Liberty Roundtable

You are here: Home / Archives for Judicial

Judicial

By

THE ALEX JONES TRIAL TAKES A BIZARRE TURN

Alex Jones finally admitted that the Sandy Hook school shooting really happened, but it failed to appease the plaintiff’s lawyers who were seeking a $150M judgment against Jones for general defamation of their clients, including unnamed federal officials who claim to be defamed by conspiracy facts which point to this shooting as a government-backed operation using a mind-controlled shooter, with a government handler present to make sure Adam Lanza killed himself as he was programmed to do. That handler was observed by students being led away in handcuffs but never charged or had his name revealed.

If this novel legal precedent holds, it puts all of us who claim the government is involved in false flag conspiracies at risk of lawsuits by “aggrieved” federal agents—the very ones who know the government created the crisis and yet hide behind the veil of state secrets. As Mike Cernovich wrote, “the Alex Jones precedent means if you don’t accept the Vegas shooting explanation, then FBI agents can sue you because you’re calling them liars by implication.” He’s right.

But as the Daily Mail reported,

Mark Bankston, the lawyer for parents, revealed Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the conspiracy theorist’s text messages that appear to directly contradict his sworn testimony. The inconsistency in the testimony could serve to undermine Jones’s credibility in the civil case, but legal experts say he exposed himself to a perjury charge that could carry up to 10 years in prison in Texas.

But before an honest judge, this evidence would be thrown out as a violation of attorney client privilege, as Joseph Watson of newswars.com points out:

An emergency protective order motion has been filed in the Alex Jones case relating to claims in court that lawyers had inadvertently obtained years worth of Jones’ phone records, with emails showing Plaintiffs had not been given approval to use the material in court as it would violate attorney client privilege.

In short, Jones’ lawyer’s legal assistant had mistakenly sent the plaintiff attorneys a link that allowed them access to all of Alex Jones phone and text messages, which ended up showing that Alex Jones did not tell the whole truth in answering certain questions.

It was not lawful for the plantiff’s attorneys to use that mistaken access to Jones’ attorney’s files because Jones’ attorney had specifically instructed Bankston to “disregard” that link, but Bankston did so anyway in violation of Jones’ attorney client confidentiality. However, the judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who has shown a lot of anti-Jones bias during the trial is likely to try and find a way to rule against the protective order.

Just in: The jury returned and determined that, “Alex Jones must pay the parents of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis damage awards totaling $4.1 million, an Austin jury determined Thursday — far below the $150 million requested.

But the financial hit against Jones and his main company, Free Speech Systems, might not be over. In the next phase of the trial to begin Friday morning, jurors will be asked to issue punitive damages that are intended as punishment after hearing testimony from the parents’ economic expert on the net worth of Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems. [Austin-American Statesman]

Alex Jones responded to this trial with two amazing facts:

1) That the biased judge told the jury over 20 times that Alex Jones was guilty. That’s grounds for a mistrial if there was any fairness in this case.

2) That in the coming punitive damages phase, that Alex Jones cannot testify in his own behalf and his lawyers cannot provide any evidence. In short, Alex Jones is not going to be allowed to defend himself. As I keep saying: the Constitution is dead in this nation if the government is out to get you.

 

By

“Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Laws Are Even Worse Than You Think

Published: Thursday, August 22, 2019
by Chuck Baldwin

As I said in this column last week, Republicans Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio are joining forces with liberal Democrats to soon enact “red flag” gun confiscation laws. I also reported on the push for the enactment of other gun control measures such as universal background checks being promoted on Capitol Hill and by the White House here.

Yes, Donald Trump is calling for “red flag” gun confiscation laws and universal background checks. Trump said, “I have an appetite for background checks. We’re going to be doing background checks. We’re going to be filling in . . . the loopholes.”

I urge readers to watch my 8-minute video exposing Donald Trump’s betrayal of his promise to protect the 2nd Amendment and share it with as many of your friends as you can. If we don’t convince our U.S. senators to reject these egregious gun control measures, THEY WILL BE PASSED, AND TRUMP WILL SIGN THEM INTO LAW. We have about two or three weeks to convince our senators to reject these new gun control laws. That’s it.
Please watch the video and share it with everyone you can.

If law-abiding gun owners don’t call their U.S. senators en masse, and I mean posthaste, you are very likely to wake up one morning around 4am to the sound of a SWAT team breaking down your door to confiscate your guns, prepared to kill you or any member of your family who resists. Why? Perhaps because a gun-hating neighbor hates you having guns or a relative doesn’t like you and is looking for any way to “teach you a lesson” or your ex-spouse is looking for any way to “get even” with you or an anti-gun cop with a grudge wants to send a political message or a family doctor or school teacher overheard one of your children talk about how many guns daddy has and became alarmed, etc., ad infinitum.

Plus, the FBI has just recently stated that if you believe in “conspiracy theories,” you are a “domestic terrorist threat.” That statement is from an FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019. That FBI designation alone could very easily precipitate a “red flag” gun confiscation order being rendered against you.

And Donald Trump himself recently demonstrated how dangerous “red flag” laws are. In a tweet on August 13, President Trump said,

Would Chris Cuomo be given a Red Flag for his recent rant? Filthy language and a total loss of control. He shouldn’t be allowed to have any weapon. He’s nuts!

Are you paying attention? Donald Trump was threatening to use a “red flag” law to authorize police agencies to take away an American citizen’s Natural God-given right of self-defense simply because Trump didn’t like what the citizen said—about him.

Folks, don’t you see? Those in authority can use “red flag” gun confiscation laws against ANYONE they want and for ANY REASON they want.

In other words, there doesn’t have to be a reason. Under “red flag” laws, all it takes for police to come and seize your guns is for someone to make a “red flag” accusation against you. That’s it. And, yes, it really IS that easy.

“Red flag” laws not only eviscerate the 2nd Amendment, but the 1st Amendment, 4th Amendment, 5th Amendment, 6th Amendment, 7th Amendment and 8th Amendment.

The enforcement of “red flag” laws is actually much worse than you think, so says Donald Kilmer, an attorney who has litigated and defended against many state and federal gun charges.

Everyone is debating “red flag” laws like they’re some new thing, but California has had variations of them for decades. We call them domestic violence restraining orders, civil harassment restraining orders, workplace restraining orders, elder abuse restraining orders, mental health seizures and prohibition orders, and, more recently, gun violence restraining orders.

They’re all meant to disarm dangerous people — but they’re all fundamentally flawed.

None of these red flag laws would have prevented recent mass shootings. And in my 23 years practicing law in the heart of Silicon Valley, I have litigated dozens of these cases. I’ve seen firsthand the practical enforcement problems that emerge in real-life cases.

These kinds of court orders are usually obtained from a judge ex parte. That’s fancy Latin for: The judge only hears one side of the story, it is not your side, and you may not even know about it until after the fact. Then they immediately strip you of fundamental constitutional rights for the duration of the orders. You’ll get your “full due process” hearing, but not until later.

And any violation of these orders is separately punishable as a crime. So even if you are innocent of the underlying conduct that inspired the “red flag” order, if you violate the order pending your hearing, you can still face criminal charges.

That kind of situation is ripe for danger. In one situation in Baltimore, police ended up shooting [and killing] a man when they came to collect his guns under a “red flag” law.

In one case in Southern California, a client had to pay a $1,000 ransom, that was reduced from an initial “offer” of $4,000, to get his 50-gun collection back.

Experienced counsel to defend you in a “due process” hearing will run about $15,000 in fees. If you lose and want to appeal, expect to spend another $25,000 to $100,000 in fees and costs. And even with all of that, you might still lose.

To win these hearings, you have to refute an allegation that you pose a danger to yourself or others where a judge already issued a temporary ex parte order that concluded you were already a danger. Many judges will likely err on the side of caution, and against your rights.

As a practical matter, if the government’s interest is in separating a potentially-dangerous person from guns, it makes no sense to leave other guns that belong to family members in the home. So, if you live with someone that gets a red flag order issued against them, then you and others living in the same home risk losing your guns, too.

Even if you win, the judge isn’t going to just hand your guns back to you at the end of the hearing. It’s probably a good idea to “lawyer up” just to go through the process of recovering your guns, so you don’t go to jail or prison for accidentally breaking an obscure firearm law or regulation. You wouldn’t want to set off a red flag.

Law-abiding gun owners better get a big whiff of reality SOON and realize that if they are going to maintain the right to keep and bear arms much longer, THEY must step up to the plate and defend that right—and I mean RIGHT NOW.

The NRA is compromised and is in complete disarray and is offering NO HELP. Donald Trump has already proven he has ZERO fidelity to the 2nd Amendment (or to the rest of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, for that matter). Most Christians and conservatives are in a state of deep denial and hibernation, believing that their yellow-haired savior would never betray them, in spite of the fact that he has already betrayed them—repeatedly.

It is up to individual freedomists and gun owners who are willing to fight for their right to keep and bear arms to fend off this assault against our 2nd Amendment liberties. Reinforcements are not coming; it is up to YOU AND ME.
How much does the 2nd Amendment mean to you? Each of us will determine the answer to that question by what we do or do not do RIGHT NOW.

P.S. I, again, URGE readers to watch my 8-minute video regarding Trump’s betrayal of the 2nd Amendment and the push for the enactment of “red flag” gun confiscation laws and share it with everyone you can. In the video, I also include the phone numbers for both the White House and U.S. Senate, where you can call and voice your opposition.

P.P.S. Here is my video Open Letter To Our Legislator, Judges And Lawmen regarding “red flag” gun confiscation laws. Please watch it and share.

© Chuck Baldwin

Download free computerized mp3 audio file of this column

By

Now It’s William Barr: When Will Christians And Conservatives Stop Making Excuses For Donald Trump?

by Chuck Baldwin
Thursday, January 24, 2019

Okay, we all know how awful Hillary Clinton is. We all know that Donald Trump said all the right things (well, many of the right things) on the campaign trail. We all know—at least believed—that Trump was not an establishment insider. We all know that Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” dramatically reduce America’s out-of-control deficit spending, protect the Second Amendment, get America out of its endless foreign wars, terminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, overturn Roe v Wade and build a wall on our southern border—that Mexico would pay for—in order to stop the flow of illegal immigration into America.

Now, after two full years of a Donald Trump administration in which he enjoyed both houses of Congress being held by fellow Republicans, we all know (and if we don’t, it’s because we don’t WANT to know) that none of the above has happened. Yet, Christians and conservatives by the millions continue to make excuses for this faker.

First, a brief comment about the border wall: All of the drama regarding a partial government shutdown and incessant public theater by actors from both political parties is quite nauseating. Republicans had control of both houses of Congress and the White House for two years. Why wasn’t money appropriated for the wall then? Why was there no government shutdown over the lack of funding for the border wall then? Why wait until Democrats take over the House to shut down (partially) the federal government and threaten to declare a State of National Emergency?

Forgive me, but this stinks to high heaven. This is nothing but smoke and mirrors. All of the high profile theatrics over the border wall is the biggest distraction to envelop our country in quite a spell. While everyone is fighting over the wall, some very serious attacks against our liberties are being waged almost without notice. And all of the hullabaloo over the wall is completely covering up Trump’s failure to carry out the rest of his campaign promises—and the fact that Trump himself has often worked in direct opposition to many of his campaign promises.

Secondly, his rhetoric notwithstanding, President Trump has NOT drawn down America’s involvement in endless foreign wars. Trump’s promise to bring U.S. forces home from Syria is so much hot air. Trump’s “immediate” withdrawal order is now mired in an indefinite time schedule. In other words, there is no time schedule. Our troops that are still fighting in Syria are not only still based in Syria, but they are also still using bases in Iraq as launching pads for military excursions into Syria. Of course, Trump promised that the U.S. bases in Iraq were not going anywhere—and that’s one promise he will keep.

Our troops are still fighting endless wars in Afghanistan and Somalia. In fact, Trump has shoved record military spending through Congress and has done nothing to reduce America’s global military presence (U.S. troops are stationed in over 160 countries, which equates to 95% of the world’s foreign military bases). America is as much the global cop as it was when Trump was elected. No, that’s not quite true: We are MUCH MORE the global cop than when Trump was elected, as Trump has expanded our military presence in Eastern Europe to unprecedented levels—levels not even seen during the Cold War.

Thirdly, as we have just passed the 46th anniversary of the ignoble Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion-on-demand nationwide, unborn children continue to be legally murdered—in spite of the fact that Donald Trump was President and Republicans controlled both houses of Congress during the past two years. All of Trump’s “pro-life” rhetoric hasn’t saved the life of a single unborn baby. Since Trump was elected, over 2 million unborn children have been mercilessly murdered in the wombs of their mothers—with the complete approbation of a Republican-led federal government.

The GOP controlled the entire federal government for 4.6 years of G.W. Bush’s eight years in office—and they controlled the entire federal government for the past two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. They did NOTHING about Roe v Wade under Bush, and they have done NOTHING about Roe v Wade under Trump. These phony pro-life GOP congressmen and senators haven’t even defunded America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

Fourthly, as to ending the federal government’s extravagant spending habits, what a crock! During 8 years of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, the federal debt INCREASED $7.9 trillion. And a Trump presidency did nothing to reduce Washington’s out-of-control spending—even with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress.

Fifthly, what about Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp”? This is one of Trump’s biggest lies of all. Trump never intended to drain the swamp. From the outset of his presidency, he began appointing mostly CFR globalists, neocons, warmongers, Zionists, corporate elitists and corrupt government insiders to his administration. And he hasn’t stopped.

I am absolutely sick and tired of hearing my conservative Christian brethren say things like, “Trump is trying his best, but he’s getting no help from his cabinet and staff.” Well, DUH! Who picked his cabinet and staff? Trump did.

Then they say things like, “Trump doesn’t really understand these issues; he really wants to do right, but he’s getting bad advice.” BARF! If he didn’t understand the issues, he’s had two full years as President of the United States to get caught up. But he continues to make the same unconstitutional, big-government, warmongering decisions over and over again. The excuse that “he wants to do right, but is getting bad advice” just doesn’t wash anymore. It’s time for Trump’s supporters to wake up and realize that Donald Trump is a great big boy, not a little kid, and is fully capable of thinking for himself.

Donald Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s known exactly what he’s been doing from day number one. He is the consummate con man. He is a charlatan. He is a double-tongued pretender. He has filled the executive branch of the federal government with the same crooks as presidents before him.

And now Trump’s selection of William Barr as America’s next attorney general is the final straw. There can be NO MORE DOUBT.

William Barr is the swamp creature’s Swamp Creature. He is the personification of all of the evil and wickedness that has gone on in Washington, D.C., during the past 30 years. Name the act of criminality, cover-up or act of chicanery that has taken place in Washington D.C., over the last 30 years, and William Barr is probably neck deep in it.

Here is a summary of Barr’s career:

*Barr was a full-time CIA operative, recruited by Langley out of high school, starting in 1971. Barr’s youth career goal was to head the CIA.

*CIA operative assigned to the China directorate, where he became close to powerful CIA operative George H.W. Bush, whose accomplishments already included the CIA/Cuba Bay of Pigs, Asia CIA operations (Vietnam War, Golden Triangle narcotics), Nixon foreign policy (Henry Kissinger), and the Watergate operation.

*When George H.W. Bush became CIA Director in 1976, Barr joined the CIA’s “legal office” and Bush’s inner circle, and worked alongside Bush’s longtime CIA enforcers Theodore “Ted” Shackley, Felix Rodriguez, Thomas Clines, and others, several of whom were likely involved with the Bay of Pigs/John F. Kennedy assassination, and numerous southeast Asian operations, from the Phoenix Program to Golden Triangle narco-trafficking.

*Barr stonewalled and destroyed the Church Committee investigations into CIA abuses.

*Barr stonewalled and stopped inquiries in the CIA bombing assassination of Chilean opposition leader Orlando Letelier.

*Barr joined George H.W. Bush’s legal/intelligence team during Bush’s vice presidency (under President Ronald Reagan). Rose from assistant attorney general to Chief Legal Counsel to attorney general (1991) during the Bush 41 presidency.

*Barr was a key player in the Iran-Contra operation, if not the most important member of the apparatus, simultaneously managing the operation while also “fixing” the legal end, ensuring that all of the operatives could do their jobs without fear of exposure or arrest.

*In his attorney general confirmation, Barr vowed to “attack criminal organizations,” drug smugglers and money launderers. It was all hot air: as AG, Barr would preserve, protect, cover up, and nurture the apparatus that he helped create, and use Justice Department power to escape punishment.

*Barr stonewalled and stopped investigations into all Bush/Clinton and CIA crimes, including BCCI and BNL CIA drug banking, the theft of Inslaw/PROMIS software, and all crimes of state committed by Bush.

*Barr provided legal cover for Bush’s illegal foreign policy and war crimes.

*Barr left Washington, and went through the “rotating door” to the corporate world, where he took on numerous directorships and counsel positions for major companies. In 2007 and again from 2017, Barr was counsel for politically connected international law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Among its other notable attorneys and alumni are Kenneth Starr, John Bolton, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and numerous Trump administration attorneys. K&E’s clients include sex trafficker/pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital.

If all of this isn’t bad enough, William Bar is a co-conspirator in the murders of Vicki and Sammy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. James Bovard tells the story:

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Attorney General nominee William Barr have focused heavily on Barr’s views on Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But nobody is asking about Barr’s legal crusade for blanket immunity for federal agents who killed American citizens.

Barr received a routine questionnaire from the Judiciary Committee asking him to disclose his past work including pro bono activities “serving the disadvantaged.” The “disadvantaged” that Barr spent the most time helping was an FBI agent who slayed an Idaho mother holding her baby in 1992. Barr spent two weeks organizing former Attorneys General and others to support “an FBI sniper in defending against criminal charges in connection with the Ruby Ridge incident.” Barr also “assisted in framing legal arguments advanced… in the district court and the subsequent appeal to the Ninth Circuit,” he told the committee.

That charitable work (for an FBI agent who already had a federally paid law firm defending him) helped tamp down one of the biggest scandals during Barr’s time as Attorney General from 1991 to early 1993. Barr was responsible for both the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, two federal agencies whose misconduct at Ruby Ridge “helped to weaken the bond of trust that must exist between ordinary Americans and our law enforcement agencies,” according to a 1995 Senate Judiciary Committee report.

After Randy Weaver, an outspoken white separatist living on a mountaintop in northern Idaho, was entrapped by an undercover federal agent, U.S. marshals trespassed on Weaver’s land and killed his 14-year-old son, Sammy [by shooting him in the back]. The following day, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi killed his wife, Vicki, as she was standing in the cabin doorway [holding her baby in her arms]. Horiuchi had previously shot Randy Weaver in the back after he stepped out of the cabin. The suspects were never given a warning or a chance to surrender and had taken no action against FBI agents. Weaver survived.

After an Idaho jury found Weaver not guilty on almost all charges, federal judge Edward Lodge slammed the Justice Department and FBI for concealing evidence and showing “a callous disregard for the rights of the defendants and the interests of justice.” A Justice Department internal investigation compiled a 542-page report detailing federal misconduct and coverups in the case and suggested criminal charges against FBI officials involved in Ruby Ridge.

Barr told the New York Times in 1993 that he was not directly involved in the Ruby Ridge operation. Two years later, the Washington Post revealed that “top officials of the Bush Justice Department had at least 20 [phone] contacts concerning Ruby Ridge in the 24 hours before Vicki Weaver was shot,” including two calls involving Barr.

In January 1995, FBI director Louis Freeh announced wrist slaps for the FBI officials involved, including his friend Larry Potts, who supervised the operation from headquarters and who approved the shoot-without-provocation orders that “contravened the constitution of the United States,” according to the Justice Department internal report.

When Attorney General Janet Reno later nominated Potts for deputy director of the FBI, top newspapers and members of Congress protested, but Barr told the New York Times that his friend Potts “was deliberate and careful, and I developed a great deal of confidence in his judgment… I can’t think of enough good things to say about him.” A few months later, the FBI suspended Potts after suspected perjury regarding Ruby Ridge. (Potts was not charged and retired two years later.)

The Justice Department paid $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit from the Weaver family. But when Boundary County, Idaho filed criminal charges against Horiuchi, Barr sprang to action seeking immunity for FBI snipers. He spearheaded efforts to sway the court to dismiss all charges because holding a sniper liable would “severely undermine, if not cripple, the ability of future attorneys general to rely on such specialized units in moments of crisis such as hostage taking and terrorist acts.”

When the Justice Department won an initial appeals court victory in the case in 2000, federal judge Alex Kozinski warned in a dissent of a new James Bond “007 standard for the use of deadly force” against American citizens. The same court reversed that decision the following year. Kozinski, writing for the majority, declared: “A group of FBI agents formulated rules of engagement that permitted their colleagues to hide in the bushes and gun down men who posed no immediate threat. Such wartime rules are patently unconstitutional for a police action.”

Does William Barr still endorse “wartime rules” and a “007 standard” that absolve federal agents for questionable shootings of Americans? Does Barr consider “illegal government killings” to be an oxymoron? Best of all, can Barr explain to us his understanding of the phrase “government under the law”?

See also this report in The American Conservative.

In addition, as far as William Barr is concerned, the Fourth Amendment does not even exist. Senator Rand Paul notes that Barr “has been a big supporter of the PATRIOT Act, which lowered the standard for spying on Americans, and he even went so far as to say the PATRIOT Act was pretty good — we should go much further.”

Rand also said that Barr is a “big fan” of seizing people’s property through civil asset forfeiture. Rand continued by saying that “the first things I’ve learned about him [Barr] being for more surveillance of Americans is very, very troubling.”

Furthermore (yes, there is more), William Barr told liberal gun grabber Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in his senate confirmation hearing for becoming America’s next attorney general that he fully intends to push forward with Donald Trump’s Hitlerian “take the guns first, go through due process second” gun confiscation laws, also known as “red flag” laws. And remember: It was Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, who gave us more gun control by outlawing “bump stocks.”

Yep! The promise to protect the Second Amendment is another promise Trump has broken (that’s Number Six).

I have written previously about these Stalinesque “red flag” gun confiscation laws. And I will continue to warn people about these unconstitutional, draconian “red flag” laws as long as they continue to pose a threat to our liberties.

Of course, not only are most of the individual states currently in the process of considering “red flag” gun confiscation laws (13 states have already passed them), Republican Senator Marco Rubio (FL) has also introduced a national “red flag” law.

“Red flag” gun confiscation laws are the same kind of laws that were used to confiscate the weapons of undesirables (meaning anyone the state doesn’t like) in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China—and in every despotic nation of the world.

Here is a warning about “red flag” laws (and the NRA) from TheFireArmGuy.

And here is William Barr’s statement that “red flag” gun confiscation laws are the “single most important thing” government can do regarding gun control.

Internet blogger and longtime supporter of Donald Trump, Carl F. Worden, recently wrote this:

Now I can understand how Trump fell for the wrongful nominations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. That was early-on in Trump’s presidency and Trump had no way of knowing those he trusted for advice were in fact Deep State maggots intent on destroying his presidency. But this is a solid two years into Trump’s first term, and it is more than obvious that Barr will not be a team player for Trump — or us! In fact, Barr has a very troubling record on Second Amendment issues.

At this time, I have no confidence left in Donald J. Trump. He is either a complete fool, or he knows exactly what he’s doing, and either way he’s not fit to represent me anymore.

No more excuses, Mr. Trump!

Bravo, Carl!

Sadly, a host of Trump’s supporters continue to be bamboozled by the elaborate psyops misinformation (translated: propaganda) entity known as QAnon, which keeps reassuring the Trump faithful that he is covertly waging war against the globalist insiders and that any day now the curtain is going to collapse on the swamp creatures. It’s all a hoax to give Trump cover—and more time.

If the nomination of William Barr as America’s next “Top Cop” doesn’t awaken the “Always Trumpers,” there is absolutely no hope for them. Even worse is the fact that the longer Christians and conservatives continue to make excuses for Trump’s lies and deceptions, there is less and less hope for America.

© Chuck Baldwin

Download free computerized mp3 audio file of this column

By

Open Letter – There Is No Liberty with Innocents in Prison!

We the people hereby request the immediate assistance and intervention by President Donald J Trump and sheriffs across our republic to join in stopping the injustices befalling numerous Americans­­ who are in prison as a result of egregious federal regulations. These citizens have harmed no one and are victims of a failed judicial system.

Many of these cases are so complicated, we can’t obtain the truth.

Often when they are found guilty, the sentence doesn’t match the crime. Dwight and Steve Hammond were in this very situation, but thankfully they are free due to President Trump and the efforts of many concerned Americans.

Another example of injustice is American homes being raided and ransacked by the Department of Education SWAT Teams over unpaid student loans. This SWAT mentality is unnecessary and out of line. Such arrests and abuses are the result of agency overreach creating criminals. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. If America is to be great again, as President Trump has pledged, this abuse should not be allowed to continue.

We are requesting an independent committee be established to review these arrests and incarcerations in order to fairly and independently evaluate each case. A summary with recommendations will then be forwarded to the President for consideration.

In the meantime, we implore President Trump to grant case-by-case pardons and return these victims to their families.

We invite all Sheriff’s to help us work to protect due process and the rule of law.

There Is No Liberty with Innocents in Prison!  –  TheFreedomCoalition.com

By

Cruz’s response to restaurant attack: Christian, wise, and classy

  

September 27, 2018
By Lloyd Marcus

Upon watching the video of Senator Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi being chased out of a Washington, D.C. restaurant, I felt frustrated.  I was not frustrated over leftist minions’ insane over-the-top attack on Ted and Heidi.  Such in-your-face bullying has become the left’s new normal since the election of President Trump.  What frustrates me is fake news media promoting the hate groups who attacked Cruz (Smash Racism D.C., Resist This, D.C. IWW, D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, anarchists, LGBTQ, and others) as victims.

Violent leftist activists have been beating the American people into submission for decades, intensifying under Trump.  Leftist violence has elevated to kidnapping and physically assaulting people for expressing support for Trump’s agenda and wearing MAGA gear.  Yet fake news media, Democrats, and Hollywood continue telling us that enraged leftists attackers are the real victims and that we should be more tolerant and understanding.

Fake news media have given deranged leftists a pass to break laws and engage in any depraved behavior they deem necessary because they have the moral high ground.  According to the American left, it was honorable for Occupy Wall Street to dump a bucket of feces into thelobby of a public building.  It was honorable for a mob of Black Lives Matter minions to march down a New York street chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? 

Now!”  It is honorable for leftist enforcers to surround and scream at a U.S. senator and his wife during dinner in a restaurant.  Incredibly, Cruz had to push his way through the angry, threatening mob and ask them to please let his wife go free.  Outrageous!

Applause is in order for the staff of the Fiola restaurant.  Rather than allow Ted and Heidi Cruz to be ejected, the staff escorted them to a private room until the blackshirts were run out, then returned them to their table to finish their meal in peace.  As chef and owner Fabio Trabocchi said, “[t]he FT Group welcomes all patrons and is proud of its reputation not just of culinary excellence but also of creating a welcoming space for all, irrespective of creed, ideology or opinion.”

The thugs who attacked Cruz and his wife in the restaurant repeatedly screamed, “We Believe Survivors!”  This is a typical tactic of leftists: changing the subject and jumping to extremes.  This leftist hit squad attempted to punish Cruz for his righteous commonsense decision to support Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.  Honest, decent and extremely qualified for the Court, Kavanaugh has successfully jumped over every Democrat hurdle.  Kavanaugh has supplied more documents than numerous justices combined.

As a Hail Mary to stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Democrats produced a letter from a woman who claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago.  The woman does not have an ounce of evidence.

Leftists screaming, “We Believe Survivors!” means they have decreed that Kavanaugh is automatically guilty.  Thus, Cruz supporting Kavanaugh means that Cruz supports the abuse and rape of women.  Do you see how crazy and unjust that is, folks?

Yet fake news media and Democratic talking heads are all over the airwaves, praising their leftist hit squad for “shaming” Cruz.  These people on the left are delusional.  Cruz was not shamed.

Cruz stood tall, kept his cool, and rightfully removed his wife from the dangerous situation.  Given that Cruz is a Texan, I suspect that it took great restraint to respond so calmly, watching metrosexual wimps bully his wife.  Senator Ted Cruz behaved wisely.  Cruz even said, “God bless” – truly a Christian and classy response to evil.

At every turn, anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-freedom leftist hate groups are allowed to use illegal, immoral, and violent attacks to cram their agenda down our throats.  When everyday normal Americans push back in the slightest, we are immediately attacked, branded racist, sexist, and homophobic intolerant haters.  It is truly frustrating watching leftists who do not give a rat’s derrière about people get celebrated for their superior compassion.  In reality, leftists view human beings as mere pawns, acceptable collateral damage in leftists’ quest to implement their agenda.

The media are celebrating leftist minions’ attack on Ted and Heidi Cruz.  I believe that Cruz shone, displaying his outstanding character.  Please show your support by making a financial contribution to Cruz’s re-election campaign at his website.  Ted raised only $4 million to Democrats’ $23 million (extreme leftist outsider money).

My wife Mary and I, along with the Conservative Campaign Committee, are boots-on-the-ground here in Texas, campaigning for Ted Cruz.  Please help keep Texas red and Trump achieving remarkable things for America.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/cruzs_response_to_restaurant_attack_christian_wise_and_classy.html

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
http://LloydMarcus.com

By

Chuck Baldwin: America’s Burgeoning Civil War

Make no mistake about it: America is already engaged in its second civil war. The decades-old left-right, conservative-liberal, Democrat-Republican paradigm that had (before Donald Trump’s election) almost evaporated is back—with a vengeance. In fact, it has turned into a full-fledged war. And it doesn’t matter to a tinker’s dam which side wins this war: Constitutional government and the Natural rights of man are the losers.

Take your pick. Maxine Waters or Donald Trump, Sean Hannity or Chris Matthews: Both sides are destroying the principles of federalism, constitutionalism and Natural Law. For all intents and purposes these principles are already dead. The American experiment in republicanism is over. From now on it’s the survival of the strongest. Might makes right. Logic, reason and sensible debate are buried in the dustbin of history. America has entered the next Dark Ages. And, sadly, there are hardly any Reformation preachers left in America to lead the nation into the light of liberty.

By removing Alex Jones, Ron Paul’s Institute For Peace And Prosperity executive director Daniel McAdams and Antiwar.com editorial director Scott Horton from their outlets, Silicon Valley—complete with its poster establishments Facebook, Youtube, Spotify, etc.—have proven themselves to be nothing but Naziesque censors hell-bent on destroying public dissent. As Ron Paul rightly noted, “In an empire of lies the truth is treason.”

And lest conservatives whine about being the big, bad victims in this discussion, the Trumpites are as bad as the Clintonites. Neither group cares a flip about the Constitution, Bill of Rights or Natural Law. All either side wants is the POWER to have things done their way—freedom and liberty be damned.

A recent survey has discovered that nearly half of Republicans want to give President Trump the power to shut down whatever media outlets he chooses. According to The Daily Beast:

Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution. But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos and provided exclusively to The Daily Beast.

The findings present a sobering picture for the fourth estate, with respondents showing diminished trust in the media and increased support for punitive measures against its members. They also illustrate the extent to which Trump’s anti-press drumbeat has shaped public opinion about the role the media plays in covering his administration.

All told, 43 percent of self-identified Republicans said that they believed “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Only 36 percent disagreed with that statement.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is getting ugly FAST. And I think that is exactly what the power elite had in mind when they handed the victory to Donald Trump in 2016. They knew Trump would incite a civil war; in fact, they intended that Trump would incite a civil war.

This is not to put all of the blame on Trump. Not at all. The left is just as culpable. Both sides are playing the game (wittingly or unwittingly) as scripted by the gamemakers. Donald Trump’s rhetoric is as vitriolic as Maxine Waters’. And Maxine Waters’ rhetoric is as vitriolic as Donald Trump’s. Neither side knows how to reason. Neither side knows even a smidgen about the Constitution or Natural Law, much less decency and decorum. We are watching junkyard dogs have at each other. The problem is, both packs of dogs are chewing up the bones of liberty and constitutional government in the process.

Let me tell you folks straight out: Donald Trump is as much a usurper of constitutional government as Maxine Waters. The only difference is the brand of tyranny that you prefer.

Both Trump and Waters act like there are only two sides to this argument. They act like the whole country is divided between the fascists of the right and the socialists of the left. Not true! There are millions of Americans from a variety of backgrounds, theologies and philosophies that are sick and tired of BOTH SIDES. Count me as one of them.

It doesn’t matter that everyone agrees with me (or you). What matters is that everyone respects the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and God’s Natural Law and is willing to grant to others the same Natural and civil rights as we assume for ourselves. Such a perspective is totally lost on both Donald Trump and Maxine Waters (and their ilk). And the result is a burgeoning civil war.

I’m telling you, any civil war taking shape in this country today is a net loss for freedom, no matter which side should prevail. I want no part of either side. In my mind, these two factions are equally evil.

No matter who would have won the election in 2016, the result would have been the same. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were groomed to take America into a civil war. Make no mistake about it: The gamemakers who control both Trump and Clinton couldn’t care less about the left-right feud taking place on Main Street today. It is the Constitution, Bill of Rights and God’s Natural Law that are targeted for destruction. And neither Donald Trump nor Maxine Waters seem to have any regard, respect or reverence for any of those sacred principles.

Both gun owners and members of the black community have justifiable complaints. The Second Amendment has been in the crosshairs of would-be tyrants for years. And so has the Fourth Amendment in predominantly minority communities. The left is wrong to dismiss the attacks on the Second Amendment liberties of gun owners, and the right is wrong to dismiss the attacks on the Fourth Amendment liberties of blacks and other minorities. I’m telling you both sides have equal justification for complaint. “Right-wingers” are justified in complaining about the tyrannical tendencies of the FBI, ATF and BLM, and “left-wingers” are justified in complaining about the tyrannical tendencies of local police departments and sheriff’s offices.

Federal police agencies have been targeting “right-wing” groups for decades—without justification. This targeting has been done solely on the basis of political bias and propaganda from left-wing hate groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In truth, the FBI and SPLC have been political bed partners for almost forever. And conservative ranchers, gun owners, business owners, etc., have every right in the world to be incensed about it.

By the same token, people within the black community have every right to be angry at the way they have been abused and misused by local police agencies and prosecutors’ offices. On this subject, I totally support the efforts of Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders to overhaul the bail system in America’s criminal justice system. Upwards of 70% of people behind bars are there without being convicted of a crime. They are mostly poor people (of which a majority are black) who cannot afford bail. And so they sit behind bars awaiting trial while the wealthy walk the streets free as a bird for the same or even more serious offenses. The only difference is one person has money and the other one doesn’t. That’s NOT justice. Don’t tell me we need bigger jails. All that does is feed the Police State and further tax the taxpayers. What we need is more justice in the justice system. The bail system is a dinosaur that needs to be fossilized.

So far this year, local police departments and sheriff’s offices have killed more than 700 people. And about 24% of these victims were not even armed. Furthermore, about 61% of these victims were minorities. One cannot read the news on any given day without reading the stories of policemen killing people (mostly minorities) under extremely questionable circumstances. And almost never are these murderous policemen held accountable or brought to justice for their crimes. Quite frankly, I am tired of hearing so-called patriots talk about the “murder” of Lavoy Finicum while completely ignoring the murders of dozens, if not scores, of young black men every year by policemen all over America. The double standard is sickening!

This country is coming apart at the seams. And both Donald Trump and Maxine Waters (and their toadies) are equally culpable. The dichotomy is ubiquitous. Except the fact that the one thing that both liberals and conservatives and Republicans and Democrats come together on is WAR. (Maxine Waters, to her credit, has consistently voted against America’s unconstitutional wars.)

Mark my words: Donald Trump is in the process of taking America into war against Iran and Syria in the same way that G.W. Bush took America into war against Iraq and Afghanistan. (Oh, that’s right. Dual U.S.-Israeli citizen John Bolton is at the helm spearheading these wars in Trump’s administration just as he was in Bush’s administration, isn’t he? What a coincidence!) And Israel will be the match that Trump and Bolton will use to ignite these wars (in other words, more wars for Israel). And when Trump launches these wars, the vast majority of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress will support them. Watch and see.

The American people are being played, and the Constitution is being pulverized—by both sides of this political charade. And the growing civil war in this country has nothing to do with the principles of liberty or constitutional government and everything to do with globalist warmongers manipulating the left-right paradigm to destroy whatever vestiges of America’s Washington and Jeffersonian principles that yet remain.

P.S. I, again, urge readers to obtain the blockbuster new book by Christopher Bollyn entitled The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East.

While Trump’s Republicans and Maxine Waters’ Democrats are playing this phony left-right game at home, both sides are right now planning to take America into its next war abroad. Bollyn’s new War On Terror book is the one book that dares to tell the truth about who is behind America’s perpetual “War on Terror” and why. This is the one book you need to read in 2018.

We are being played, folks, and Bollyn’s book reveals who the puppet masters are. I strongly urge readers to get Christopher Bollyn’s blockbuster new book The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East. Order it here:

The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East

© Chuck Baldwin

ChuckBaldwinLive.com

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may be made by credit card, check, or Money Order.

By

Chuck Baldwin: Trump’s SCOTUS Pick: More Of The Same

A Republican-dominated Supreme Court (SC) gave us Roe v Wade, homosexual marriage and Obamacare. In fact, Republican appointments have dominated the SC for the last 45 years. All of this talk about Republican presidents appointing pro-life, constitutionalist, originalist justices is just so much hot air.

Republican presidents have given us William Brennan, John Paul Stevens, Harry Blackmun (the man who authored Roe v Wade), Anthony Kennedy (the man who gave us homosexual marriage), and John Roberts (the man who gave us Obamacare). Trump’s appointment of Gorsuch (the man who made it illegal to deport illegal alien criminals) and now Kavanaugh are likewise in the mold of the above justices.

Kavanaugh is a favorite of the establishment. Judge Andrew Napolitano rightly called Kavanaugh a “swamp pick.” He said that Kavanaugh was the “heart and soul of the DC establishment.” He said that Kavanaugh is “a big government guy.” Napolitano also quoted Kavanaugh as repeatedly saying that “the President [ANY President] can do no wrong.”

Judicial Watch founder, attorney Larry Klayman, wrote this:

Judge Kavanaugh either has no respect for the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, or he was unethically attempting to curry favor with the Republican establishment, exemplified by former President George W. Bush and his administration, which Kavanaugh had worked for as staff secretary in the White House Counsel’s office. President Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney, not coincidentally, had also put in place this mass surveillance, using September 11 as the pretext.

Kavanaugh obviously understood that his aspirations to someday become a Supreme Court justice would depend on his close ties to this Republican Bush-Cheney establishment, who would someday, if the chance arose, push for his nomination. And, indeed this came to pass in the last weeks, after Kavanaugh’s mentor who he clerked for in his early career, Justice Anthony Kennedy, announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. The swamp creatures of this slimy Republican establishment . . . pushed The Donald to name Kavanaugh as the next SCOTUS justice

That ALONE should tell you all you need to know. But it’s actually worse than that. Kavanaugh, like Roberts, is a totally controlled toady of the Deep State.

Kavanaugh helped Ken Starr cover up the Deep State’s murder of former Bill Clinton legal counsel Vince Foster. To quote Joel Skousen:

The Vince Foster cover-up wasn’t a simple case of an erroneous conclusion based upon weak evidence. This was a full blown conspiracy to intimidate witnesses that proved the official version was a lie. As Starr’s deputy, there is no way that Kavanaugh could not have known that there was a cover-up and conspiracy going on.

Kavanaugh will always be subject to the blackmail of “you knew what Starr did to Patrick Knowlton [the key witness exposing the Deep State conspiracy that killed Foster], and you went along with it.” That also implies a more lethal threat of “you know what they did to Vince Foster when he got cold feet about protecting the Clintons.”

Trump’s appointment of Kavanaugh tells me that Donald Trump is completely controlled by the Deep State—all of his rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding. As Skousen notes, Kavanaugh is neck-deep in the Vince Foster cover-up. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that Kavanaugh is owned by the Deep State. And Trump’s appointment of Kavanaugh means that Trump is owned by the Deep State. Always remember that being controlled by the Deep State does not mean that it controls every decision or every vote you make; it simply means that the Deep State has enough power and influence over you that when it needs you to submit to its wishes on a particular decision or vote (such as Judge Roberts’ Obamacare vote and Trump’s appointment of Deep State puppet Brett Kavanaugh), you WILL comply.

As to the life issue, pro-life organizations across the country are lauding Kavanaugh as staunchly pro-life. These endorsements don’t impress me at all. Most of the national “pro-life” (and “Christian”) organizations are unabashed sycophants of the Republican Party. Furthermore, they adamantly refuse to support the only pro-life bills that would actually STOP abortion: personhood bills such as the one repeatedly introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by former congressman Ron Paul.

If passed, Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act would have defined life as beginning at conception and under Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution removed abortion from the jurisdiction of the court, thereby overturning Roe. Yes, the pro-life Republicans in Congress—along with a pro-life Republican President—could overturn Roe v Wade anytime it wanted to. Saying they must wait for a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe is simply a way for cowardly congressmen and presidents to pass the buck and still claim to be “pro-life” at the same time.

The truth is, national “pro-life” groups can no more afford for Roe v Wade to be overturned than national help-us-find-a-cure-for-cancer groups can afford to find a cure for cancer. These groups make millions of dollars “fighting” abortion. If anything, these national “pro-life” groups want to make sure that Roe v Wade is NOT overturned so they can maintain their multimillion-dollar enterprises, while at the same time convincing their gullible donors that they are truly trying to rid the country of legalized abortion. P.T. Barnum could not have cooked up a better scam.

That Kavanaugh has ruled in favor of certain restrictions on abortion “rights” is no indicator that he would do anything to reverse Roe v Wade. In fact, Kavanaugh is on record as saying he respected the government’s “precedent” (Roe v Wade decision) on abortion. Pro-life organizations are using the Garza case to prove Kavanaugh’s commitment to the right to life, but they are conveniently overlooking the fact that in this decision Kavanaugh said the government conceded the teen’s right to an abortion but simply stated that delaying the abortion “did not pose an undue burden on that right.”

For 45 years, wishy-washy Republicans have bragged about being “pro-life” and have voted for all kinds of compromised “pro-life” bills that have done absolutely NOTHING to overturn Roe v Wade and stop the slaughter of over 60 million unborn babies. Kavanaugh was a clerk for Anthony Kennedy and rose to power in the rabid neocon administration of G.W. Bush. His pro-life credentials are mired in compromise.

Kavanaugh is also being heralded by gun groups for supporting the pro-Second Amendment Heller decision. But Kavanaugh himself said that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms could be regulated and restricted by State and Federal law as long as these regulations and restrictions did not take away the right (the Second Amendment) completely. That’s hardly a strong pro-Second Amendment position.

Yes, radical leftists will vehemently protest Kavanaugh’s appointment. (It is the right that should be protesting, and a few will. Senators Rand Paul and Tom Cotton have already expressed reservations.) But the cacophony of protests from the left means NOTHING. The Deep State doesn’t care about the protestations (or the agendas) of the left or the right. All it cares about is putting people in power that they can control—and Kavanaugh fits that job description perfectly.

Like I said, Trump’s appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court is just more of the same.

P.S. I highly commend Donald Trump for issuing presidential pardons to Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. This might be the best decision of Trump’s presidency to date—a whole lot better than his SCOTUS pick. Trump’s clemency of the Hammonds overturns an egregious injustice committed against the father-son ranchers by corrupt federal agencies. Throughout their whole ordeal, the Hammonds conducted themselves with dignity and grace. Such cannot be said for the agents of the federal government who behaved more like mafia gangsters than protectors of law and order. This presidential pardon was long overdue.

P.P.S. I am VERY excited about a new book written by Christopher Bollyn entitled The War On Terror. I have read and reread it; and I believe this is one of the most important books written in recent memory. The book connects the dots between the 9/11 attacks and America’s perpetual “War on Terror.”

This book needs to be read by every single American. If it was read and taken to heart by enough people, this book could literally change the course of history and save our republic. The full title of the book is The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East.

From the book’s back cover:

The government and media have misled us about 9/11 in order to compel public opinion to support the War on Terror.

Why have we gone along with it? Do we accept endless war as normal? Are we numb to the suffering caused by our military interventions?

No. We have simply been propagandized into submission. We have been deceived into thinking that the War on Terror is a good thing, a valiant struggle against terrorists who intend to attack us as we were on 9/11.

Behind the War on Terror is a strategic plan crafted decades in advance to redraw the map of the Middle East. 9/11 was a false-flag operation blamed on Muslims in order to start the military operations for that strategic plan. Recognizing the origin of the plan is crucial to understanding the deception that has changed our world.

After selling out, we have now been resupplied with this blockbuster new book.

If you don’t read any other book this year, read Christopher Bollyn’s The War On Terror. Orders for this book are coming in as fast as we are being supplied, so I suggest you order quickly. And after reading this terrific book, I’m sure you will want to order copies for friends. EVERYONE needs to read this book.

Order Christopher Bollyn’s investigative masterpiece here:

The War On Terror: The Plot To Rule The Middle East

Published: Thursday, July 12, 2018

© Chuck Baldwin

By

Tom DeWeese: Will Brett Kavanaugh Stand for Property Rights?

There’s lots of talk about where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh stands on the Roe v Wade abortion decision and if he would vote to rescind it. There is another very controversial Supreme Court decision made just few years ago, supported by the Anthony Kennedy, the justice he seeks to replace. That is the Kelo decision that basically obliterated private property rights in America. So, where does Brett Kananaugh stand on protection of private property rights? With Kennedy or the Constitution?

In 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down an opinion that shocked the nation. It was the case of Susette Kelo, et al. v City of New London, Connecticut, et al. The issue: “Does the government taking of property from one private owner to give to another private entity for economic development constitutes a permissible ‘public use’ under the Fifth Amendment?”

In 2000, the city of New London saw a chance to rake in big bucks through tax revenues for a new downtown development project that was to be anchored by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The company announced a plan to build a $270 million dollar global research facility in the city. The local government jumped at the chance to transform 90 acres of an area right next to the proposed research facility. Their plans called for the creation of the Fort Trumbull development project which would provide hotels, housing and shopping areas for the expected influx of Pfizer employees. There were going to be jobs and revenues A-Go-Go in New London. Just one obstacle stood in the way of these grand plans. There were private homes in that space.

No muss – no fuss. The city fathers had a valuable tool in their favor. They would just issue an edict that they were taking the land by eminent domain. The city created a private development corporation to lead the project. First priority for the new corporation was to obtain the needed property.

In July, 1997, Susette Kelo bought a nice little pink house in a quiet fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London. Little did she imagine that warm, comfy place would soon become the center of a firestorm.

She had no intention of selling. She’d spent a considerable amount of money and time fixing up her little pink house, a home with a beautiful view of the waterfront that she could afford. She planted flowers in the yard, braided her own rugs for the floors, filled the rooms with antiques and created the home she wanted.

Less than a year later, the trouble started. A real estate broker suddenly showed up at her door representing an unknown client. Susette said she wasn’t interested in selling. The realtor’s demeanor then changed, warning that the property was going to be condemned by the city. One year later, on the day before Thanksgiving, the sheriff taped a letter to Kelo’s door, stating that her home had been condemned by the City of New London.

Then the pressure began. A notice came in the mail telling her that the city intended to take her land. An offer of compensation was made, but it was below the market price. The explanation given was that, since the government was going to take the land, it was no longer worth the old market price, therefore the lower price was “just compensation,” as called for in the Fifth Amendment. It was a “fair price,” Kelo and the homeowners were told over and over.

Some neighbors quickly gave up, took the money and moved away. With the loss of each one, the pressure mounted. Visits from government agents became routine. They knocked on the door at all hours, demanding she sell. Newspaper articles depicted her as unreasonably holding up community progress. They called her greedy. Finally, the bulldozers moved in on the properties already sold. As they crushed down the houses, the neighborhood became unlivable. It looked like a war zone.

In Susette Kelo’s neighborhood, the imposing bulldozer was sadistically parked in front of a house, waiting. The homeowner came under greater pressure to sell. More phone calls, threatening letters, visits by city officials at all hours demanding they sign the contract to sell. It just didn’t stop. Finally the intimidation began to break down the most dedicated homeowners’ resolve. In tears, they gave in and sold. Amazingly, once they sold, the homeowners were then classified as “willing sellers!”

Immediately, as each house was bulldozed, the monster machine was moved to the next house, sitting there like a huffing, puffing dragon, ready to strike.

Finally Susette’s little pink house stood nearly alone in the middle of a destruction site. Over 80 homes were gone: seven remained. As if under attack by a conquering army, she was finally surrounded, with no place to run but to the courts. Under any circumstances the actions of the New London government and its sham development corporation should have been considered criminal behavior. It used to be. If city officials were caught padding their own pockets, or those of their friends, it was considered graft. That’s why RICO laws were created.

The United States was built on the very premise of the protection of private property rights. How could a government possibly be allowed to take anyone’s home for private gain? Surely justice would finally prevail.

The city was backed in its appeal by the National League of Cities, one of the largest proponents of eminent domain use, saying the policy was critical to spurring urban renewal with development projects. However, the Supreme Court had always stood with the founders of the nation on the vital importance of private property. There was precedent after precedent to back up the optimism that they would do so again.

Finally, her case was heard by the highest court in the land. It was such an obvious case of government overreach against private property owners that no one considered there was a chance of New London winning. That’s why it was a shock to nearly everyone involved that private property rights sustained a near-death blow that day.

This time, five black robes named Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer shocked the nation by ruling that officials who had behaved like Tony Soprano were in the right and Susette Kelo had no ground to stand on, literally or figuratively.

These four men and one woman ruled that the United States Constitution is meaningless as a tool to protect individuals against the wants and desires of government. Their ruling in the Kelo case declared that Americans own nothing. After deciding that any property is subject to the whim of a government official, it was just a short trip to declaring that government could now confiscate anything we own, anything we create, anything we’ve worked for – in the name of an undefined common good.

Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, who opposed the Court’s decision, vigorously rebutted the Majority’s argument, as she wrote in dissent of the majority opinion, “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing a Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

Justice Clarence Thomas issued his own rebuttal to the decision, specifically attacking the argument that this was a case about “public use.” He accused the Majority of replacing the Fifth Amendment’s “Public Use” clause with a very different “Public Purpose” test. Said Justice Thomas “This deferential shift in phraseology enables the Court to hold against all common sense, that a costly urban-renewal project whose stated purpose is a vague promise of new jobs and increased tax revenue, but which is also suspiciously agreeable to the Pfizer Corporation, is for a public use.”

Astonishingly the members of the Supreme Court have no other job but to protect the Constitution and defend it from bad legislation. They sit in their lofty ivory tower, with their lifetime appointments, never actually having to worry about job security or the need to answer to political pressure. Yet, these five black robes obviously missed finding a single copy of the Federalist Papers, which were written by many of the Founders to explain to the American people how they envisioned the new government was to work. In addition, they apparently missed the collected writings of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and George Washington, just to mention a very few. It’s obvious because otherwise, there is simply no way they could have reached this decision.

So, in a five to four vote, the Supreme Court said that it was okay for a community to use eminent domain to take land, shut down a business, or destroy and reorganize an entire neighborhood, if it benefited the community in a positive way. Specifically, “positive” meant unquestioned government control and more tax dollars.

The Institute for Justice, the group that defended Susette Kelo before the Supreme Court, reported that it found 10,000 cases in which condemnation was used or threatened for the benefit of private developers. These cases were all within a five-year period after the Kelo decision. Today, that figure is dwarfed as there is seemingly no limit on government takings of private property.

The Kelo decision changed the rules. The precedent was set. Land can now be taken anytime at the whim of a power elite. So again, the question must be asked: if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, will he stand to protect private property rights against massive overreach by local, state, and federal governments? Will he support an effort to overturn the Kelo Decision?

July 17, 2018 17:48 ET
 

https://americanpolicy.org/