Free Republic

Bernard Siegan, a conservative legal scholar whose Reagan-era nomination to a federal appeals court was rejected after creating a political firestorm, has died. He was 81. Siegan died Monday of complications related to a stroke at a convalescent care facility in Encinitas, according to the University of San Diego, where he had taught more than 30 years. Appointed by President Reagan to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1987, Siegan was turned down the following year by a senate committee amid criticism from Democrats that his writings were outside the mainstream. Siegan was known for his views on...

As the statue of Saddam Hussein came crashing down, President Bush told the Iraqi people, “You deserve better than tyranny and corruption and torture chambers. You deserve to live as free people. And I assure every citizen of Iraq: your nation will soon be free.” Despite the promise of freedom, mobs of looters and religious extremists challenge public order in Iraqi cities and petty despots wait in the wings. Iraq faces the same difficulties that confronted Americans like Madison, Hamilton, and Washington two and a quarter centuries ago: forming a government strong enough to protect the lives, liberty, and property...