Andrew P. Napolitano

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Spying does not mean security

In their continuous efforts to create the impression that the government is doing something to keep Americans safe, politicians in Washington have misled and lied to the public. They have violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. They have created a false sense of security. And they have dispatched and re-dispatched 60,000 federal agents to intercept the telephone calls, text messages and emails of all Americans all the time. Published June 3, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Let Patriot Act expire, save the Fourth Amendment

The Patriot Act has a bad pedigree and an evil history. In the fearful days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Justice quickly sent draft legislation to Congress that, if enacted, would have permitted federal agents to violate their oaths to uphold the Constitution by writing their own search warrants. The draft subsequently was revealed to have been written before Sept. 11, but that's another story. Published May 27, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: What if we didn’t have a Constitution?

What if we didn't have a Constitution? What if the government were elected by custom and tradition, but not by law? What if election procedures and official titles and government responsibilities merely followed those that preceded them, and not because any of this was compelled by law, but because that's what folks came to expect? Published May 20, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Rand Paul and Ted Cruz on the Patriot Act

A decision last week about National Security Agency spying by a panel of judges on the United States Court of Appeals in New York City sent shock waves through the government. The court ruled that a section of the Patriot Act that is due to expire at the end of this month and on which the government has relied as a basis for its bulk acquisition of telephone data during the past 14 years does not authorize that acquisition. Published May 13, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Repeal of the Patriot Act would restore the Fourth Amendment

If you plan to visit a college campus this month, don't be surprised if you see signs and placards encouraging you to "Restore the Fourth." It is not about an athletic event or a holiday; it is about human freedom. The reference to "the Fourth" is to the Fourth Amendment, and it is badly in need of restoration. Published May 6, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Tyranny of Obama’s drone killings

Thomas Cromwell was the principal behind-the-scenes fixer for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the interrogations, convictions and executions of many whom Henry needed out of the way, including his two predecessors as fixer and even the king's second wife, Queen Anne. Published April 29, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: FBI diverts public attention from wiretap violations, false testimony

Does the FBI manifest fidelity, bravery and integrity, or does it cut constitutional corners in order to incriminate? Can the FBI cut the cable television lines to your house and then show up pretending to be the cable guy and install listening devices? Can FBI agents and technicians testify falsely and cause the innocent to be convicted, incarcerated and, in some cases, executed? Published April 22, 2015

ANDERW NAPOLITANO: Can the president kill Americans? Yes, but not legally

Can the president kill you? The short answer is: yes, but not legally. Yet, President Obama has established a secret process that involves officials from the departments of Justice and Defense, the CIA, and the White House senior staff whereby candidates are proposed for execution, and the collective wisdom of the officials then recommends execution to the president, who then accepts or rejects the recommendation. Published April 15, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Indiana religious law solved nonexistent problem

The turmoil over the efforts by the state of Indiana to make lawful the decisions by operators of public accommodations to decline their services based on their stated religious views has died down. The legislature amended the offending parts of its legislation so that the new law prohibits denying services based on sexual orientation, yet its affirmations of religious liberty are meaningless. Published April 8, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Indiana’s religious freedom act sets back the clock

The Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2015 is constitutionally infirm and legally troublesome. Published April 1, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Amending the Constitution by wink and nod

Here is a short pop quiz. Published March 25, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Is Hillary Clinton above the law?

What if Hillary Clinton's emails were hacked by foreign agents when she was the secretary of state? What if persons claiming to have done so are boasting about their alleged feats on Internet websites and in chat rooms traditionally associated with illegal or undercover activities? What if this is the sore underbelly of an arrogant and lawless secretary of state who used her power to exempt herself from laws that govern executive branch employees and didn't care about national security? Published March 18, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Do Hillary and Bill Clinton get special treatment from Obama?

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator from New York and secretary of state, used a private email server for all of her emails when she was President Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Published March 11, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Obama ignores constitutional limits of presidential power

Can the president rewrite federal laws? Can he alter their meaning? Can he change their effect? These are legitimate questions in an era in which we have an unpopular progressive Democratic president who has boasted that he can govern without Congress by using his phone and his pen, and a mostly newly elected, largely conservative Republican Congress with its own ideas about big government. Published March 4, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Obama all violated Fourth Amendment

What if the current massive spying on Americans began with an innocent secret executive order signed by President Reagan in 1986? What if Reagan contemplated that he was only authorizing American spies to spy on foreign spies unlawfully present in the United States? Published February 25, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Farewell to Jon Stewart, a singular comedic genius

About six years ago, one of my producers at the Fox News Channel received a call out of the blue in which the caller asked if I'd be interested in coming on "The Colbert Report." At the time, I was generally unfamiliar with the genre of late-night comedy because I am usually in dreamland when it airs. Published February 18, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: George W. Bush, Obama trampled Fourth Amendment

President George W. Bush was fond of saying that "9/11 changed everything." He used that one-liner often as a purported moral basis to justify the radical restructuring of federal law and the federal assault on personal liberties over which he presided. He cast aside his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution; he rejected his oath to enforce all federal laws faithfully; and he moved the government decidedly in the direction of secret laws, secret procedures and secret courts. Published February 11, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie unwittingly ignited a firestorm earlier this week when he responded to a reporter's question in Great Britain about forced vaccinations of children in New Jersey by suggesting that the law in the United States needs to balance the rights of parents against the government's duty to maintain standards of public health. Published February 4, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Torturing terror suspects leads to little justice

Ali Saleh al-Marri is a convicted conspirator who entered the United States before Sept. 11, 2001, in order to create a dreaded sleeper cell here that might someday launch an attack on Americans similar to what we witnessed earlier this month in Paris. When the feds woke from their slumber on Sept. 11, they wisely began to search immigration records for persons who came here with no discernible purpose from places known to spawn terrorist groups and who had overstayed their visas. Al-Marri was one such person. Published January 28, 2015

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Government steals Americans’ freedoms with NSA snooping

While the Western world was watching and grieving over the slaughter in Paris last week, and my colleagues in the media were fomenting a meaningless debate about whether President Obama should have gone to Paris to participate in a televised parade, the feds took advantage of that diversion to reveal even more incursions into our liberties than we had known about. Published January 21, 2015