Author: Paul Engel
Like many of you, I am a product of the public schools. Like many of you I thought the Constitution was for lawyers and judges. One day I read the Constitution, and was surprised to find I didn't need a law degree to understand it. Then I read the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and even the Anti-Federalist Papers. As I learned more and more about our founding fathers and documents I saw how little we know about how our country was designed to work and how many people just didn't care. I started The Constitution Study to help those who also want read and study our Constitution.
508 – Men in Women’s Sports – Oral Arguments
Two cases came before the Supreme Court for oral arguments asking the same basic question. Can states prohibit men from participating in women’s sports?
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507 – Constitutional Carry, but…
More than half of the states in the union allow constitutional carry, the right to carry a firearm without a permit or license. While Tennessee claims to have constitutional carry, their constitution places a but in that. A recent case in Tennessee Chancery Court asks whether two laws restricting someone’s ability to bear arms is constitutional or not.
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506 – Copyright Shakedown
Copyrights and patents are important protections for inventors, authors, and all sorts of creators. In the case Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, I’m reminded of the response Willie Sutton gave when asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is.” Because this case seems more like a copyright shakedown than the protection of copyrights.
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505 – Unreasonable Searches
When a government agency searches without a reason it’s called “fishing”. When the Attorney General of New Jersey issued a subpoena demanding the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the donors to a pregnancy center, it wasn’t just fishing, it was searching for a white whale.
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503 – Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity
Concealed carry reciprocity is frequently a hot-button issue both in the Second Amendment community and those who oppose it. Once again Congress is attempting to resolve the issue via legislation, and The National Fraternal Order of Police is opposing it. Let’s look at both sides of this story.
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502 – Presidential Tariffs
Love them or hate them, President Trump’s tariffs have not only been a talking point, but have had an impact on most Americans. The question before SCOTUS in this case is whether or not the President has the power to create these tariffs in the first place.
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501 – Medical freedom or government overreach?
In response to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, several states passed legislation to put a halt to such practices. For example Idaho recently passed the Medical Freedom Act. The question is, does this legislation protect medical freedom or is it just another example of government overreach.
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500 – Free Speech or Free Beer
When I hear people talk about freedom, there seems to be two different general ideas: freedom from something and freedom to do something. It reminds me of my days in Information Technology, when people described “free” open source software as “Free speech, not free beer!” When we talk about freedom today, are we talking about…
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