Union leaders in Washington state who plotted to undermine a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning mandatory union dues are now seeing the other end of that boot in the form of free speech activism and diminished membership. “What a favorable Supreme Court ruling really means is that our work is just beginning,” @FreedomFdtn’s Brian Minnich…
In a victory for free speech, the rule of law, and common sense, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has ruled that a philosophy professor could not be forced to use a transgender student’s “preferred pronouns,” and that his suit against the university for violation of his First…
Voters in at least four states will have the opportunity in November to decide what to do about abortion. Voters in California, Kentucky, Montana, and Vermont will decide abortion-related ballot initiatives during midterm elections Nov. 8. Michigan voters also may weigh in. “Constitutional ballot initiatives are notoriously confusing and complicated,” Mallory Carroll, vice president…
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The children of “lawbreakers” should not be rewarded with U.S. citizenship, a Republican congresswoman from New York says. The Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act, which Rep. Claudia Tenney introduced Wednesday, would end automatic birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. “The United States should not reward illegal entry into our…
It is beginning to look as if yet another case dealing with racial preferences in college admissions will make it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Abigail Fisher, a white woman from Texas who was denied admission into the University of Texas’ 2008 class, asserts the university unlawfully excluded her to achieve race-based admissions goals. Instead…
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship on his first day back in office in January. Since then, 22 states have sued to block it, sparking debates over whether the Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. “Many people today take it for granted that the answer is ‘yes’:…
Justice Samuel Alito joined Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol for a 90-minute conversation about life, baseball and a few recent Supreme Court decisions. Alito expressed concern about what “liberty” means following the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which prohibits the deprivation of life, liberty or property without due process…
Editor’s note: The mixture of illegal immigration and violent crime in Josh Siegel’s profile of the transnational gang MS-13, and his separate interview with the leader of a police task force fighting MS-13 in suburban Maryland, sparked blunt and passionate response from readers. Here’s a sample.—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: It is long past the time we…
When lawyer Sarah Weddington stood up in the Supreme Court on Oct. 11, 1972, to present the pro-abortion argument in the case of Roe v. Wade, she was legalistically careful in the language she used to describe whom exactly an abortion aborted. She avoided normal human terms like “unborn child” or “baby”—and, most importantly, “person.”…
Those who drafted the Constitution and subsequent amendments labored over every word that would be included in our charter of liberty. But today some clauses have limited application and others have been swept under the rug entirely. Have you ever heard of the Contract Clause, the Coinage Clause, or the Origination Clause? The Pacific Legal…
Something is amiss in Annapolis, home of the U.S. Naval Academy. A rot growing like kudzu across this bucolic campus is undermining the Naval Academy’s core mission: to prepare young officers to take command at sea. How else can you explain the academy’s insistence that the Supreme Court’s holding that it is unconstitutional for colleges…
Editor’s note: We begin selections from the mailbag this week with a letter from a reader in Georgia that gets at why The Daily Signal exists. See for yourself. Be sure to write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Thanks to The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation for presenting articles such as Rob Bluey’s…
President Donald Trump’s critics have found something else to rend their garments over: his determination to end so-called “birthright citizenship.” Why, they thunder, it’s unconstitutional. And even if it could be changed, it can’t be by executive order. They’re wrong on both counts. That probably comes as a surprise to many Americans, including some who…
African American leaders are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to ensure equal protection under the law for black women and unborn black babies in the state targeted by the abortion industry. In November 2018, Alabama voters backed a state constitutional amendment, called Amendment 930, that explicitly recognizes and protects the rights of unborn children in…
Jack Phillips owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, and is himself a master baker. He’s in trouble with the state of Colorado for declining to create a custom cake for an event because doing so would violate his religious beliefs. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Phillips has already taken a similar case all the…
On the heels of deadly protests and counterprotests in Charlottesville, Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union has stated it will no longer defend the First Amendment rights of “hate groups” seeking to lawfully exercise their right to openly carry firearms. This announcement followed a highly circulated article published by Slate, which accused open carry militias…
Former Vice President Joe Biden came out Thursday against the Hyde Amendment, after previously supporting it. “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code,” Biden said at a gala hosted by the Democratic National Committee in…
When Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., questioned Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., proved they have something in common in addition to being members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Neither of them was in the hearing room. Yet that did not…
Can the United States Naval Academy (USNA) continue to use race in admissions decisions, even though the U.S. Supreme Court expressly forbade the use of race in college admissions last year in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC? I believe the clear answer is no, as I have…
In a decision that will benefit families all across the country and their high school-graduating sons and daughters who aspire to attend college, the Supreme Court has finally fulfilled its duty to uphold the guarantees of equal protection in the 14th Amendment and end the pernicious, morally repugnant racial discrimination practiced by Harvard College and…