Cline on the Constitution

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 […]

June 3, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Federalism / Second Amendment

Who has the Power? Talk about your ironic twists of fate. We may soon see one national emergency clarify whether another national emergency is real. That’s important. In the name of public health, governors and mayors have claimed extraordinary powers over citizens and abrogated Constitutional rights due to the threat of the Covid virus. Our schools have been […]

The Power to Close and the Power to Re-open

May 17, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

This week’s segment of Cline on the Constitution discusses The Power to Close Down and Re-Open. I have watched with interest the developing debate over “reopening” American society. It is playing out at the federal, state and local levels. It seeks answers to exactly who has power under the Constitution as well as under a […]

Cline on the Constitution

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

Cline on the Constitution, Interfering with Religious Practices Over a hundred years ago, Justice Louis Brandeis said, “experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to […]

Cline on the Constitution

April 5, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

Self-Defense against the government? The nature of the Coronavirus has led every level of government; City, County, State and Federal; to take emergency action to mitigate the impact on society. And that includes intruding upon civil liberties. There is no longer enough room to list all the ways our freedom is being restrained. There are many. They […]

Quarantine.

March 20, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

Cline on the Constitution Coronavirus Quarantines With stunning speed our society, the most free in history, has had its meeting places shut down, its stores and products rationed, its children’s schools closed, its churches shuttered, its freedom of movement restricted and its population instructed (indeed ordered) to stay at home and off the public byways. Even […]

Cline on the Constitution

February 4, 2020 by philcline in Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Congress / Presidency

Cline on the Constitution, Impeachment Chronicles, Part Four As of this writing, Senators are availing themselves of the opportunity to take to the floor of the Senate to explain how they will vote regarding the impeachment of the President. And why. Their speeches at this point it is all about home district consumption. While District Attorney, […]

Impeachment Part Three

January 26, 2020 by philcline in Blog / Cline on the Constitution / Congress / Presidency

Cline on the Constitution – Impeachment Chronicles, Part Three – On to the Senate! Last week, members of the House of Representatives finally showed up in the Senate to pursue the Impeachment of President Trump. I followed the proceedings in the Senate, with an idea of picking out various constitutional issues to discuss. What the week […]

Lord Byron and Perfection

January 7, 2020 by philcline in Bill of Rights / Blog / Cline on the Constitution

Cline on the Constitution Lord Byron and Perfection So, what does Lord Gordon Byron have to do with the interpretation of the Constitution? Well, it’s a stretch. Let’s see if I can get there. Justice Antonin Scalia said, “The notion has somehow gained currency, . . . that if something is intensely bad, it must be […]

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