Bill of Rights news stories on Newser

Obama Throws Away Civil Liberties With Defense Bill

Kevin Spak — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:58:25 CST

President Obama is taking a lot of heat today for dropping his threat to veto a controversial defense bill that could allow the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on US soil. In a fiery editorial, the New York Times today called it "a complete political cave-in, one...

Crooks' Best Friend on High Court Is ... Antonin Scalia?

Kevin Spak — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:08:50 CST

You might not think of arch-conservative Antonin Scalia as a crusader for convicts, but that’s exactly what the Supreme Court justice has become, leading a pro-defendant coalition based on his strict interpretation of the Constitution, the LA Times observes. Prosecutors are especially worried about his take on the 6th Amendment,...

Assange: Palin, Huckabee 'Inciting People to Murder' Me

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:30:00 CST

Furious WikiLeaker Julian Assange yesterday slammed critics like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin for "inciting people to murder" him. "If we are to have a civil society you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and murder people. That is incitement to commit...

Glenn Beck Thinks God Wrote the Bill of Rights

Kevin Spak — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:59:40 CDT

Glenn Beck mangled US history pretty spectacularly in a health care rant yesterday, attacking Tom Harkin for saying that reform would make health care “an unalienable right.” Beck’s response: “Tom! I don’t know if you’ve read the Declaration of Independence, but you don’t have the power to grant people rights....

Assaults on Our Freedom Come From Left and Right

Kristina Loew — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:07:01 CST

Those who blame the current administration for assaults on US constitutional freedoms should take a longer view, writes Alexander Cockburn in the American Conservative . “No doubt the conservatives who cheered Bush on as he abrogated ancient rights and stretched the powers of his office to unseen limits would have shrieked...

DC's Handgun Ban Heads to Supreme Court

Caroline Zimmerman — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:57:00 CDT

John Roberts' Supreme Court will get a rare crack at an undefined piece of the Bill of Rights this week when it examines whether Washington, DC's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment. Though Americans' right to bear arms has been debated for 200 years, reports the Washington Post, the court...

Magna Carta Back in US Archives

Nick McMaster — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:35:12 CST

The Magna Carta returned to the National Archives yesterday after facing an uncertain fate on the auction block last year, the Washington Post reports. The 13th-century English document, a precursor to the US Bill of Rights 500 years later, is now on permanent loan from a US businessman who bought...

Liberal Scholars Embrace Gun Ownership

NewsDude — Sun, 06 May 2007 22:52:45 CDT

When a federal appeals court ruled against a District of Columbia gun control law in March, it was the first time an appellate court had used the Second Amendment to restrict gun contol legislation. And it was, even more surprisingly, the result of work by a group of liberal scholars.

Equal Rights Amendment Is Back

Heather McPherson — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:43:06 CDT

The Equal Rights Amendment is making a comeback, with Democrats reintroducing it in both houses of Congress yesterday, and five state legislatures putting it on the docket since January. The measure banning sex discrimination passed the House and Senate in 1972, but it went down to defeat when only 35...