The takings clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution places a limit (just compensation) on an implied power (eminent domain) that is not listed in Article I, Section 8. Thus, James Madison was less than candid when he said the national government’s powers were “few and defined.” A constitution containing “powers by implication” (another Madisonian phrase) cannot be a constitution of few powers. (See my America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited.)
Emily Feng’s Seditious Material and the new West’s love of censorship
Hong Kong police have recently arrested book sellers for having copies of Emily Feng’s, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom. Freelance journalists and three others have been arrested related to the book and for the act of selling, “seditious material.” Emily Feng has been...