Author: William H. Freivogel

Is there a right to privacy in the Constitution?

The most important words in the 14th Amendment of 1868 – maybe in the entire Constitution – say no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person…the equal protection of the laws.” These promises of liberty, due process and equality eventually remade the country,

Originalism vs. a living Constitution

Is the Constitution dead or alive?  The late Justice Antonin Scalia, long the chief advocate of originalism on the Supreme Court, was unequivocal. “The constitution that I interpret is not living but dead,” he said in a 2008 speech.  His counterpart, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr., intellectual leader of the Warren Court, was

The Supreme Court is losing legitimacy

The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade has resulted in the steepest drop in respect for the U.S. Supreme Court in almost a century – the steepest since the Roosevelt court packing crisis of 1937. James L. Gibson, a political science professor at Washington University and national expert on the subject, wrote in September

TV ad called objectionable, but stations couldn’t refuse it

TV stations could not refuse to run Eric Greitens’ political ad showing him with an armed tactical squad in hunt of “Rino” Republicans, as long as he paid for the air time. No matter how objectionable, defamatory or wrong a federal candidate’s TV ad may be, the Communications Act of 1934 has a “no-censorship no-liability

Brilliant lawyers invented false claims supporting Trump’s election lie

Young lawyers chosen to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justices are the most brilliant law school graduates of their generation. Some go on to serve as justices themselves – Roberts, Rehnquist, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, White, Breyer, Stevens. One remarkable fact about President Trump’s attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the