first amendment

1st amendment | Bingham | Religion

Thomas is right, Establishment Clause Jurisprudence ‘in Shambles’
ByP.A. Madison November 4, 2011January 8, 2024
4 Comments

Justice Thomas pointed out what many should already know from his lone dissent from the court’s denial of certiorari in Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists Inc. on Monday: Federal Establishment clause jurisprudence is “in Shambles.” The court’s refusal to hear the case brings to an end a lawsuit that has been contested since 2005, leaving Establishment Clause jurisprudence muddy as ever: Today the Court rejects an opportunity to provide clarity to Establishment Clause jurisprudence in shambles. A sharply divided Court…

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14th amendment | 1st amendment | incorporation

What the Court & Everyone Misses in Citizens United v. FEC
ByP.A. Madison February 12, 2010May 31, 2012
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The Supreme Court recently held in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission that corporations had a First Amendment right to spend money to support or oppose political candidates. The Court struck down federal laws regulating independent political advertising by for-profit and non-profit corporations before an election even as they reaffirmed rules about disclosure and disclosures for ads and against direct corporate giving to candidates. The court assumed if a corporation could not engage in political speech then neither could major media outlets…

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1st amendment

Original Meaning: Freedom of Speech or of the Press
ByP.A. Madison October 18, 2008May 14, 2015
38 Comments

Summary: Freedom of Speech or the Press is the freedom from government officials making speech or writings they find too critical of their affairs a seditious crime. Under common law, people had to be careful of any criticism they wrote or said about government policy, laws or official conduct out of fear of being charged with a seditious crime where truth would be of no defense. Before discussing the meaning of the words “freedom of speech, or of the press” as established…

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citizenship

What ‘Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof’ Really Means
ByP.A. Madison September 22, 2007August 26, 2025
157 Comments

Because the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s first section was to end the denial of those fundamental rights that belong to all United States citizens by their citizenship under Article IV, Section II of the U.S. Constitution, it was imperative to first define who was a United States citizen. Otherwise, a state could refuse to recognize newly emancipated slaves as citizens by withholding the right to sue, make contracts, due process, purchase property, etc., in any state they ventured into. Therefore, the…

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commerce clause

Penalizing the Commerce Clause
ByP.A. Madison March 16, 2007
2 Comments

Note: I cannot believe I neglected finishing this post until now (9/13/07). A California woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled. The ruling Wednesday was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the federal government pre-emptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her…

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1st amendment

SCOTUS Only ‘Assumes’ You Have 1st Amendment Rights via 14th Amendment
ByP.A. Madison March 5, 2007
1 Comment

I was reading today about a federal case (Morse v. Frederick, aka “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case) winding its way through the courts, and was thinking how bizarre current federal jurisprudence has really become. On March 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the limits of freedom of speech in public schools. “I wanted to know more precisely the boundaries of my freedom,” Joe Frederick said when reporters asked why he’d raised the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner….

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14th amendment | 1st amendment | Religion

Supreme Ignorance: ACLU’s Empty Establishment Claims
ByP.A. Madison February 10, 2007May 22, 2012
9 Comments

The American Civil Liberties Union again is suing under the twisted rational the Fourteenth Amendment somehow disables local government from displaying anything remotely religious in nature. The latest victim targeted by the ACLU is the rural Florida county of Dixie, which has a Ten Commandments monument at the steps of its courthouse. The lawsuit says the monument violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it is not part of a historical display and because the uniquely Christian message of the Ten Commandments…

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