Precedent: Letting Yesterday’s Crimes Justify Tomorrow’s Tyranny
“One of the vilest systems that can be set up.” That’s how Thomas Paine described government by precedent – when government uses power not because it’s authorized, but because someone else got away with it first. No constitution. No...
Liberty, Power, Precedent and the People
While most people have never heard his name today, Founding Father John Dickinson was famous at the time of the Revolution. In 1767, he authored the 12 “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania” in response to the hated Townshend Acts. These essays quickly became the...
Federal Judges Protect and Defend Precedent
A nominee for a seat on a U.S. Court of Appeals revealed exactly why we can’t count on federal judges to “protect and defend” the Constitution. Their commitment is to protect and defend past court precedent. Joe Biden nominated Eunice C. Lee, for a...