Free Republic

Based upon Justice Sotomayor’s bizarre dissenting opinion in the recent Michigan affirmative action case, it seems she believes that government decisions made on the basis of race, something the Constitution expressly bars, are mandatory. Someone has been emanating her penumbras because, to use the legal term of art, that’s Constitutional Crazy Talk. Years ago, the liberals came up with the Political Process Doctrine. It’s the idea that if some small element of a state or local government – like a city council or a university board – is implementing policies liberals like, the people can’t use the ballot box to...

Just as retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is publicly declaring that the U.S. Constitution needs to be changed to restrict gun ownership to make it consistent with the wishes of the Founding Fathers, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is putting the National Rifle Association on notice that he intends to dig into his deep pockets and spend upwards of $50 million to influence local and state politicians to support gun control. Stevens gave an interview to ABC News to coincide with the publication of his new book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change...

Wisconsin Sheriff David Clarke will surely have a target on his back now after his superb comments at the annual NRA convention in Indianapolis. As reported by The Blaze, Clarke revealed the seven words he would add to the Second Amendment: “Keep your hands off our guns, dammit.” What Sheriff Clarke again demonstrates is for conservatives it’s nothing to do with race — it’s all about individual character. His comments about amending the Constitution were aimed at former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who said in his recent book that he would change the Second Amendment by adding five...

WASHINGTON – Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he thinks the federal government should legalize marijuana. The 94-year-old retired justice tells NPR that public opinion has changed on the issue. Stevens also says that there isn't much distinction between marijuana and alcoholic beverages.

Honestly, unless you are a big government liberal, how many people think the federal government should have more power than it already exercises over its citizens? Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, 94, thinks the Constitution needs at least six amendments in order to bring the country more in line with what he believes is good for us. He outlines them in his new book, "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." It is a revealing look into liberal thinking and the ideological opposite of radio talk show host Mark Levin's book, "The Liberty Amendments: Restoring...

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in his new book, recommends six rewrites to the U.S. Constitution. He would restrict gun ownership to militia members; ban the death penalty; and allow government to set "reasonable limits" on campaign financing, among other things. But Stevens says he's no radical: "I think every one of my proposals is a moderate proposal," Stevens told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week." One of Steven's proposals would add five words to the Second Amendment, which would then read: "...the right of the people to keep and bear...

John Paul Stevens says he thinks it’s appropriate for Supreme Court justices to factor in political considerations when weighing a decision to retire. Here’s what the former justice tells ABC’s “This Week”: “I think certainly it’s natural and an appropriate thing to think about your successor.” …

p>The Talk Shows April 20th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.; Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s prime minister; Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gov. Devil Patrick, D-Mass.; Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont.; Lukman Faily, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States; Kim Beazley, Australia’s...

Last week, former Justice John Paul Stevens penned an op-ed for the Washington Post on “The Five Words that Can Fix the Second Amendment.” The piece is actually an excerpt from his new book Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution. In the book, Stevens suggests some changes that would ratify his view of cases in which he stridently dissented, such as Citizens United and Heller. Stevens’s dissent in Heller, the case in which a 5-4 Court held that the Second Amendment conveys an individual right to own guns even for those not part of a militia,...

John Paul Stevens served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010. This essay is excerpted from his new book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.” Following the massacre of grammar-school children in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, high-powered weapons have been used to kill innocent victims in more senseless public incidents. Those killings, however, are only a fragment of the total harm caused by the misuse of firearms. Each year, more than 30,000 people die in the United States in firearm-related incidents. Many of those deaths involve handguns.

--snip-- As a result of the rulings in Heller and McDonald, the Second Amendment, which was adopted to protect the states from federal interference with their power to ensure that their militias were “well regulated,” has given federal judges the ultimate power to determine the validity of state regulations of both civilian and militia-related uses of arms. That anomalous result can be avoided by adding five words to the text of the Second Amendment to make it unambiguously conform to the original intent of its draftsmen. As so amended, it would read:   “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the...

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has released a new book focused, in part, on "improving" the Constitution through amending the Second Amendment--by making the rights protected therein applicable only to a militia instead of the citizenry at large. Stevens' book is titled Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution. As written, the text of the Second Amendment is: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Stevens believes recent court decisions--notably District...

Ninety-one-year-old retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told Bloomberg News that he thinks President Obama's health care law will pass constitutional muster. He referenced a 2005 Supreme Court decision that held the federal government could outlaw state-sanctioned medical marijuana even if the substance didn't cross state lines, which was based on a broad interpretation of the commerce clause.

If you look at the values and the historical record, you will see that the Founding Fathers never intended guns to go unregulated, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer contended Sunday. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Breyer said history stands with the dissenters in the court's decision to overturn a Washington, D.C., handgun ban in the 2008 case "D.C. v. Heller." Breyer wrote the dissent and was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He said historians would side with him in the case because they have concluded that Founding Father James Madison was more...

STEVENS: 'I NEVER LEFT SANITY. SANITY LEFT ME'by Ann Coulter April 14, 2010 Two observations about retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens are about to become established fact by sheer repetition. The first -- that Stevens is the last Protestant on the court -- is not true in any meaningful sense. The second -- that Stevens didn't move left, the court moved right -- is madness. While it's true that there are no other Protestants on the court -- now composed of six Catholics and two Jews, making the Supreme Court only slightly less diverse than cable news...

Good Riddance! When Republicans appoint justices like John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court, it does lasting damage to the country. When Supreme Court Justices retire, there is usually some pious talk about their “service,” especially when it has been a long “service.” But the careers of all too many of these retiring jurists, including currently retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, have been an enormous disservice to this country. Justice Stevens was on the high court for 35 years — more’s the pity, or the disgrace. Justice Stevens voted to sustain racial quotas, created “rights” out of thin air for...

In the post-Nixon era, Gerald Ford may be forgiven for nominating the now-retiring John Paul Stevens, left, to theSupreme Court. But Eisenhower and the elder Bush had no such excuse for two other GOP disappointments, WilliamBrennan, middle, and David Souter.When Supreme Court Justices retire, there is usually some pious talk about their "service," especially when it has been a long "service." But the careers of all too many of these retiring jurists, including currently retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, have been an enormous disservice to this country. Justice Stevens was on the High Court for 35 years — more's the...

Putting Obamacare on TrialHealth reform will be at the center of the upcoming Supreme Court hearings.  The retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens means that in coming months we’ll have another hearing on a Supreme Court nominee. But it’s not likely to be the sort of hearing we got used to in the two decades after Edward Kennedy declared war on Robert Bork in 1987. Nomination fights in those years centered on the issue of abortion. Many Republicans hoped and most Democrats feared that Republican nominees would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Democrats launched ferocious and often unfair attacks...

Per Foxnews Alert

WASHINGTON—Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced Friday he will retire from the court this summer. Justice Stevens, 89 years old, said in a letter to the White House that he will step down when the high court takes its summer break. "Having concluded that it would be in the best interests of the court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the court's next term, I shall retire from regular active service as an associate justice...effective the next day after the court rises for the summer recess this year," Justice Stevens wrote.