Grundmann for Congress Releases Radio Commercial

Originally published at IPR

Don Grundmann. Image: Anthony Plascencia

The campaign for Dr. Don Grundmann (website) of the Constitution Party released a radio commercial informing voters about his 2020 candidacy for California’s 15th Congressional District in the March 3 open primary.

Supreme Court Decision Strikes at Anti-Free Speech Law

While recent media coverage of the Supreme Court’s conclusion of its 2013 term centered on the Hobby Lobby religious freedom decision, the most meaningful First Amendment case has received much less mention. Though underexposed, the rejection of Massachusetts’s restriction on abortion clinic protest in McCullen v. Coakley is perhaps this term’s single greatest contribution to the reaffirmation of freedom in the United States.

Whereas Hobby Lobby upheld the religious freedom of corporations in rejecting enforcement of a single Obamacare provision, the McCullen decision reestablished the right of every natural person to express actual views.

Jimmy Carter: Template for the Right?

Having left office 32 years ago, former President Jimmy Carter recently surpassed Herbert Hoover for the longest post-presidency. Like Hoover, a fellow victim of circumstance, Carter’s presidency was cut short by events largely beyond his control. This ushered in the Reagan era, in which Carter’s problems seemingly disappeared, partly a result of policy, but largely a result of luck.  Since then, the Right’s canonization of Reagan’s Peace Through Strength strategy served as foil to Carter’s pie-in-the-sky idealism. But today, as Carter celebrates his 89th birthday, the Right may see its new found embracement of civil libertarianism and peace, as more closely aligned with Carter separated from the false perception, than the reality of Reagan.

Internet Speech: Threat or Expression?

Just as reports surfaced of the U.S. government’s  increasing number of requests for personal information on Twitter, the San Antonio Express News revealed an ongoing Texas Department of Public Safety investigation of two people, relating to Twitter posts advocating the death penalty for the Governor of Texas among others.

The suspicious posts, shown below, were made in response to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s signing of a bill restricting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy to prevent fetal pain.