Bill of Rights – Phil Cline

Cline on the Constitution – Due Process

April 21, 2025 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Due Process

The President’s men (and President’s women) are engaged in rounding up and deporting criminal aliens. And from many corners of the nation there is an echo of the term “Due Process.” Though often referenced, there is seldom an attempt to explain what “Due Process” is. One is left with the impression, however, that the government mustn’t do […]

Cline on the Constitution-Abortion Rights in 2021, the Debate Continues

December 10, 2021 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Federalism / Privacy

The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in the Case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the State of Mississippi restricted access to abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This, at the same time the Court has so far declined to intervene in attempts to restrain the State of Texas from interfering with […]

Cline on the Constitution-Property Rights

November 10, 2021 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

The power of government at every level is wide, intrusive, and growing. In the last 18 months, cloaked in a doctrine of necessity justified by a pandemic, the expansion of governmental power over our lives has been unprecedented and unchallengeable. Should it be restrained? Can it be? Absent a wholesale turn-around in how government officialdom […]

Cline on the Constitution

May 2, 2021 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

The last few months I’ve been concentrating on completing a couple of outside writing projects I started some time ago. In the meantime, as always, significant developments have begun to emerge in the world of Constitutional law. Let’s start to catch up a little. Any comments or suggestions are, as always, welcome. Now on to today’s entry. […]

One-Man Rule

November 21, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

Cline on the Constitution – One Person Rule And so, this is how it happens. How we forget what it’s like to live in a democracy. We simply get used to it. We accept being told what to do, what rules we must follow. Not laws mind you, not legal codes introduced in a legislature, debated and voted […]

Wall of Separation

September 12, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Religion

Cline on the Constitution – It was not meant to be a Prison Wall A Four-Part Series on Religious Liberty My last post covered the origin of the phrase “Wall of Separation Between Church and State.” Although the language does not appear in the Constitution, the Supreme Court has sometimes used the metaphor to describe […]

Wall of Separation-Introduction

September 10, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Religion

Cline on the Constitution – It is not supposed to be a Prison Wall Introduction The Supreme Court this term issued decisions in three cases directly addressing religious liberty. A fourth presages a future case that may be a harbinger for the resolution of the growing conflict between religious freedom and gay rights. No discussion of […]

Use of Deadly Force

July 4, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

Cline on the Constitution-The Rules on the Use of Deadly Force by Police Officers. A fearful nation is in retreat. We are deep in the appeasement phase. History shows it is inevitably a mistake. Closing one’s eyes to looting, vandalism, tearing up traditions and tearing down sacred monuments doesn’t work. It doesn’t appease the Tyrant nor the mob. It emboldens, […]

Fear and Qualified Immunity

June 28, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Judiciary

Cline on the Constitution – Qualified Immunity and The Paralysis of Fear We are afraid. Americans, once a proud, robust, hearty people, sometimes stubborn, often stern, cower in fear. College professors are afraid to speak the truth; College Administrators are intimidated by students. It is rare the author, with the fortitude to call a man a […]

Self-Defense

June 13, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Criminal Justice

Cline on the Constitution – “Defunding” the Police and the Right to Self-Defense. Efforts to “defund” and dismantle police departments are not about reform, nor are they not about punishing individual police officers for wrongs, real or imagined. They are about weakening the social fabric of the nation, giving license to law breakers and ignoring […]

Category: Bill of Rights