Andrew P. Napolitano
Articles by Andrew P. Napolitano
Less government brings a happy Thanksgiving
What if the government's true goal is to perpetuate its own power? What if the real levers of governmental power are pulled by agents, diplomats, bureaucrats, donors, central bankers and arms manufacturers? Published November 27, 2024
Biden’s lust for war: The Russia-Ukraine debacle
The war in Ukraine is an American war for which our government should be shamed and blamed. Published November 20, 2024
Guantanamo case continues to haunt: Will revenge be sought?
When can an Army colonel overrule the secretary of defense? It happened last week for probably the first time in modern history. Published November 13, 2024
What if voting is fruitless?
What if you were allowed to vote only because it didn't make a difference? What if no matter how you voted, the elites always got their way? Published November 6, 2024
Does it matter who is president? Not constitutionally
My family and friends are angry with me because I won't tell them for whom I plan to vote for president. Published October 30, 2024
War and the Constitution: Debating the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel
Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress fund any war it chooses? Are there constitutional and legal requirements that must be met before war is waged? Published October 23, 2024
No one in America should be afraid to express an opinion
When Rep. James Madison was drafting the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, he insisted that the most prominent amendment restrain the government from interfering with the freedom of speech. Published October 16, 2024
Stored Communications Act of 1986: Government compels silence again
When Congress enacted the Stored Communications Act of 1986, it said the statute would guarantee the privacy of digital data that service providers were retaining in storage. Published October 9, 2024
Pentagon’s reversal of Gitmo plea deal reveals long shadow of torture and constitutional evasion
The case of the Guantanamo plea agreement gets curiouser and curiouser. Published October 2, 2024
A brief history of free speech in America
We are at the cusp of dark days for free expression. The remedy is to exercise it. Published September 25, 2024
Political interference in criminal justice: From Supreme Court to Guantanamo Bay trials
When politics interferes with criminal prosecutions, it is always dangerous to human freedom and due process. Yet present-day America is replete with tawdry examples of this. Published September 18, 2024
Free speech and the Department of Political Justice
In 1966, two Russian literary dissidents, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, were tried and convicted on charges of disseminating propaganda against the Soviet state. Published September 11, 2024
Now the feds are spying on Congress
The federal antipathy to compliance with the Constitution is well known and well documented. Published September 4, 2024
Searching for monsters
In the middle of his term as secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, would would go on to become president, addressed a joint session of Congress. What prompted this unusual event? Published August 28, 2024
Americans’ right to be left alone
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy. Like other amendments in the Bill of Rights, it doesn't create the right; it limits government interference with it. Published August 21, 2024
FBI ‘visits’ former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter
Among the lesser-known holes in the Constitution cut by the Patriot Act of 2001 was the destruction of the "wall" between federal law enforcement and federal spies. Published August 14, 2024
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the problem of torture
In the months following the 9/11 attacks, the government blamed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for orchestrating them. Then, after it murdered bin Laden, the government decided that the true mastermind was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Published August 7, 2024
When presidents kill
Before he withdrew from the presidential race, President Biden secretly affirmed his self-willed and self-created authority to kill people in other countries. Published July 31, 2024
Our federal government exists on fake money, borrowed time
These are the times that try our souls because, at home, we have a government that spends $1.7 trillion a year more than it takes in, while abroad, it taunts Russian dictator Vladimir Putin by paying for a war in Ukraine. Published July 24, 2024
To the government, rights are merely privileges
The world is filled with self-evident truths -- truisms -- that philosophers, lawyers and judges know need not be proved. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Two plus two equals four. Published July 17, 2024