John G. Malcolm is The Heritage Foundation's vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government and also directs Heritage's Meese and Simon centers.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer has reminded us just how important the upcoming presidential election will be in shaping the federal judiciary, calling getting a progressive Supreme… Read More
LawCommentary
Gun rights advocates have fired a new salvo in the ongoing saga against the District of Columbia’s overly restrictive gun laws. Three District residents have… Read More
LawCommentary
“I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received.” That is what… Read More
LawCommentary
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its ruling in the case involving former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who—with his wife Maureen—had… Read More
LawAnalysis
President Barack Obama has publicly opined that mandatory minimum sentences ranging from 20 years to life in prison for drug offenses do not “fit the… Read More
LawAnalysis
On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the “Deterring Undue Enforcement by Protecting Rights of Citizens from… Read More
LawAnalysis
Thanks to the work of a bipartisan team of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives, federal civil asset forfeiture reform is a significant step… Read More
LawCommentary
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered a win for the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in Luis v. United States. Five justices—Justice Stephen Breyer, who… Read More
LawAnalysis
It now seems highly likely that the next president of the United States will have the opportunity to nominate someone to fill the vacancy on… Read More
LawCommentary
Following President Barack Obama’s nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit to fill the vacancy left by sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, there… Read More
LawCommentary
Frustrated by his inability to bend Congress to his will, President Barack Obama has once more picked up his trusty pen and phone and issued… Read More
LawCommentary
Critics of mens rea (criminal intent) reform claim it would shield white-collar criminals from prosecution. Rejecting the default criminal intent standard because we are rightfully… Read More
LawCommentary
I was recently bemoaning the fact that mens rea reform was not part of the various proposals that were being considered in the House and… Read More
LawCommentary
One night in 2001, 77-year-old Margaret Davis became the victim of a home invasion. A suspected drug dealer, pursued on foot by Philadelphia police, broke… Read More
LawCommentary
Immigration is always a hot-button political issue, and no more so than in the months leading up to a presidential election. From sanctuary cities to… Read More
LawCommentary
A powerful bipartisan group of senators announced their intention today to introduce The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015. The bill addresses “front end”… Read More
LawCommentary
The Environmental Protection Agency recently sent a Notice of Violation to Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., alleging that “VW manufactured and installed [software] in certain… Read More
LawCommentary
This afternoon, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, delivered an important speech on the Senate floor arguing that any criminal justice reform effort that is truly worthy… Read More
LawCommentary
There has been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about criminal justice reform, and it is expected that both the House and the… Read More
LawCommentary
It used to be that, like entitlement spending, criminal justice reform was a third rail in politics—touch it, and you could be sure that your… Read More
LawAnalysis
On Wednesday, a closely-divided Supreme Court issued a decision holding that tossing a few undersized fish back into the ocean from a boat is not… Read More
LawCommentary
Ohio recently enacted a new law to reform the way criminal statutes are written and interpreted in that state. That measure is a step in… Read More
LawCommentary
In the aftermath of Ferguson, President Obama will issue an executive order designed to improve a federal program that allows local police departments to obtain… Read More
LawCommentary
According to the Associated Press, as well as House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., President Barack Obama’s plan… Read More
SocietyCommentary
With large-scale attacks against Christians by groups such as ISIS in Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Al-Shabab in Somalia, religious intolerance has been much… Read More
SecurityCommentary
Last week, I traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to observe pre-trial proceedings in the military commission’s case against five men accused of committing the atrocities… Read More
LawCommentary
“One problem, with all of this military equipment, is not so much that the local authorities have this equipment. It’s perhaps that they have too… Read More
LawCommentary
As a character noted in Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” a prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict anything, even a ham… Read More
LawAnalysis
Today, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, by a vote of 2 to 1, canceled the registration of six trademarks… Read More
LawCommentary
This week, in Vergara v. California, California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu struck down five state laws governing teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissals as unconstitutional… Read More
