From The Oregonian:

Organizers of Occupy Portland say they fear as much as $20,000 donated to the group through a PayPal account has disappeared.

They also say the group’s finance committee has hijacked the demonstration’s Internet domain name and filed for incorporation against the wishes of the group’s decision-making body.

The demonstrator who filed the papers with the state said Wednesday she did so to protect the protest, and she has received death threats as a result.

Jordan LeDoux, who works for the media, communications, public relations and web team of the demonstration, said Wednesday that since 8 p.m. Tuesday, Occupy Portland has not been able to get into its Internet page, occupyportland.org.

LeDoux says a member of the finance committee apparently took control of the website.

Papers filed with the Oregon secretary of state’s office on Monday show that an entity called “Occupy Portland” was registered as a nonprofit. (more…)

How was I to know [he] was with the Russians, too?

Justice Stevens’ opinion leaves him on the wrong side of history regarding the importance of the 2nd Amendment.

Part III deals with Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion in McDonald v. Chicago, Justice Scalia’s responsive concurrence, and a general summary of the issues.  Part I dealt with the plurality decision written by Justice Alito, the dissenting opinion of Justice Breyer, and is relevant to a discussion on the doctrine of incorporation.  Part II dealt with Justice Thomas’ brilliant concurrence, rejecting the doctrine of incorporation for the “privileges and immunities” clause of the 14th Amendment.

You may recall that we addressed the legacy of Justice Stevens’ in a previous article:

Justice Stevens, a member of the Court since 1975, displayed distrust for freedom and voted on the wrong side of many significant constitutional issues.  He willingly eroded individual rights in favor of intrusive government policy.  Stevens’ uneasiness with freedom and individual rights led him to substitute textually sound, constitutional arguments with “intangibles” and fearful hypotheticals involving individuals abusing their rights at the expense of others.

Sure enough, he is up to the same shenanigans in what will be one of his last opinions.  To our benefit, Justice Scalia makes sure that Stevens leaves SCOTUS with a swift kick in the pants. (more…)

Send lawyers, guns and money…the sh%$ has hit the fan!

Seriously!  Justice Thomas opened a whole new chapter in constitutional jurisprudence with his concurring opinion regarding the 14th Amendment’s “privileges and immunities” clause.

Part II deals with Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion in McDonald v. Chicago. Part I dealt with the plurality decision written by Justice Alito, and the dissenting opinion of Justice Breyer, and is relevant to a discussion on the doctrine of incorporation.  Part III will address Justice Scalia’s concurrence directed at Justice Stevens’ dissent.

Let me preface this article by saying Justice Thomas is my favorite Supreme Court Justice.  Progressives often ridicule him for being “silent,” but why should he bother asking attorneys questions when their arguments focus on SCOTUS swing-vote, Justice Kennedy.  His textual approach to interpreting the Constitution makes the most sense.  While originalism and textualism both seek the original meaning of a statute or provision of the Constitution, originalism seeks the intent of the authors, where textualism focuses on the contemporary meaning of the text.  Primary sources on the intent of authors leads to a cogent argument, but primary sources on the meanings of words promotes a sound argument (and if you never learned logic then you have some studying to do; progressive arguments are rife with fallacies). (more…)

I’m the innocent bystander…not anymore!

In Heller, we held that the Second Amendment protects the right to possess a handgun in the home for the purpose of self-defense. Unless considerations of stare decisis counsel otherwise, a provision of the Bill of Rights that protects a right that is fundamental from an American perspective applies equally to the Federal Government and the States. See Duncan, 391 U. S., at 149, and n. 14. We therefore hold that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right recognized in Heller. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.

It is so ordered.

And so, our 2nd Amendment right to firearms settles into its proper place among our pantheon of fundamental rights.  The truth of the matter is that we always retained that right, but the law had been interpreted contrary to the Constitution.

Two arguments were the focus of McDonald v. Chicago: (1) the narrow interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s “privileges and immunities” clause adopted in the Slaughter-House Cases should be rejected; and (2) the 14th Amendment’s “due process” clause incorporates the 2nd Amendment right.  Justice Thomas addressed the first argument in a concurring opinion (arguably the bigger precedent), but we will turn to that topic in Part II.  Justice Scalia skewered Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion in another concurring opinion, but that will be the topic of Part III.  First let us examine Justice Alito’s plurality opinion concerning the second argument, and the dissent of Justice Breyer. (more…)