Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Prisoner Reentry: A Limited Federal Government Role

To address the issue of offender recidivism, the federal government should operate reentry programs for offenders formally incarcerated in the federal correctional system. The federal government should not assume responsibility for funding the routine operations of state and local reentry programs. Evidence-based reentry programs should be implemented by the appropriate level of government. Congress needs to do more to ensure that the reentry programs it funds are rigorously evaluated.

Defunding ACORN: Necessary and Proper, and Certainly Constitutional

Barring ACORN from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional.

Defending Those Who Serve: Paying the Legal Costs of CIA Officers

CIA Director Leon Panetta's decision to use agency funds to pay for the legal defense of case officers targeted by President Obama and Attorney General Holder is not only legal under the CIA’s authorizing statute, but it is the correct position to take from a moral, public policy, and national security point of view.

Obama Court Nominee Looks to Extend More "Empathy"

All presidents aim to leave a legacy through the judges they appoint to lifetime seats on federal appeals courts. That's why senators should be especially concerned about David Hamilton, an Indiana judge nominated to fill a vacancy on the Seventh Circuit.

The Politics of (In)Justice

Obama's patronizing Civil Rights Division. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may not look like a political weapon. But in the hands of certain government lawyers, that's exactly what it has become.

Punting National Security to the Judiciary

The president won't release detainees; he'll sit back and let the courts to do it for him. In a stunning display of political cowardice, the Obama administration has decided not to seek specific congressional authorization for a prolonged detention statute for Guantanamo Bay detainees deemed too dangerous to set free.

Dust-Up: Torture and the CIA: Investigate White House higher-ups?

First, David, I need to address your claim from Wednesday, "Nothing in any of the reports released over the last several years ... demonstrates that unlawful interrogation techniques (such as waterboarding, the use of which Dick Cheney calls a 'no-brainer') have made us safe." Your debatable conclusion about the unlawfulness of the techniques aside, this statement is plainly false. Reports issued to date repeatedly note the success of the interrogation techniques at procuring intelligence that prevented attacks.

Obama should be 'decider' on CIA interrogators probe

When questioned about the possibility of prosecuting Bush administration officials, President Obama has repeatedly claimed that he wants to look forward, not backward. Yet his spokesman said Monday's decision by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to reopen the investigation of CIA interrogators was made solely by the attorney general.

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• A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, The Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent   12/03/2009
  
• Leading Evangelical Scholars Warn That Global Warming Alarmism Will Hurt The Poor   12/03/2009
  
• The Next Front: Southeast Asia and the Road to Global Peace with Islam   12/02/2009
  

• Health Care and Medical Malpractice Reform: The Necessity of Reform in the Current Debate
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• Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
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• Constitutional Politics in the Age of Justice Story
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• Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States
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• Order In The Court? Judicial Activism and Its Threat to the Rule of Law
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• Tort Reform in the States: Protecting Consumers and Enhancing Economic Growth
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• Adult Time for Adult Crimes: Exposing the Movement to Set Free Juvenile Killers and Violent Offenders
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• Hurting or Helping Consumers? Destroying Federal Preemption One Industry at a Time
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• Voting Rights - And Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections
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• Scholars & Scribes Review the Rulings: The Supreme Court's 2008-2009 Term
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