«What we've lost in the Clinton~Bush years»

CONSTITUTIONAL CHAOS (2004)
by Judge Andrew Napolitano

Andrew Napolitano wasn't always an advocate of limited government. As a young man, he supported Nixon-style "law and order" government in order to reduce crime and take the bad guys off the street. He became a judge in the state of New Jersey and saw case after case of people who had been arrested with minimal evidence, but he still gave law enforcement the benefit of the doubt. What led to his rethinking of the way the law should work was when a personal friend of his - a police officer - lied under oath in his court room. He saw that some policemen weren't above planting evidence in a suspect's car. This isn't the case with all cops of course, and truth be told the ones who lie make it harder for the good cops. For these reasons, Andrew Napolitano became an outspoken proponent of the true rule of law... for citizens as well as the government.

It bothers me when a book will bash Bush's tyrannical actions and then make excuses for the Clinton administration (and vice versa). This book isn't like that. Napolitano blasts the Justice Departments of both Janet Reno and John Ashcroft. The way things are going, we are likely to lose more and more rights with each successive administration unless we educate one another on how the law is supposed to work. Napolitano explains several dangerous precedents in this book, notably:

-eminent domain abuse and the legal twisting of the "takings clause".

-the incredible story of how the FBI let crazy liar Emad Salem swindle them.

-journalists who have been punished for publishing information relevant to court cases.

-Reno's greatest hits: the Waco siege & the Elian Gonzalez kidnapping.

-Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer whose legal defense of the "Portland Six" led to his becoming a terrorist suspect by the FBI.

-closed hearings in immigration trials and the disappearance of individuals in "special interest cases" (!)

-Yasir Hamdi and Jose Padilla and the creation of the term "enemy combatant" and the weakening of habeas corpus.

This book is awesome. Napolitano offers a perspective from somebody who has had to make legal decisions and he doesn't pull punches. This is the closest thing you are going to get to a crash course in what we've lost in the past 15 years or so. I would recommend this book to anybody who values their rights as a citizen of the United States!

"Unless you work for it, sell to it,
or receive financial assistance from it,
the government is not your friend".
~pg. 129

[Sunday, October 05, 2008]

«Awesome!»

I loved this book. It is a wake up call to all who love freedom!

[Thursday, September 18, 2008]

«Constitutional Chaos: Good book and entertaining read.»

Good book and worth a read. It's pretty obvious that the Judge has some Libertarian in him.

[Saturday, August 30, 2008]

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