Constitutional & Legal Educational News
The press pass privileges of CNN’s Jim Acosta were revoked following an encounter with a White House intern during a presidential press conference. The intern had attempted to take away a microphone from Acosta when the President had recognized another reporter for a question. Acosta resisted the intern’s efforts. There is video of the event […]
The Constitution’s Bill of Rights contains many procedural protections for those the government accuses of having committed a crime. Among them is the Sixth Amendment right to a “public trial”. The provision is stated: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a… public trial” The concept of a public trial is ancient, but it did […]
“Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than by catastrophic upheavals such as violence or war.” –James Madison. A cut was sliced into the First Amendment‘s Free Speech protections on February 27, 2014 by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court upheld a California high school’s decision to […]
On August 3, 2011 the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service jointly issued what has become known as the contraception mandate. This required all employer health plans, including religiously based hospitals, schools, charities and private employers, to offer: “…all Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and […]
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses five rights. The limits on government interference with religion, speech and the press were the result of the uniquely American experience. The right to peaceable assembly was a needed protection to exercise the first three. The First Amendment’s fifth right will come as a surprise to […]
The Constitution’s First Amendment contains limits on government interference with very well known unalienable rights: religion, speech and press. The Amendment specifically restricts government interference with an activity necessary to exercise the first three named rights: the need for people to gather to practice religion, to talk about issues and to distribute information. The right […]
Like Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, in the United States the concept of Freedom of the Press as it developed has been uniquely American. Along with free speech for the general population, it is surely the source of what has become known as American Exceptionalism. American Exceptionalism Alexis de Tocqueville originally referred to […]
The US Constitution’s first ten amendments are called The Bill of Rights. The First Amendment limits the authority of government to enact laws impinging upon the natural rights of the people to practice religion, engage in speech, publish their ideas and assemble together to petition their government. Freedom of religion is the first named freedom. The second named […]
Freedom of Religion is the first of our natural rights acknowledged in the First Amendment and limits government’s power to establish an official religion or interfere with a citizen’s exercise of religion. This is a recognition of freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are referred to […]
The US Constitution grants enumerated powers to the central government. The drafters believed enumerating the powers limited the government. This was the argument Federalists made based upon an accepted rule for interpreting legal documents: Expressio unius est exclusio alterius (“the express mention of one thing excludes all others”). With that principle in mind, the government could not […]
David Shestokas is an attorney licensed in IL and FL and author of Constitutional Sound Bites .
He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Bradley University and J.D. from The John Marshall Law School, cum laude, while serving on the The John Marshall Law Review. He studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
For Spanish speakers he and Dr. Berta Isabel Arias offer a Spanish language translation of Constitutional Sound Bites: Cápsulas Informativas Constitucionales .
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Cápsulas Informativas Constitucionales follows the tradition of informing citizens about the country’s founding documents in their native languages. In 1787, one third of Pennsylvania’s residents were German speakers. Accordingly, of the 4500 copies of the proposed Constitution that legislature ordered, 1500 were in German. Everyone understands important ideas best in their native language, and Cápsulas Informativas Constitucionales recognizes the importance of making available America's First Principles to 36,000,000 Americans.
