Welcome to Chicago, the corruption capital of the country! Kind of catchy, don’t you think? Far from being plastered on the city’s next welcome billboard, this slogan may soon become a rallying cry for Chicagoans tired of being the punchline in a fill-in-the-blank corruption joke. The dubious distinction comes from a report released by the … Continue reading
As I have previously discussed, the Open Internet Order (OIO) recently passed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an unconstitutional breach of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. That is not the only legal pitfall of the order, however. It also violates the Telecommunications Act, the very law which it is using to apply Title … Continue reading
Now that the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) so-called Open Internet Order (OIO) has finally been released, we can begin to assess where we go from here. Besides the numerous reasons why the FCC’s decision is bad policy, it is also unconstitutional. The OIO is a violation of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. The … Continue reading
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has seemed to make its mission of late to trample over property rights in the name of “public interest.” Nowhere is this propensity more clear than in its recent moves on net neutrality and the blocking of Wi-Fi by private entities. In the coming days, the FCC will probably designate … Continue reading
Over the course of the past few weeks, the Senate has been more hectic than usual. There has been much debate over the use of filibusters in the Senate, and the more often than not useless delays that they have been causing. Historically, the filibuster has been a way to obtain a bipartisan compromise; but … Continue reading
In one short, succinct statement Justice George Sutherland altered the relationship between Congress and the executive branch. “The President [operates] as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations,” he wrote in the United States Supreme Court’s decision of U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation. Whereas the Constitution lays out distinct, … Continue reading
As marked by the uncommon three days of oral arguments, totaling six and a half hours, the decision of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) constitutionality will not be an easy for the nine Justices of the Supreme Court. Lawyers argued four issues in front of the bench: the Anti-Injunction Act, the Individual Mandate, the severability … Continue reading
The United Nations drafted the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002. However, it should be understood that the ICC is an independent international organization and not under the authority of the United Nations. The ICC serves as an international court system, in The Hague, Netherlands and is supported by 120 … Continue reading
Is our Constitution a “Living Breathing Document?” Well, what is a “Living Breathing Document?” In The American Constitution and The Debate over Originalism, Dennis Goldford defines the concept of a living breathing document. He quotes Harlold Koh, legal expert, as defining the concept as a “flexible pragmatism that views the Constitution as a living document … Continue reading
With the recent announcement of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, things are about to get really interesting concerning the GOP’s relationship with America’s fastest growing demographic group (i.e. Hispanics). As a darling of the tea-party, Gov. Jan Brewer’s latest political move is clearly meant to shore up and consolidate Gov. … Continue reading
Policy Interns 