Andrew P. Napolitano

Julian Assange indictment runs counter to the Supreme Court decision on Daniel Ellsberg

When James Madison agreed be the scrivener at the Constitutional Convention during the summer of 1787, he could not have known that just three years later he'd be the chair of the House of Representatives committee whose task it was to draft the Bill of Rights.

May 29, 2019

To impeach or not to impeach

The revelation last weekend by Michigan Republican Congressman Justin Amash that he believes the Mueller report accuses President Donald Trump of impeachable offenses has ignited firestorms in both major political parties on Capitol Hill. Mr. Amash's argument is simple and essentially unassailable, though his fellow congressional Republicans don't want to hear it and Democrats don't know what to do with it.

May 22, 2019

For many years, the fear of a president as king was unthinkable, but now it’s not

There was a time in American history — nearly all of it up to the presidency of Woodrow Wilson — when the federal government followed basic constitutional norms. With some unique and discrete exceptions, like the Civil War, Congress wrote the laws, the president enforced them, whether he agreed with them or not, and the judiciary interpreted them and assessed their compatibility to the U.S. Constitution. This is the separation of powers.

May 15, 2019

Did the attorney general deceive Congress?

William Barr, the attorney general of the United States, now faces a likely contempt citation for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena and for misleading Congress.

May 8, 2019

Can William Barr defend presidential obstruction?

One should expect fireworks this week as Attorney General William Barr testifies before the Judiciary Committees of both the House and the Senate about the investigation and the report of special counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election. By now, most folks know that the interference was substantial but don't seem to care much.

May 1, 2019

Did Donald Trump obstruct justice?

When the Department of Justice designated Robert Mueller as special counsel to take over the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign in May 2017, Mr. Mueller's initial task was to determine if there had been a conspiracy — an illegal agreement — between the campaign and any Russians to receive anything of value.

April 24, 2019

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of human existence

When America was in its infancy and struggling to find a culture and frustrated at governance from Great Britain, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets and editorials and sermons was not "safety" or "taxes" or "peace"; it was "freedom." And two intolerable acts of Parliament assaulting freedom broke the bonds with the mother country irreparably, precipitating the Revolution.

April 17, 2019

If Robert Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy and obstruction, William Barr would have said so

When Attorney General William Barr released his four-page assessment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 400-page report, I was disappointed at many of my colleagues who immediately jumped on board the "no collusion" and "no obstruction" and "presidential exoneration" bandwagons.

April 10, 2019

Is the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional?

Here we go again. The legal battle over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- will soon be back in court due to the largely unexpected consequences of a series of recent events.

April 3, 2019

Beyond the Barr revelation

Last Sunday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General William Barr released a letter, which he said summarized the report he had received from special counsel Robert Mueller about alleged crimes committed by President Donald Trump.

March 27, 2019

Can the president legally break the law?

Legal scholars have been fascinated for two centuries about whether an American president can break the law and remain immune from prosecution. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln ordered troops to arrest, without warrant, and incarcerate, without due process, many peaceful, law-abiding journalists and newspaper editors -- and even a member of Congress -- in the Northern states. Wasn't that kidnapping?

March 20, 2019

Can Congress amend the Constitution?

"Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The U.S. Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency." — Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948)

March 13, 2019

President Trump’s bad week

In an ideal world, the president of the United States would succeed in negotiating a nuclear arms treaty with a foreign government.

March 6, 2019

‘Gun violence is the real emergency’

Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a group of supporters and journalists that in her view, gun violence is the real emergency. Such a statement, in the context in which she made it, should send shivers down the spines of all who believe in personal liberty protected by the U.S. Constitution.

February 27, 2019

Trump’s brazen unconstitutional overreach

Last week, President Donald Trump followed through on a threat he had been making for months. It was not a blistering or insulting tweet. It was not an attack on the press or congressional Democrats. It was an attack on the U.S. Constitution.

February 20, 2019

How the First Amendment protects a former White House communications aide and his book

While the public discourse has been consumed over the realization that abortion physicians actually let viable babies who survive late-term abortions die — as well as whether President Donald Trump or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will blink first over the issue of congressional authorization for building a wall at the country's southern border, to say nothing of the race-and-sex-infused mess at the top of the government in Virginia — a profound free speech issue has been bubbling below the radar.

February 13, 2019

Abortion and the right to stay alive

Much has been made lately of language in a recently enacted New York state statute that permits abortion up to the time of birth if necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. New Jersey has had the same provision for two generations via a regulation of the Board of Medical Examiners.

February 6, 2019

The FBI puts on its jackboots to humiliate one of Mueller’s suspects

Last Friday, on a quiet residential street at 6 in the morning, the neighborhood exploded in light, noise and terror. Seventeen SUVs and two armored vehicles arrived in front of one house. Each vehicle had sirens blaring and lights flashing. The house, which abutted a canal, was soon surrounded by 29 government agents, each wearing military garb, each carrying a handgun and most carrying high-powered automatic rifles.

January 30, 2019

Rudolph Giuliani muddies the water about conversations and tapes

Last week, the investigative arm of BuzzFeed sparked a media frenzy with a report claiming that two federal law enforcement sources had informed its reporters that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and confidant, had told special counsel Robert Mueller that Mr. Trump counseled him to lie to Congress about the status of Mr. Trump's attempts to build Trump Tower Moscow.

January 23, 2019

The FBI can investigate the president, but spying by government officials violates Fourth Amendment

Last weekend, The New York Times reported that senior FBI officials were so concerned about whatever President Donald Trump's true motivation for firing FBI Director James Comey was that they immediately initiated a counterintelligence investigation of the president himself.

January 16, 2019