Legal Activities Archives
 

Policy Paper — 2003


Through a series of essays, monographs and policy papers, the Center seeks to educate policy makers, academics and the general public on subject matters affecting individual freedom.

Filibusters and the Constitution

The current "wrangling" in the Senate over President George W. Bush’s judicial nominations "has constitutional dimensions, raising important questions about the Senate’s role in the judicial confirmation process under the Advice and Consent Clause," according to a new white paper authored by four attorneys, including the Center for Individual Freedom’s Assistant General Counsel, Reid Alan Cox, and published by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies...[more]

America’s Courts Post 9-11

By Renee Giachino, It has been two years since America and Americans were inexplicably changed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since 9-11, hundreds of cases have come to and through the federal and state courts that have directly or indirectly resulted from the attacks and their aftermath. This survey of the law cannot address each case and decision involving an issue connected with or related to 9-11. Rather, our intent is to present an overview and analysis of the more significant decisions issued by state and federal courts dealing with those issues.

To download (PDF) the full survey from the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation’s website, click here.

Justice At What Price? The Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel

At a long-delayed preliminary hearing held last week, a federal judge ruled that Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols can be tried on state charges alleging 160 counts of first degree murder in connection with the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.  Nichols was already convicted in 1997 of federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths of eight law enforcement officers in the bombing.  He is serving a life prison sentence for his federal convictions because the jury deadlocked over whether to give him the death penalty, and the judge, to whom the sentencing fell, could impose no more than life without parole...[more]

Free Speech War on the Range: Legal Challenges to Nation's Commodity Checkoff Programs

By Eric Schippers

Got Milk? The question may sound innocuous, but for many of America‚s independent farmers and ranchers that marketing slogan, and others like it, represents compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment... [more]

Sign Ordinances: A Primer on Constitutional Limitations

By Reid Alan Cox

This front-page headline in the St. Petersburg Times clearly and concisely sums up the constitutional problem faced by local governments that enter the often politically popular but legally difficult area of regulating signage.  Nevertheless, despite the treacherous First Amendment terrain mapped out by court decisions across the country, including several decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, localities are attempting to navigate the constitutional hills and valleys by regulating signage with increasing frequency and strictness...[more]

Shakedown in ‘The Golden State’

More than 150 years after gold was first discovered at Sutter's Mill in California, a new Gold Rush has begun in that state, fueled by the shameless exploitation of one of the most powerful consumer protection laws in the nation.  Trading in their pick axes and mules for law degrees and monogrammed briefcases, today’s prospectors are trial lawyers who are panning for gold along the shores of endless streams of unsuspecting businesses...[more]

Smallpox:  The Risk of Attack vs. the Risk of Vaccination

Smallpox, considered to have been the worst disease known to man, is the only one ever to be eradicated.  That is an unparalleled accomplishment of progressive medicine, organization and worldwide commitment.  In the horrifying, potentially cataclysmic new world of terrorism, it may also be temporary...[more]

The Looming Debate over Privacy, Commercial Speech and the Fair Credit Reporting Act

With the 108th Congress in session less than a month, a showdown over privacy issues is already gearing up...[more] 

 


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The Archives

Policy Papers: 2001
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