Topic: Bill of Rights

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Why George Zimmerman should not be 'crucified' for killing Trayvon Martin

Passionate citizens and leaders have no right to declare neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. Due process in the legal system determines that guilt or innocence. Equating justice with imprisoning Zimmerman or firing officials is premature.
Rights at Risk

Are Americans in the process of abandoning their rights?
White House releases 'privacy bill of rights': what it promises online consumers

While falling short of law, the consumer 'privacy bill of rights' would give consumers 'new legal and technical tools to safeguard their privacy,' according to the White House.
A Slave in the White House

Historian Elizabeth Dowling Taylor tells the unsettling story of a Founding Father and his slave.
Four ways to relieve overcrowded prisons

Finally, America is beginning to tackle overcrowded prisons, prompted by financially strapped states that can no longer afford them. The road to prison reform, and less crowding, includes revamping 'three strikes' laws, as in California, and limiting pre-trial detention.
Tea Party Tally
Where did the tea party go? Into the trenches

National polls show tea party support withering among some Americans, but don't count the 'taxed enough already' crowd out just yet. They are crafting a from-the-ground-up strategy for 2012.
Change Agent
Ai-jen Poo organizes labor with love

She battles for those on the economy's bottom rung – nannies and housekeepers.
The Circle Bastiat
Social justice is not necessarily justice

Social justice is not universal justice, because it requires that rights be given to one person ant the expense of another
Anti-bullying scorecard: Trial set in Rutgers case; N.J. law takes effect

Hate-crime trial is Feb. 21 for former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi, in cyberspying case involving a gay roommate. Meanwhile, New Jersey schools work to put in place anti-bullying provisions of tough new law.
China's political system is more flexible than US democracy

Many people believe the Western democracy is superior to a one-party system because the rotation of political power gives government the flexibility to make needed policy changes. But China’s one-party system has proven over time to be remarkably adaptable to changing times.
The Supreme Court and the 'ministerial exception'

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court hears the case of a Christian schoolteacher fired in a dispute over a disability and church doctrine. The justices should be careful about allowing government to judge a faith's teachings when it is charged with discrimination.
BART puts social media crackdown in 'uncharted' legal territory

The decision by BART officials to cut cellphone service Thursday – denying train-riding protesters access to social media – raises deep legal questions, analysts say.
Vox News
Glenn Beck ends his run with Fox News. What's next?

Glenn Beck has departed the Fox News roster: his final show for Fox aired Thursday night. Next up for the political commentator: a three-sided chalkboard and a line of clothes.
Letters to the Editor – Weekly Issue of June 13, 2011

Readers write in on the Monitor's Future Focus issue covering the rise of the global middle class.
Alleged 'WikiLeaker' Bradley Manning sent to less restrictive prison

Under pressure from human rights groups, the Defense Department moved Bradley Manning, charged with giving classified documents to WikiLeaks, to the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas.
New Internet privacy bill: How would it protect consumers?

Legislation proposed Tuesday would require companies to notify users before data is collected and allow users to change the collected data or opt-out entirely.
U.S. citizenship test: Why Americans can't name the original 17 colonies

U.S. citizenship test: Some 450 years after America's founding, is civic ignorance at an all-time high? A Newsweek poll of US citizens from all 57 states reveals how misinformed we really are.
Battle over health-care reform: vital lessons from America's founding fathers

Despite the ongoing attempts of House Republicans to kill President Obama's health-care reform law, the history of America's intense debate over ratifying the Constitution should make us optimistic about the law being accepted, improved, and implemented.
How can Obama save our economy and our democracy? Humanities education

President Obama called the push to revamp our math and science education this generation's 'Sputnik moment.' But how many Americans even know what Sputnik is? Studies show US students don't know their own history. That's what the president should really be concerned about.
Why most Americans are both liberal and conservative

Ideologically, we favor small government. But practically, we defend big-government programs.
Backchannels
The US response to Egypt's protests

'Not much' probably sums it up best.
Do you have a 'right' to a job, home, or health care?

No. In the Founders' vision, government's sole legitimate purpose is to protect our God-given, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. Yet under the influence of progressive and socialist ideas, Americans now often claim a 'right' to have certain benefits provided by others.
When the Supreme Court takes up the Obama health-care law 'mandate'

Justice Kennedy will probably be the swing vote on a case concerning the individual mandate. Here is what he may well say against this linchpin of the Obama health-care law.
Chapter & Verse
Throwing the book at Obama – literally

Obama had a book thrown at him during this past weekend's rally in Philadelphia.
Free speech: Some First Amendment landmarks

The First Amendment right to free speech is the most widely understood US constitutional provision.