Judge Napolitano on what we face right now

two letters answers this question. N.O. Tom Woods explains

Egyptian Islamists are poised to emerge as the big winners in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, a complex electoral process that will be held in phases until March. The first round of voting, to fill one-third of the seats in the lower house of parliament, was held on November 28–29, with run-off votes held on December 5–6. Although the official results have not yet been released, early reports based on partial results indicate that the first round of elections was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which received about … More

The accounting methodology used to measure the cost to taxpayers of federal loan guarantee programs such as the one that financed defunct solar company Solyndra may dramatically understate the programs’ financial risk to taxpayers. Simply put, the federal government ignores administrative costs and the risks of borrowers defaulting on their obligations. Under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, the cost of federal financing is measured according to a discounted rate based on the cost of lending Treasury securities. That includes the cost of average losses from loan defaults, but … More

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a well-meaning law that is hopelessly overbroad. It starts from an unobjectionable premise—there ought to be a law that makes it a crime to hack into someone else’s computer without their permission—but it has gone off the rails. The policy prescriptions to fix it offered by the trio of Senators Chuck Grassley (R–IA), Al Franken (D–MN), and Mike Lee (R–UT) are far superior to the competing effort being advanced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D–VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The problem … More

Judge Andrew Napolitano: “A self-written search warrant, even one called a national security letter, is the ultimate constitutional farce.”

Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, eight Republican presidential candidates will take the stage at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., to tell America where they stand on foreign policy and national security in a special debate hosted by The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, broadcast on CNN and moderated by Wolf Blitzer. The debate marks the first time that either Heritage or AEI — both nonprofit, nonpartisan research institutes — has sponsored a presidential debate. Businessman Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Speaker … More

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is home following an informal and indefinite recall. The Obama Administration cited concern for Ford’s personal safety as the basis for this decision. A more likely explanation, however, is the failure of the Administration’s policy of “engagement” with Bashar al-Assad’s repressive autocratic regime. Assad’s unremitting violence caused the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership earlier this week, as the country continues its slide toward civil war. The fact of the matter is, no U.S. ambassador should have been in Damascus in the first place—for … More

Last Thursday marked the closing of the 38th Baghdad International Trade Fair, an annual event intended to showcase international corporations to Iraqis and Iraqi corporations to the world. This year’s installment, lasting 10 days and drawing more than 1 million visitors, was made all the more special by the fact that the U.S. participated for the first time in 20 years. Coming on the heels of President Obama’s announcement of a total U.S. troop pullout by the end of the year, U.S. participation at the Trade Fair is sending mixed … More

Judge Napolitano: “The whole purpose of the Constitution was to keep the government off the people’s backs”