Lyrics

"A grand jury has declined to indict an aspiring Massachusetts rapper whom police had accused of making 'terroristic threats,' according to the Essex County District Attorney's office. Cameron D'Ambrosio, 18, was arrested in Methuen, Massachussetts on May 2nd after posting a rap verse on his Facebook wall. The high school student has been held in jail since then without bail. Prosecutors sought to charge D'Ambrosio with threats to make a bomb or hijack a vehicle, carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGrand Jury Rejects Indictment of Teen Arrested for Rap Lyrics

US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

"The Obama administration is invoking an obscure legal privilege to avoid judicial scrutiny of its secret collection of the communications of potentially millions of Americans. Civil liberties lawyers trying to hold the administration to account through the courts for its surveillance of phone calls and emails of American citizens have been repeatedly stymied by the government's recourse to the 'military and state secrets privilege'. The precedent, rarely used but devastating in its legal impact, allows the government to claim that it cannot be submitted to judicial oversight because to do so it would have to compromise national security." Continue reading →

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Judge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

"Judge Andrew Napolitano called the situation 'a fishing expedition on the grandest scale we've ever seen in American history.' The government is looking for a select group of people, and instead of obeying the Constitution and simply getting a search warrant for their phones, the judge says, 'They got a search warrant for a 113 million phones!'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

Most Likely To Secede: The Rise of Nullification

"Nullification acts have been introduced in state legislatures all across the country, particularly in the last few months. According to one estimate at the Tenth Amendment Center, which tracks such things, there are more than 70 proposed bills to nullify federal laws and practices now in state legislatures, sometimes consciously labeled nullification, sometimes not. For example, 12 states have introduced proposals for state marijuana laws in defiance of federal regulations under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. State laws against National Defense Authorization Act indefinite detention provisions have been introduced in almost half the states." Continue reading →

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Middletown CT Police Don’t Obey The 4th Amendment

"This is a film of my encounter with the Middletown CT Police Department on June 5th, 2013. Officer Peck illegally detained me without Reasonable Articulable Suspicion that I had committed or would commit a crime, as required by the Constitution (See: Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)). Officer Peck then lied to me and told me that filming the police department building and parking lot was a crime. Eventually the officers gave up on detaining me since I was doing nothing wrong." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMiddletown CT Police Don’t Obey The 4th Amendment

Collection of phone records stirs debate: Valuable tool or ‘beyond Orwellian’?

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the program helped to disrupt 'terrorist plots' on U.S. soil. 'It is lawful,' the California Democrat insisted. 'It has been briefed by Congress.' Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, the two top Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, both stressed that 'this important collection tool does not allow the government to eavesdrop' and that it is routinely reviewed by Congress. White House spokesman Josh Earnest further stressed the importance of ensuring 'we have the tools we need to confront the threat posted by terrorists (and to) protect the homeland.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCollection of phone records stirs debate: Valuable tool or ‘beyond Orwellian’?

Jury Nullification Advocate Out Of Jail, Files Federal Lawsuit Against Judge

"Mark Schmidter is a free man after spending 104 days in the Orange County Jail. He was convicted late last year of indirect criminal contempt by Chief Judge Belvin Perry for handing out flyers at the Orange County Courthouse in the months leading up to and during the Casey Anthony trial. He says his fight over free speech is not over. Those flyers explained the right of jurors to nullify convictions if they thought the law was wrong, even if a defendant had committed the crime. Schmidter says he will jump right back into the fray now that he has served his time." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJury Nullification Advocate Out Of Jail, Files Federal Lawsuit Against Judge

Colorado Sheriffs Unite to Block ‘Unenforceable’ Gun Control Laws

"In the wake of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado passed some of the strictest gun control measures in the country. But in recent months, an overwhelming 55 of the state’s 62 county sheriffs have joined a lawsuit aiming to block the measures. Sheriff Terry Maketa of El Paso County is one of the opposing sheriffs. Maketa says they believe the laws are unenforceable, but also violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. After explaining the tactics used to pass the bills that essentially 'eliminated all public input,' Maketa reiterated that it’s clearly an 'overreaching step' for politicians to claim law enforcement supports stricter gun control." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingColorado Sheriffs Unite to Block ‘Unenforceable’ Gun Control Laws

Rand Paul Will Introduce Fourth Amendment Restoration Act Of 2013

'The revelation that the NSA has secretly seized the call records of millions of Americans, without probable cause, represents an outrageous abuse of power and a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. I have long argued that Congress must do more to restrict the Executive’s expansive law enforcement powers to seize private records of law-abiding Americans that are held by a third-party,' Sen. Paul said. 'The bill restores our Constitutional rights and declares that the Fourth Amendment shall not be construed to allow any agency of the United States government to search the phone records of Americans without a warrant based on probable cause.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRand Paul Will Introduce Fourth Amendment Restoration Act Of 2013