03/21/14 Activity

Self-Incrimination:

Thirteenth century commentators found an analogue to the privilege grounded in the bible. "To sum up the matter, the principle that no man is to be declared guilty on his own admission is a divine decree." Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Code of Jewish Law), Book of Judges, Laws of the Sanhedrin 

Excessive Fines, Forfeiture:  The "guilty property" theory behind in rem forfeiture can be traced to the Bible, which describes property being sacrificed to God as a means of atoning for an offense. See Exodus 21:28. In medieval Europe and at common law, this concept evolved into the law of deodand, in which offending property was condemned and confiscated by the church or the Crown in remediation for the harm it had caused.

Federal Admiralty Jurisdiction:

It is especially unfortunate that this has occurred in admiralty, an area that once provided a jurisdictional rule almost as clear as the 9th and 10th verses of Genesis: "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas."

Indigent Medical Care:

Not unlike the admonition of the Bible that, "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country," Leviticus 24:22 (King James version), the right of interstate travel must be seen as insuring new residents the same right to vital government benefits and privileges in the states to which they migrate as are enjoyed by other residents.

Abortion:

In fact, if one prescinds the theological concept of ensoulment -- or one accepts St. Thomas Aquinas' view that ensoulment does not occur for at least 40 days -- a State has no greater secular interest in protecting the potential life of an embryo that is still "seed" than in protecting the potential life of a sperm or an unfertilized ovum.

Non-immigrant Visa for a Marxist:

That one should be excluded who taught that Jesus when he arose from the Sepulcher, went east (not up) and became a teacher at Hemis monastery in the Himalayas? I put the issue that bluntly because national security is not involved. Nor is the infiltration of saboteurs. The attorney general stands astride our international terminals that bring people here to bar those whose ideas are not acceptable to him. Even assuming, arguendo, that those on the outside seeking admission have no standing to complain, those who hope to benefit from the traveler's lectures do. Thought control is not within the competence of any branch of government.