Two Minnesota bills that together ban law enforcement from obtaining cellphone location tracking information and data without a warrant passed its first committee hurdle. An Associated Press article reports, “On divided voice votes, the House Public Safety Committee advanced a pair of bills that impose a higher standard on law enforcement when they collect data…
If you want minute-by-minute coverage on Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, SCOTUSblog has it, but quick and dirty - It’s being argued by The Becket Fund on behalf of the David Green family. Home page is here, arguments will be tomorrow (Tuesday … Continue reading →
"The head of the European Union's policing agency warned on Monday that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin were being used for money laundering and called for police to be given more powers to identify criminal suspects operating on the Internet. 'We're seeing that virtual currencies are being used as an instrument to facilitate crime, particularly in regard to the laundering of illicit profits,' said Europol head Rob Wainwright, speaking on the margins of a nuclear security conference in The Hague. Wainwright said police should be given new powers to allow them to identify anonymous participants online and bring them to justice." Continue reading →
"There is no need for central banks’ balance sheets to shrink. They could stay permanently larger; and, for some countries, permanently bigger central-bank balance sheets will help reduce public-debt burdens. Even when permanent monetization occurs — as it almost certainly will in Japan and possibly elsewhere — it may remain forever the policy that dare not speak its name. Such reticence may serve a useful purpose. But it must not blind central banks and governments to the full range of policy tools available to address today’s severe debt overhangs." Continue reading →
"Debt can either be repaid or be defaulted on. Destroying the purchasing power of money through inflation is one way to default on the debt. Simply not paying the debt is the other option. In both cases, savers, ‘thrifty pensioners’, and the customers of banks, insurance companies, and pension funds will suffer, and in the inflationary scenario everybody will suffer greatly. Sadly, the massive printing of money and accumulation of debt that has occurred since the termination of the gold standard and the adoption of limitless state fiat money and pro-growth central banking has now brought us to a point where defaults appear to be unavoidable. This is not some great reset. It is a man-made catastrophe." Continue reading →
"The Danish national bank has released a briefing note firmly declaring bitcoin to not be money, noting that the currency is more like 'glass beads'. Denmark’s national bank is just the latest central bank to inveigh against bitcoin. In January, Malaysia’s central bank warned citizens that 'the Bitcoin is not recognised as legal tender in Malaysia… the public is therefore advised to be cautious of the risks.' In December 2013, the People’s Bank of China banned the country’s financial institutions from trading in the currency, shortly after the former president of the Dutch Central Bank said the currency’s boom was 'worse than the tulip mania'." Continue reading →
Robert J. Pushaw (Pepperdine University – School of Law) has posted Obamacare and the Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause: Identifying Historical Limits on Congress’s Powers (University of Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2012, No. 1703, 2012) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Recently, Akhil Amar and Jack Balkin revived the idea that the exercise of unbridled Commerce…
The Obamacare Spin Machine tours Los Angeles Continue reading →
Current federal law requires that person register certain firearms under title 18 or title 26 of the United States Code. The proposed Louisiana state law provides that a Louisiana holder of a lifetime concealed handgun permit holder may possess certain firearms without complying with the provisions of Title 18 or 26 of the United States Code.
In St. John’s Church, Henry made a bombastic speech in which he drew a stark line between liberty and tyranny. He ended his speech by announcing “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”