“Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” -Lord Acton In his most recent book, historian Brion McClanahan highlights 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her. The names on each list will probably surprise you. It didn’t take long after the ratification of the Constitution for presidents to succumb to the…
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 15, 2016) – Yesterday, the Oklahoma House passed a bill that would put limitations on the storage and sharing of information collected by Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) by law enforcement in the state, and place significant roadblocks in the way of a federal program using states to help track the location of…
BATON ROUGE, La. (April 15, 2016) – Earlier this week, the Louisiana House unanimously passed a bill that would expand the state’s current “Right to Try” law. Last year, the Louisiana legislature passed, and the governor signed,“Right to Try” legislation giving terminally ill patients access to medicines not yet given final approval for use by…
ALBANY, N.Y. (April 15, 2016) – A bill introduced in the New York Senate would put strict limitations on the use of automated license plate reader systems (ALPRs) by the state. Passage would also have a major impact on federal efforts to tap in to state and local systems to track millions of people for the…
JACKSON, Miss. (Apr. 15, 2016) – Today, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill into law that not only allows unlicensed, “constitutional carry,” but also sets the foundation to reject and end new federal gun control regulations and executive orders. Originally introduced as a church security bill to allow those with a concealed carry permit to…
AUGUSTA, Maine (Apr. 14, 2016) – The Maine House failed to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill that would have removed the state from standardized testing related to Common Core. But efforts elsewhere show a path forward even despite the veto. Rep. Will Tuell (R- East Machias) along with a bipartisan group of nine…
JUNEAU, Alaska – (April 14, 2016) – A second Alaska Senate Committee has passed a bill that would set the foundation to nullify in practice some Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules that deny access to experimental treatments by terminally ill patients. Sen. Bill Wielechowski introduced Senate bill 113 (SB113) in April of last year.The…
HARRISBURG, Pa. (April 14, 2016) – Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House gave final approval to a bill legalizing medical marijuana in the state. If signed into law, it would take another step toward nullifying the unconstitutional federal prohibition on cannabis in practice. The bill took a long, tough road to final passage. Sen. Michael Folmer (R-Lebanon) introduced…
LINCOLN, Neb. (April 14, 2016) – Yesterday, the Nebraska Senate gave final approval to a bill that would reform asset forfeiture laws to prohibit the state from taking property without a criminal conviction. The legislation also takes on federal forfeiture programs by banning prosecutors from circumventing state laws by passing cases off to the feds in…
Thomas Jefferson used hemp and grew hemp. He advocated for it as well. Today’s federal government has a near ban on growing this important crop, and has maintained that unconstitutional ban for decades. States, however, are slowly moving to legalize the crop with or without federal permission. While we’ve not been able to find an…