by Bob Barr | Aug 19, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller Senate Democrats are still seething over the Republican majority’s refusal in 2016 to schedule a vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Democratic senators now are brazenly threatening to “restructure” the Supreme Court, in an eerie replication of FDR’s effort to “pack” the High Court following his 1936 reelection. Democratic senators filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief this month in support of New York City’s draconian gun control policies, and used it to undermine the legitimacy of the court. “The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it. Perhaps the court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’ Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal,” the group wrote. The five Democratic senators who signed onto the Supreme Court brief, led by Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, proposed changing the very structure of the Supreme Court in order to better insulate it from “political” pressures that do not fit their policy preferences. While this approach is subtler than the party’s vicious attacks on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, it is far more sinister. While the Constitution mandates that there be “one Supreme Court,” with each justice holding what is in effect lifetime tenure, the number of justices on the court has by law been set at nine since 1869. This long-standing structure was challenged in FDR’s notorious 1937 scheme. Roosevelt’s true goal — despite language cleverly camouflaging it as an effort to streamline the court’s docket — was to dilute the power of some then-sitting justices...
by Bob Barr | Aug 14, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com Last week I wrote about the speech America needs to hear from President Donald Trump, specifically, a forceful and unequivocal denunciation of extremism, including calling out those who camouflage their noxious racism behind the façade of support for the President or the GOP. It is high time the Democratic Party does the same, for its leaders to clearly, publicly, and expressly disavow extremism on the Left. For too long, Democratic political leaders – including the many currently vying for their party’s 2020 nomination – have been allowed to address the violence infecting contemporary American society by not addressing it, and piously pointing the finger of blame at Trump. While Trump’s signature direct and thinly varnished rhetoric makes it easy for his critics to pin blame on him for misdeeds of others, such a simplistic and deliberately biased assessment misses the point entirely. Deeply divisive and dangerous forces have been eating away at the foundations of civil discourse in our country long before January 20, 2017. It is disingenuous in the extreme for Democrats to absolve themselves of any liability for this downward trajectory of civility. As with alcoholics seeking to recover, a willingness to admit the problem exists is the essential first step to recovery; in its absence the underlying problem – whether alcoholism or violence – simply worsens. This is the stage at which the Democrats find themselves now, as the party decides whether or not to recognize that it, too, is blameworthy for the violent wreckage that has become political discourse in America. The New York Post described Connor Betts, the Dayton shooter, as perhaps “Antifa’s first mass killer.” Before...
by Bob Barr | Aug 12, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller Some Republicans in Congress are seeking to pass a “red flag law,” which would grant law enforcement to do what legal precedent has rarely permitted — forcefully enter homes and confiscate lawful firearms without any evidence of a crime. The effort is being led by members such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). Beyond the bite such a law would take out of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure, it would permit the government to override both the Second Amendment — which guarantees the right to possess a firearm — and the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to provide “due process” based on “equal protection” before it may take a person’s property or otherwise abridge their fundamental rights. The trigger for such confiscatory power is not that the person committed a crime with a firearm; but rather that someone fears he or she might do so. This is, of course, a legitimate concern, but one that must not cavalierly be cast into law. Any reasoned view of responsible government recognizes that there will be times law enforcement should act to prevent a crime from occurring, especially one likely to cause harm or death. The question is how and under what circumstances the government may so intervene. If we are to remain a nation “of laws not of men,” preventive government action always must be consistent with and not undermine existing constitutional provisions; including the Second, Fourth, 14th Amendments, and others. Many of the 17 state-level red flag laws have been adopted since the February 2018 Parkland, Florida mass shooting; all are constitutionally defective to one degree or another. Many...
by Bob Barr | Aug 5, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller In interviews following the horrendous mass murders by lone gunmen in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio over the weekend, Texas’ governor and lieutenant governor, President Trump, and House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy commented that factors involving mental illness, along with cultural factors such as the popularity and pervasiveness of violent video games, and information available to internet-savvy young adults on the “dark web,” needed to be considered in analyzing and developing strategies to prevent future mass shootings. Democrats were — as usual — quick to dismiss any suggestion that video gaming or other cultural factors (except for “racism” perpetrated by President Trump) might be among the factors causing what has become an all-too-familiar pattern of young males using firearms to commit mass murder. This knee-jerk reaction against consideration of such factors limits the likelihood that government at any level will be able to develop a comprehensive strategy seriously to address the problem of mass shootings; foredooming law enforcement simply to doing their best to respond to such incidents. None of the Republican leaders declared that violent video games were the sole, or even necessarily the major factor prompting last weekend’s or other recent mass murderers to act as they did. They simply urged the inclusion of such matters in any serious, long-term strategy to stave off future such horrendous incidents. Predictably, of course, the $140 billion global video gaming industry consistently pushes back against any hint of a link between mass shootings in real life and the gun carnage depicted in the industry’s phenomenally popular games such as “Call of Duty.” The industry’s opposition is...
by Bob Barr | Jul 24, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.com The world in which most liberals live is one of magic and fairytales — where socialist systems have starved millions of people and destroyed every economy forced into its model, but which certainly will work the next time. It is a world in which using fascist tactics to silence opponents actually makes you an anti-fascist; and where presidential candidates can promise everything for everyone, and still have enough money left over to cut taxes. In this fantasy land, anything is possible if you just feel it to be true. Perhaps nowhere is the Left’s disconnect from reality more acute than in its assault on the Second Amendment. Despite decades of gun control proposals debunked time and again, the same schemes and arguments regularly are recycled and repackaged. Democrats remain convinced that Americans are just waiting for permission to hand over their firearms and their God-given right to self-defense. After all, Democrats say, other countries are doing it, so why not us? Take for instance New Zealand, which recently achieved rock star status in the eyes of Democrats in our country, when its prime minister reacted to a tragic mass shooting with a crushing blow to the country’s firearms rights. The prime minister immediately banned “military-style assault rifles,” to be jump started with a “buy-back” program. As expected, Democrats here gushed with envy at what would be possible in our country. “Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market. This is what leadership looks like,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cluelessly tweeted, echoing sentiments from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Chris Murphy, and others. The “leadership” which so moved Ocasio-Cortez,...
by Bob Barr | Jul 19, 2019 | Uncategorized |
By Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A Valdosta litigator will chair the state panel that investigates allegations of judicial misconduct. Pope Langdale, who specializes in wrongful death and personal injury cases, was elected Friday by a unanimous vote to head the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s investigative panel. DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Stacey Hydrick was elected vice chair. In recent years, the JQC has had a number of high-profile cases. In June, it filed ethics charges against Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Terrinee Gundy, accusing her of chronic tardiness and absenteeism — and then covering it up. Last year, the JQC brought charges against Superior Court Judge Mack Crawford of the Griffin Judicial Circuit, accusing him of the theft of more than $15,000 in court funds. After the seven-member JQC investigative panel filed charges, the commission’s three-person hearing panel, after holding a trial, recommended that Crawford be removed from office. That is now pending before the state Supreme Court, which will have the final say. Valdosta lawyer Pope Langdale, the new chair of the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission’s investigative panel, at the State Bar of Georgia offices in Atlanta. (BILL RANKIN/brankin@ajc.com)Photo: The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionADVERTISING Also Friday, state Supreme Court Justice Michael Boggs swore-in two new members of the JQC’s investigative panel: former U.S. congressman and U.S. attorney Bob Barr and Superior Court Judge Verda Colvin of the Macon Judicial Circuit. Gov. Brian Kemp recently appointed Barr to the JQC panel. Colvin is an appointee of the state Supreme Court. They join current panel members Langdale, Hydrick, Marietta lawyer James Balli, Atlanta investigator Richard Hyde and Macon businessman Warren...
