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The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, had “no legal basis,” according to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by former White House and Department of Justice lawyers David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey.In their op-ed, Rivkin and Casey argue that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 allowed Trump to have the records allegedly in his possession, and that the general statutes cited in the search warrant — such as the Espionage Act — do not override it.They note:The warrant authorized the FBI to seize “all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband,...

ObamaCare is being implemented, having been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in June in a series of cases now known as National Federation of Independent Business v. HHS. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that the court took a law that was flawed but potentially workable and transformed it into one that is almost certainly unworkable. More important, the justices also may have created new and fatal constitutional problems. ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, was conceived as a complex statutory scheme designed to provide Americans with near-universal health-care coverage and to effectively federalize the nation's health-care system....

While the Israeli political scene is no stranger to strident criticisms directed at senior government officials and their policies, the recent attacks on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak over their policies toward Iran are a dangerous luxury. Numerous retired security officials who do not lack a private voice or influence within a small nation. including former Shin Bet head, Yuval Diskin, ex- Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, and Former IDF Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, have launched broadsides against the current Israeli government’s dire assessments of the Iranian threat and the best ways of dealing with...

On March 28, 2012, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Fla. v. Dept. of Health and Human Services and Nat'l Fed. of Ind. Business v. Sebelius, two of the three cases before the Court involving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, sometimes referred to as Obamacare or the Healthcare Act. Both cases raise the question whether, if the individual mandate requiring Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty is deemed unconstitutional, the remainder of the Healthcare Act still survives. This is commonly referred to as a question of severability. Both cases further raise the...

"Severability again is something you deal with after you win on a major provision like the individual mandate and the question is that does the rest of the statue come down or is it only the individual mandate?" - David Rivkin Listen to the radio interview on YouTube: http://youtu.be/R32u8f3o-FY

“Organized labor” brings to mind railroads, factories, and government offices, but the labor movement’s biggest recent gains have been in the home. Led by SEIU, unions and their political allies have pushed through executive orders and legislation in a dozen states to “organize” home-care workers, such as personal assistants and sitters, by deeming them state employees for collective-bargaining purposes alone. California was the trailblazer in this campaign, with SEIU first trying to convince the state courts to designate Los Angeles County home-care workers as county employees. Having lost the battle in the courtroom, SEIU commenced lobbying the California legislature to...

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Darrell Issa (R-CA) is set to begin a hearing on the morning of February 1 on President Obama's recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). During the hearing, titled "Uncharted Territory: What are the Consequences of President Obama's Unprecedented 'Recess' Appointments?", constitutional attorney David Rivkin will assert that the appointments are unconstitutional.

David Rivkin, the lawyer who designed and argued the successful multi-state challenge to ObamaCare, is turning his guns on the latest and possibly the most egregious unconstitutional power grab by the Obama administration. Watch Rivkin in action on Lou Dobbs. David Rivkin will be interviewed on Lou Dobbs Tonight on the Fox Business Network Friday, January 13 (7 to 8 p.m. EST) regarding a recent article he co-authored for The Washington Post about President Barack Obama’s claims that he can preempt state law whenever immigration policy “might irritate a foreign government.

They are not what democracy looks like and are looking less and less like a serious protest movement. Nevertheless, much can be learned from the Occupy Wall Street crowd's protracted seizure of New York's private Zuccotti Park, similar unlawful tactics around the country and the much delayed official response. The most important lesson is that when government fails to do its duty in a timely manner, ordinary citizens must consider using existing laws to protect themselves from unruly Occupiers. The park protesters have been camping out in the urban environment, unsuitable for such activities. They have created sanitary problems and...

"'Sort of a knee jerk reflex to say, ‘lets go to international institutions’ when an American criminal justice system and American military justice system is perfectly capable of rendering justice, very nicely thank you, to me makes no sense.'" - David Rivkin on bin Laden & international crimes.

Last week, Congressional Republicans and Vice President Joe Biden came to an impasse over the debt crisis. House Majority Leader Eric Canter (R-VA) announced that he was pulling out of the negotiations over deficit-reduction because he refused to countenance tax increases. Senator Jon Kyl walked out the door with him. “We’ve reached the point where the dynamic needs to change,” Cantor said. “It is up to the president to come in and talk to the speaker. We’ve reached the end of this phase.” Biden tried to play it as a victory, even though it was a clear defeat. “As all...

David Rivkin, the attorney representing the State of Florida in "Florida vs. HHS" explains the arguments against Obamacare.

On Feb. 18, a federal judge in South Carolina on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by an American citizen who said he was illegally detained and tortured in a military jail after being convicted of terrorism conspiracy.

Over ONE MILLION copies sold! On the NYTimes Bestseller List for 19 weeks, 12 weeks at #1!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Liberal host Ed Schultz tried to paint the entire Republican argument as “political posturing” and challenged Rivkin, saying he was pitting his credibility against the word of Brennan. But Rivkin remained adamant that officials would not have simply assumed Miranda rights were being given automatically. Rivkin also pointed out that there should be less blame cast by both sides and more attention to the underlying failures in common sense procedure. “We’re talking about somebody who is interrogated for 50 minutes, that interrogation was interrupted and he is Mirandized. I don’t know of any serious interrogator who does not believe that...

Abdullah Ocalan isn't exactly a household name in America. But he's more notorious even than Osama bin Laden in Turkey, where his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waged a terrorist and guerrilla war that cost an estimated 37,000 lives. Last week, incredibly, the European Court of Human Rights ordered that he be given a new trial. For Americans, this verdict should serve as yet another warning about the dangers of joining permanent multilateral legal institutions such as the International Criminal Court. ICC backers claim that the court can be trusted to exercise its authority with prudence and discretion. But the Ocalan...

The three ambassadors who died violent deaths were Cleo Noel Jr.,killed in March 1973 when Palestinian terrorists struck an embassy in Sudan; Adolph Dubs, killed in 1973 when Afghan police stormed a hotel room where he was being held by terrorists; and Arnold Raphel, who died in 1988 when a plane crashed. Receiving waivers as longtime diplomats with military service were William Rivkin and Philip Crowe. Rivkin, who died in 1967, served as ambassador to Senegal, Gambia and Luxembourg and spent five years of in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Crowe, who...