When James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the Founders devised our system of representative democracy, they envisioned a system where persons—okay, men—of temperance, substance and education would hold public office.     They clearly did not envision Representative Virgil Goode.   There has been quite a reaction to Representative Goode’s letter [...]

John Hostettler, the always entertaining Congressman from Indiana’s Eighth District, is again promoting legislation to repeal what he calls a “loophole” in the law. That “loophole” allows recovery of reasonable legal fees by people who successfully sue government for violating their religious liberties. Hostettler calls his bill “anti-ACLU” legislation—as though the First Amendment and the [...]

In the mid-1990s, the National Constitution Center surveyed national attitudes and beliefs about the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They concluded that Americans “revere” the Constitution—and have virtually no idea what’s in it.    I frequently find myself thinking about that study, because it goes a long way toward explaining why many of our public [...]

Sometimes, in their zeal to ensure that gays remain second-class citizens, legislators produce proposals so breathtakingly wacko that you have to wonder whether you have wandered into an alternate universe.   Such a proposal has been offered—presumably, with a straight face—by Indiana State Senator Pat Miller, the author and sponsor of a measure entitled (and [...]

In a free country, who gets to decide what religion is?