Andrew P. Napolitano

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

‘Can the president alone build a border wall?’

When Donald Trump was looking for a catchy phrase during his 2016 presidential campaign to address the issue of immigrants entering the United States unlawfully — a line that would resonate with his supporters — he came up with the phrase "build the wall." The reference, of course, is to what Mr. Trump advertised would be a 30-foot-tall, thousand-mile-long Mexico-financed physical wall along our border with Mexico.

January 9, 2019

Robert Mueller, the economy and 2020 election have everyone guessing

Happy new year.

January 2, 2019

America at Christmas

What if Christmas is a core value of belief in a personal God who lived among us and His freely given promise of eternal salvation that no believer should reject or apologize for? What if Christmas is the rebirth of Christ in the hearts of all believers? What if Christmas is the potential rebirth of Christ in every heart that will have Him, whether a believer or not?

December 26, 2018

How Trump’s legal woes continue to grow

It seems that every time we look at the legal maneuverings that reflect upon President Donald Trump, the allegations of unlawful behavior by him add up. We know that two teams of federal prosecutors are examining his pre-presidential and his in-office behavior.

December 19, 2018

Trump may want the public to think that he is unfazed, but his presidency is in grave danger

Last week, federal prosecutors in Washington and New York filed sentencing memorandums with federal judges in advance of the sentencings of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager and his former personal lawyer had pleaded guilty to federal crimes, and the memorandums, which are required by the federal rules of criminal procedure, set forth the prosecutors' desired prison sentences for them.

December 12, 2018

The Mueller investigation rolls on

The nation has paused this week from its toxic political battles to remember the kindness and gentleness of President George H.W. Bush. He was kind to Bill Clinton, who defeated him in 1992, and to Ross Perot, whose unusual entry into the presidential race that year siphoned conservative voters away from Mr. Bush and enabled Mr. Clinton to amass a majority of electoral votes with only 43 percent of the popular vote. The Bush I knew was the post-presidential one, who, by all appearances, harbored no bitterness or sense of defeat.

December 5, 2018

When Trump was tempted to change federal law, Chief Justice Roberts stepped in

When Donald Trump became president, he swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and enforce federal laws "faithfully." James Madison, who was the scrivener at the Constitutional Convention, insisted on using the word "faithfully" in the presidential oath and including the oath in the body of the Constitution because he knew that presidents would face the temptation to disregard laws they dislike.

November 28, 2018

What if on Thanksgiving our gratitude is not to the government but to God?

What if the government's true goal is to perpetuate itself? What if the real levers of governmental power are pulled by agents and diplomats and by bureaucrats and central bankers behind the scenes? What if they stay in power no matter who is elected president or which political party controls either house of Congress?

November 21, 2018

There’s clear statutory language that makes Whitaker ineligible to be acting attorney general

Last week's surprise forced resignation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general of the United States set in motion a series of events that will soon resonate in all corners of the Department of Justice.

November 14, 2018

What will the Democrats do with their new house?

The Democratic Party has won control of the House of Representatives. Its members effectively will be able to block all legislation that the Senate passes and the president wants. They also will be able to unleash their subpoena power mercilessly on the Executive Branch. Will the members of the new majority view their victory primarily as an opportunity to legislate or as a chance to investigate?

November 7, 2018

Donald Trump’s words have given comfort to the worst among us

I was sitting at Mass last Sunday in a cavernous Catholic church on Manhattan's Upper West Side near Lincoln Center, praying and thinking about the horrible events in America last week.

October 31, 2018

Blanket rejection by force of everyone in the caravan violates the spirit of the Constitution

In Jean Raspail's 1973 dystopian novel, "The Camp of the Saints," about 1 million poor folks from India make their way on hundreds of ships around the southern tip of Africa and up to the French Riviera. The international media use helicopters to follow the flotilla, and the news of the flotilla's movements dominates the headlines for weeks.

October 24, 2018

There’s no legal basis to punish the rough-and-tumble speech that Trump employs

The litigation brought by Stormy Daniels against Donald Trump has had its day of reckoning. The adult-film star who sued the president for defamation not only lost a portion of her lawsuit but was ordered to pay the president's legal bills. All this was a resounding victory for the freedom of speech.

October 17, 2018

Trouble may lie ahead if Kavanaugh’s views on the Fourth Amendment weren’t discussed

What if we have a right to insist that judges be neutral and open-minded rather than partisan and predisposed to a particular ideology? What if presidential candidates promise to nominate judges and justices who they believe will embrace certain ideologies?

October 10, 2018