Constitution Day 2020

Today, President Trump launched the 1776 Project.  He has taken a stand to preserve our history and culture.  You might want to find a way to stand with him in your local community.

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Education Video

Published: 17 September 2020

Hits: 145

Bill Barr's Commence at Hillsdale

I have attached the prepared remarks for Bill Barr's speech at Hillsdale.  Recently, the Attorney General has taken on the task of correcting some of the most blatent speaking points of the left and standing up for the rule of the law.  Its fairly lengthy but well worth reading. 

One of the most disturbing issues in America today is "lawfare", the misuse of the legal process for political purposes.  Leftist lawyers often speak of creating new, innovatives ways to use the law to achieve their goals.  This puts everyone at risk and makes a mockery of the idea that laws should be understood by the citizen who is subject to them.  

Examples that are were high profile.  The unethical tactics used in the prosecution and "temporary" conviction of Senator Ted Stevens, a conviction that resulted in Stevens losing his election bid, adding the vote in the Senate necessary to pass Obama Care.  The persecution of Scooter Libby in an effort to get Dick Cheney was another example of a special prosecutor out to change the political arena, and, even more grossly, the effort to unseat President Trump by Mueller and gang, led by Andrew Weissman by hoping to create a perjury trap in a case with no underlying crime. 

I suspect these violations of citizens rights would not have occurred under Attorney General  Bill Barr nor Attorney General Robert Jackson. 

Justice News

Remarks as prepared for delivery

I am pleased to be at this Hillsdale College celebration of Constitution Day.  Sadly, many colleges these days don’t even teach the Constitution, much less celebrate it.  But at Hillsdale, you recognize that the principles of the Founding are as relevant today as ever—and vital to the success of our free society.  I appreciate your observance of this important day and all you do for civic education in the United States.

When many people think about the virtues of our Constitution, they first mention the Bill of Rights.  That makes sense.  The great guarantees of the Bill of Rights—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms, just to name the first few—are critical safeguards of liberty.  But as President Reagan used to remind people, the Soviet Union had a constitution too, and it even included some lofty-sounding rights.  Ultimately, however, those promises were just empty words, because there was no rule of law to enforce them.         

The rule of law is the lynchpin of American freedom.  And the critical guarantee of the rule of law comes from the Constitution’s structure of separated powers.  The Framers recognized that by dividing the legislative, executive, and judicial powers— each significant, but each limited—they would minimize the risk of any form of tyranny.  That is the real genius of the Constitution, and it is ultimately more important to securing liberty than the Bill of Rights.  After all, the Bill of Rights is a set of amendments to the original Constitution, which the Framers did not think needed an express enumeration of rights.

I want to focus today on the power that the Constitution allocates to the Executive, particularly in the area of criminal justice.  The Supreme Court has correctly held that, under Article II of the Constitution, the Executive has virtually unchecked discretion to decide whether to prosecute individuals for suspected federal crimes.  The only significant limitation on that discretion comes from other provisions of the Constitution.  Thus, for example, a United States Attorney could not decide to prosecute only people of a particular race or religion.  But aside from that limitation — which thankfully has remained a true hypothetical at the Department of Justice — the Executive has broad discretion to decide whether to bring criminal prosecutions in particular cases.

The key question, then, is how the Executive should exercise its prosecutorial discretion.  Eighty years ago this spring, one of my predecessors in this job —then-Attorney General Robert Jackson — gave a famous speech to a conference of United States Attorneys in which he described the proper role and qualities of federal prosecutors.  (By the way, Jackson was one of several former Attorneys General who went on become a Supreme Court Justice.  But I am one of only two former Attorneys General who went on to become Attorney General again.)

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Justice

Published: 17 September 2020

Hits: 157

Read more: Bill Barr's Comments at Hillsdale

Middle Peace Accords between UAE, Bahrain, and Israel

The peace accords signed today are historic and the ceremony was fun to watch.  Two major take-aways for me were the length of time dedicated to the task and the changes he made to the American diplomatic role.  President Trump had the conference with 50 islamic nations in Saudi Arabia in May 2017.  It was there that he laid out the basis for a new future prosperity for all the attendees.  Since then, he freed the US from dependence on Middle Eastern oil, taking away any threat that oil could be used to influence American policy.  He elevated the position of Isreal by moving the embassy to Jerusalem and strenthened Israel's bargaining power by returning their control over decisions about the future of the West Bank and the Golan Heights.  This approach removed the previous State Department's say over what Israel was allowed to do and removed the "peace veto" of the Palestinians. His team, then, was in a position to facilitate the discussions between the parties in the region to find ways achieve economic benefits for themselves.

President Trump has repeatedly made strategic moves to advance his foreign and domestic policies, while the press, the opposition, and some of his own administration, like Secretary of State Tillerson, fail to grasp the significance.  The underlying theme seems to me to bring parties to work together on improving the welfare of their constituents/citizens.

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Presidency

Published: 15 September 2020

Hits: 59