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In a Supreme Court showdown Monday over whether the homeless have a "right" to camp in public, almost no one mentioned the actual victims of that crazy idea. Homeless advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court that living on the streets is a "victimless" crime. Victimless? Everyone who has to step over needles and human poop and navigate around half-conscious humans while walking to work or taking their kids to school is a victim. Every store owner whose entrance is blocked by makeshift cardboard shelters is a victim.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments, but also mentions “excessive fines” and bail. The “excessive fines” clause surfaces (among other places) in cases of civil and criminal forfeiture. In New York state, Attorney General Letitia James, in coordination with New York Judge Arthur Engoron, are seeking to continue the targeting of President Donald Trump with a series of financial judgements, penalties and control mechanisms intended to isolate the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate from his wealth. As if something akin to the John Galt character in Atlas Shrugged was coming to life, no American individual has ever faced...

New York Attorney General Letitia James appears to be gearing up to potentially seize Donald Trump's Westchester golf club and Seven Springs estate as the deadline looms for the ex-president to secure the $454 million bond in his civil fraud trial. The attorney general formally registered judgements in Westchester County where Trump has the two properties just north of Manhattan on March 6. According to the county clerk's online database, the judgements were registered against Trump, the Trump Organization and his two adult sons Don Jr. and Eric. The action was first reported by Bloomberg News.

On February 16, 2024, a judge in New York State imposed fines totaling just over $360 million on former president Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, and several related Trump companies and trusts in the civil case brought by the New York attorney general. President Trump’s sons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump were fined just over $4 million each. The court imposed additional sanctions, including injunctions against former president Trump; Donald Trump, Jr.; and Eric Trump from serving as officers or directors in New York corporations for specified numbers of years, among other sanctions.The media reporting on the court’s...

Judge Arthur Engoron has rejected a bid from former President Donald Trump's legal team to delay payment of the roughly $355 million in fines and $100 million in interest stemming from New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James's civil fraud case. "You have failed to explain, much less justify, any basis for a stay... I am confident that the Appellate Division will protect your appellate rights," Engoron wrote to Trump attorney Clifford Robert in an email CBS obtained. Trump on Wednesday asked Engoron for a 30-day extension to pay the sum, asserting that "[g]iven that the court-appointed monitor continues to...

Rabid hatred hellbent on the personal destruction of a defendant is normal for a DA... no? As Trump is quick to remind us, Letitia James promised voters that she would be all about grievance politics and the personal destruction of POTUS 45. It was so blatant that Dershowitz wrote a book about it called, ‘Get Trump’. In the eagerness to destroy him, James cut corners. In the event that those corners violated his rights as an American citizen, he will have every right to sue the government — and the agents of the state responsible — for personal damages. It...

If ever there was a likely political figure to seek revenge, it is surely former President Donald Trump. And yet, he recently exclaimed that he will not seek revenge against those many democratic AGs, and lawyers who are recklessly trying to end his businesses and his private life. See video.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is prepared to seize former President Donald Trump’s assets if he is unable to find cash to cover a $354 million fine in his civil fraud case, she said Tuesday in an interview with ABC News.James told ABC News, “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.”Trump was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest on Friday after Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled the former president had...

On Tuesday afternoon, coming after a New York judge ruled that $354 million must be paid in a civil case against him, Donald Trump posted a screenshot of the 8th Amendment to Truth Social that forbids "excessive fines" for the punishment of crimes. Text of the amendment in the Constitution's Bill of Rights reads, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." It was posted after Trump was fined over $350 million in the New York City case ruled against him. The ruling came down against Trump from New York Judge Arthur...

“President Trump has an 8th Amendment challenge to the unconstitutional fines levied against him by a rogue judge,” Constitutional Scholar Mark Levin noted Tuesday, commenting on the extraordinary $370 million fine (including interest) imposed by a New York judge. Later that day, former President Trump posted the text of the 8th Amendment on TruthSocial.com platform, later linking to the same article linked by Levin in his comment posted on X (formerly Twitter). […] As Levin, (Arthur) Fergenson, (Jonathan) Turley, (Steven) Calabresi and a host of other constitutional experts have noted, the fine is extraordinary not only because of its unprecedented...

@RepThomasMassie speaks out on the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on Ross Ulbricht by the criminal justice system. Join Rep. Massie and more than 370,000 people demanding clemency from @realDonaldTrum at http://freeross.org. Watch this Video...

Maryland’s highest court ruled that Washington, D.C.-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo has to be resentenced due to U.S. Supreme Court decisions on constitutional protections for juveniles made after his sentencing. Malvo had been sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was 17 at the time of the murders. The Maryland Court of Appeals said it is unlikely that Malvo would ever be released because he is also serving separate life sentences for murders in Virginia. “As a practical matter, this may be an academic question in Mr. Malvo’s case, as he would first have to be...

Bail is now set at $2 million for Kyle Rittenhouse who is accused of fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during Jacob Blake riots in Kenosha. A Wisconsin court commissioner on Monday afternoon set the bail at the first hearing since Lake County sheriff’s deputies handed off the Antioch teen to Kenosha County officers Friday afternoon, Chicago Tribune reported. Rittenhouse's transfer came immediately after a Lake County judge rejected his defense team's efforts to block his extradition from Illinois to Wisconsin. His lawyers voiced concerns for the 17-year-old's safety in an adult lockup, but the Kenosha County Sheriff’s...

DUBLIN, July 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Google admitted to interference in Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum but claimed that it was merely to “help voters.” In revelations made by pro-transparency website Project Veritas, YouTube “blacklisted” a large number of videos on its platform in advance of the referendum while also interfering with search results. YouTube is wholly owned by Google. When voters searched for specific terms on YouTube, the results of their searches were manually altered by Google, thus assuring that the videos selected by Google reach the top of the search results. Among the searches affected by interference from Google...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that may rein in abusive property seizures by state and local governments through the highly controversial legal tool known as civil asset forfeiture. The case at issue involves a man named Tyson Timbs, who sold $225 worth of heroin to undercover police officers on two occasions, as a means of raising money to support his own drug habit. Police arrested Timbs while he was driving to a third drug deal, and he ultimately pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to a year of home confinement and five years of...

As a former federal prosecutor, I am clear-eyed about crime. Unlike some reformers, I don’t think our justice system is fundamentally broken, unjust, or corrupt. I have nothing but respect for law-enforcement officials, who put themselves in danger every single day in order to protect the public. I know from experience that dangerous criminals exist — individuals who are incapable of or uninterested in rehabilitation and change. We should throw the book at those people. But my time as a prosecutor also tells me that not every criminal is dangerous or incapable of living a productive life. My faith as...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court left little doubt Wednesday that it would rule that the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines applies to the states, an outcome that could help an Indiana man recover the $40,000 Land Rover police seized when they arrested him for selling about $400 worth of heroin. A decision in favor of 37-year-old Tyson Timbs, of Marion, Indiana, also could buttress efforts to limit the confiscation by local law enforcement of property belonging to someone suspected of a crime. Police and prosecutors often keep the proceeds. Timbs was on hand at the high court for arguments...

“Government’s first duty,” President Reagan said in 1981 and President Trump recently tweeted, “is to protect the people, not run their lives.” The safety of law-abiding citizens has always been a core principle of conservatism. And it is why we need to take this opportunity to pass real criminal-justice reform now. Although violent crime rose during the final two years of President Obama’s time in office, it decreased during the first year of Trump’s presidency. We need to keep that momentum going. And criminal justice reform can help us do that in two ways. First, commonsense sentencing reform can increase...

Numerous international groups are trying to influence Ireland into legalising abortionThe great and the good internationally have a big interest in the outcome of Ireland’s looming abortion referendum, planned for next year. They want Irish voters to erase from their constitution the so-called Eighth Amendment, which gives the unborn child the same right to life as every other human being. Abortion is only permitted in Ireland when the life of the mother is at real and substantial risk. This amendment was inserted into the constitution following a referendum in 1983 which passed by a two-to-one margin. Ever since then secular...

IRELAND: a post-mortem examination - by Roberto de Mattei (Revisited) Almost exactly three years ago, in May 2015, following the "same-sex marriage" referendum in Ireland, Roberto de Mattei made his "post-mortem examination" of the formerly Catholic powerhouse. On this sad Saturday, as vote tallies confirm that an overwhelming majority of Irish voters chose to remove the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution, we take a moment to revisit his piece. What did the 8th amendment say exactly? These words: The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of...