The Humble Libertarian original

"A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks... According to the military, Manning is required to serve one-third of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole... The decision was immediately condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union. “When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project." Source: Washington Post Hat tip: Memeorandum Libertarian resources on Manning: The Truth About Bradley Manning [Video] by: Stefan Molyneux Manning's Apology Is A Forced Confession.. Obviously

One can imagine Cody-- a UT Law student-- conducting a cross examination as effortlessly and effectively as he faces one here... 1:08 - Cody Wilson explains that what he's really doing here is law. He's concerned about the legal precedent his next interactions with the Washington regime might set. 1:28 - Oops. Used a technical word that a lot of your viewers might not know the meaning of. Forces you to speak up and ask me to explain what it means. Establish that I'm an expert on this subject and that you as the media and as the audience are consulting my expertise. Cue bashful smile: "Sure media. I'd be glad to explain what a CAD file is..." {gives a very concise, clear, articulate explanation of what a CAD file is} "Computer Aided Design files-- pieces of software that might in some sense represent material objects, but at the same time, are really just pieces of information or technical data." 1:40 - {seamless transition back into his ori...

Oh yeah. You read that headline right. Bet you never thought you'd read a headline like that. Judge tells the police to give a man his weed back: Joseph L. Robertson's Marijuana Will Be Returned By Cops Who Seized It, Judge Orders TACOMA, Wash. -- Police in Tacoma could soon be in real trouble over pot. The department could be found in contempt if they continue to refuse to return a small amount of marijuana seized from a man after a traffic stop. Municipal Court Judge Jack Emery repeated an order to police Thursday to return the drug to Joseph L. Robertson within seven days or they could be found in contempt. "Appeal or comply," Emery told assistant city attorney John Walker. "Or next week, show up, and I would advise you to bring counsel." The judge first ordered police to return the drug on Feb. 28, but they have refused, The News Tribune reported Friday (http://bit.ly/10hwiD9). It was seized in May of last year when an officer pulled over...

The government of Kenya is going to receive a gift from the Obama Administration: five top-of-the-line Navy Seal boats. Why? Nobody seems to know....These are turbocharged boats. They are 36 feet long. They carry a crew of three, plus one SEAL squad. Each one carries an M60 7.62mm machine gun, a MK19 40mm, and a M2 .50 cal. machine gun. Who will be the targets of such firepower? in Kenya? Nobody seems to know. How much will all this cost? No one is saying. Read the rest here The Tea Party Economist  Judy Morris , Blogger, T H L Articles | Website

Yesterday, the closely watched “Obamacare” proceedings at the Supreme Court focused on the issue that most commentators are calling central to the debate over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: mandates. The campaign of Republican presidential candidate and 2012 frontrunner, Mitt Romney, probably hates that mandates are the key topic of discussion in this week’s news cycle, and will be for the rest of the Republican Primary until the Supreme Court hands down a decision on what pundits are calling “The Case of the Century.” Or maybe not... Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

There’s never been a better time in America for gun rights advocates. Starting in 2008 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Heller decision, continuing through 2010 with the McDonald case, and showing no signs of abating this Monday after the Woollard ruling was filed by a federal court in Maryland: in just a few short years the country has been swept with a wave of unprecedented court decisions that have amounted to nothing less than a revolution for gun rights and jurisprudence surrounding the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Before jumping to Monday’s Woollard ruling, which overturned some of Maryland’s notoriously strict gun control policy, a brief review of the “Second Amendment Revolution” is in order... Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . (It's one of the best I've written in a very long time!) Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday not to review a California Supreme Court ruling from last June that upheld the constitutionality of vehicle stops made by California game wardens to make sure motorists leaving hunting or fishing grounds haven’t bagged any wildlife out of season. By denying review of the ruling, the nation’s high court handed California game wardens the authority to conduct vehicle stops without a warrant. While it was the National Rifle Association that joined the defendant’s legal counsel in requesting a hearing from the Supreme Court, the ACLU might have had more at stake than the NRA in a case that has more to do with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution than the Second Amendment..." Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

A letter from YAL 's Jeff Frazee: Dear Patriot, I want to bring to your attention a breaking news story at the University of Cincinnati (see below). Cincinnati YAL Chapter President, Chris Morbitzer, has filed a lawsuit against his university, with the assistance of Ohio's 1851 Center for Constitutional Law and in cooperation with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), to put an end to "free speech zones" on his campus. This is a historic case that could have lasting implications for freedom at Chris's university! So, I want to ask for your support to encourage Chris to keep going! If you are a defender of free speech on American campuses, please support this battle with a tax-deductible donation of 200, 100, or 50 this afternoon . And, be sure to read about Chris's compelling fight for freedom below. This is a significant and brave action by one of YAL's best activists. Please show your support. For liberty, Jeff Frazee ...

In this series called " Libertarian Talking Points ," we pose a talking point that aims for the heart of an issue - avoiding the "politically safe" answer to actually try and convince people of both the moral and effectual justifications for liberty. You argue its effectiveness, or propose how to rephrase it to win hearts and minds. If the topic of viewing the Constitution as a "living" and "breathing" document comes up... "Yes, the U.S. Constitution is 'living' and 'breathing' in that it is not a static document. It is why amendments exist and the Congressional procedures by which to amend it. But, as for the notion that we should ignore this ritual altogether, and assume the enlightenment of non-democratically elected justices is better able to interpret the Constitution based not on its words, but on today's 'societal necessity', then no. The 'breath' of the U.S. Constitution is based upon the wor...

Not Rebels: Pictured above are outraged Americans holding a good old-fashioned book burning in 1948-- comic book burning that is. 2012 marks the 25th year of the CBLDF– the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund– and this week we’re going to help them celebrate their 25th birthday by honoring them as our Rebel of the Week! A quarter of a century fighting for free speech and the First Amendment is something to respect. As I’m writing this I can’t help but suspect that 25 years ago was a really good time for the birth of rebels and rebel organizations. Our Marketing Manager, Megan Duffield just turned 25 and I’m due for the quarter of a century birthday myself in just a few days while promoting Silver Circle at MegaCon ! So while two rebel babies spent the late eighties dreaming of the day they would get out of the cradle and learn to walk, talk, and promote independent, political art, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was just getting started in its fight to protect freedom of speech. Oh you ...

This is really disappointing news. If you thought the Supreme Court of the United States just scored one for liberty in the recent GPS tracking case, think again: By Davi Barker at The Silver Underground : In the case of US v. Jones the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that law enforcement required a warrant to install a GPS tracking device on nightclub owner Antoine Jones’ car. In doing so they tossed out his drug conspiracy conviction and life sentence. But before we celebrate we have to ask, why does all the coverage of the story read like, “law enforcement might need a probable-cause warrant” and “law enforcement  in most instances must get a search warrant.” Well, because that’s the language used by the Supreme Court Justices in what’s being called the most important Fourth Amendment case in the computer era. Although all nine Supreme Court Justices agreed to overturn the charges in this case, they disagreed five to four as to why. Justice Alito wrote that pol...

Eric Segall writes at Slate : Doing the right thing is easy when nothing important is at stake. Doing the right thing is much harder when there is a lot to lose. Elena Kagan is a loyal Democrat who owes her Supreme Court appointment to President Barack Obama.* She is poised to review the constitutionality of Obama’s health care statute, which, if invalidated, might do serious damage to his re-election campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Even though it would be a hard decision to make, Elena Kagan should recuse herself from hearing challenges to the act. So far it appears that only Republicans and conservatives want Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, while liberals and Democrats take the opposing view. I have been a liberal constitutional law professor for more than 20 years, and a loyal Democrat. I believe the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and that it would be truly unfortunate for the country (and the party) if the court strikes it down. I also recognize...

Yesterday the Supreme Court agreed to take up the "ObamaCare" law that many conservatives and libertarians say violates the Constitution. The Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro explains just how landmark this decision is going to be: "the Supreme Court has now set the stage for the most significant case since Roe v. Wade. Indeed, this litigation implicates the future of the Republic as Roe never did. On both the individual-mandate and Medicaid-coercion issues, the Court will decide whether the Constitution’s structure — federalism and enumeration of powers — is judicially enforceable or whether Congress is the sole judge of its own authority. In other words, do we have a government of laws or men?" We live in interesting times. Tweet Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The Washington Post reports : "'Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally-charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products,' the companies wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington." Oh no! Don't say that! Some legislator's going to go: "Hmmm. Good point. Why go through all this trouble? We should just outlaw cigarettes altogether!" Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Sitting at Mafioza 's with a beer in hand, just a little south of Downtown Nashville, an establishment whose libertarian owner allows Middle Tennessee's libertarians to meet once monthly for "Liberty on the Rocks," I found myself both captivated and repulsed by the stories that Reason Magazine 's Radley Balko was telling me across the table. This was early last summer, shortly before I left Nashville to move to Washington DC, which Radley had just left. He had just moved to Nashville to work on a book he was writing about the horrific corruption in Mississippi's justice system. After hearing some grisly tales, I didn't have to ask why he moved to Tennessee instead of Mississippi to write the book: he needed to be closer to the state, but didn't quite feel comfortable living in it while writing this telling exposé. That scary. In this July's issue of Reason Magazine , Radley Balko shares some of these stories from Mississippi and elsewhere, and...

From my most recent CAIVN article: In all fairness, critics of the Robert Court's First Amendment decisions don't seem to base their opposition on judicial philosophy and interpretation of the law as written. For them, the issue is not whether a law violates the Constitution's prohibition on abridgements of free speech, but whether they happen to like the outcome of the free exercise of a particular kind of speech. Note that their objections to the court's recent rulings are rooted in the negative results they perceive as stemming from speech they don't like, whether it's political speech or video games that they find obscene. Read the entire article here. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

From my most recent CAIVN column: "These two Supreme Court rulings might just be a perfect, jurisprudential microcosm of the laws, policies, and attitudes that continue to exacerbate prison overcrowding in California." Visit CAIVN to find out why. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Today’s ruling vindicates the constitutional first principle that ours is a government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. Like Judge Hudson in the Virginia case, Judge Vinson recognized that the individual mandate represents an unprecedented and improper incursion beyond those powers: the federal government, under the guise of regulating commerce, cannot require that people engage in economic activity. And this is as it should be: if the only limit on congressional power were Congress’ own assessment of the wisdom of each assertion of such power, the Constitution would be obsolete — as would any conception of checks and balances. Read the rest of Ilya Shapiro's article at Cato-at-liberty.org Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute Grant Davies , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website

A US federal court has charged a pamphleteer with jury tampering for his attempts to distribute literature outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. For months, Julian Heicklen, a septuagenarian libertarian, has been distributing pamphlets about jury nullification in front of federal courthouses. He has been arrested on numerous occasions at the district court in Manhattan. Each arrest has seen Heicklen going limp and being carried or dragged away by federal officers. But he kept coming back. Heicklen’s pamphlets were not about any specific case, but explained the power of juries to acquit people who appear to have violated laws the jury considers unjust. Jury nullification has helped set free William Penn, John Peter Zenger, fugitive slaves, and violators of alcohol prohibition. More recently a Montana man arrested for possessing a very small amount of marijuana went free because the state was unable to seat a jury that might convict him. Jury nullification clearly holds pote...

On Monday, a federal judge struck down the individual health insurance mandate, a central piece of the Obama administration's landmark legislative accomplishment. Henry E. Hudson, a District Judge in Virginia, ruled that the controversial 2010 health care law's requirement for individuals to obtain health insurance is unconstitutional. Want to know the judge's reasoning? Read my entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page