The New Individualist, June, 2005

EDITOR’S DESK       
 
In This Issue by Edward L. Hudgins
 
IDEAS AND ISSUES 
 
Elementary Lessons in Property Rights by Edward L. Hudgins
In 1761, James Otis declared: “A man's home is his castle.” John Adams called it the beginning of the American Revolution. What, then, shall we make of the Supreme Court’s Kelo v. City of New London ruling, which allows governments to take private homes for other private uses?
 
FEATURE ARTICLES 
 
The Next Chief Justice by David N. Mayer
In nominating successors to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and, eventually, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President George W. Bush will have the opportunity to help fulfill his oath of office: to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Ironically, what today the Constitution needs most to be protected from is the very institution that most Americans trust to defend it: the U.S. Supreme Court. 
  
 
Reefer Madness Meets Wickard v. Filburn  by David N. Mayer
Although the recent medical marijuana case may seem to involve issues of personal liberty, it really involved a question about federal power—the scope of Congress’s power under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The six-justice majority decided, in effect, that Congress’s powers under this clause were almost limitless.
 
 
PERSPECTIVES 
 
Mad Hot Ballroom by David Kelley
For a school system with bloated costs and poor achievement, political correctness in the classrooms and violence in the halls, dance instruction may seem a distraction from teaching core skills and knowledge. But if Mad Hot Ballroom is anything to go by, that judgment would be false.
 
SOUNDINGS