John Whitehead

Supreme Court Allows Police to Use Warrantless Real-Time Cell Phone Data to Sweep Americans Into Digital Data Dragnet

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling that allows police to warrantlessly track people’s location and movements through their personal cell phones, despite longstanding Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions against warrantless searches and seizures…

The Illusion of Freedom: We’re Only as Free as the Government Allows

“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year…

Tennessee Bill Criminalizes Homelessness, Puts Citizens at Risk of Jail Time, Police Searches & $3,000 Fine for Sleeping Outside

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A bill passed by the Tennessee legislature to deter homelessness could put all citizens at risk of jail, police searches and a $3,000 fine for sleeping or camping outside in a public place. The bill…

Jackboots Policing: No-Knock Raids Rip a Hole in the Fourth Amendment

“We’re all potential victims.”—Peter Christ, retired police officer It’s the middle of the night. Your neighborhood is in darkness. Your household is asleep. Suddenly, you’re awakened by a loud noise. Someone or an army of someones has crashed…

‘We the People’ Are the New, Permanent Underclass in America

“We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.”—Herbert Hoover This is financial tyranny. The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money…

A Vicious Cycle in Blue: Police Violence Kills Three People a Day

“If you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.”—Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department Police violence has not lessened. Police shootings have…

The Right to Political Expression Under Fire: Protesters Fined $3000 Under Florida City’s Ban on ‘Indecent’ Political Speech

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — The Rutherford Institute is challenging a Florida city’s ordinance which resulted in two protesters being fined $3000 for displaying political messages stating “F—k Biden,” “F—k Trump,” and “F—k Policing 4 Profit” in violation of…

Humilitainment: How to Control the Citizenry Through Reality TV Distractions

“Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours…. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a…

The Right to Be Let Alone in the Face of the Government’s Power Grabs

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Coinciding with the second anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak, The Rutherford Institute has issued an in-depth, follow-up report on the impact of the nation’s response to the pandemic on civil liberties. The 2022 report, “The…

The Future Is Here: Dystopian Movies Fit for a Dystopian World

“The Internet is watching us now. If they want to. They can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is,…

Death Row Inmate Asks for Firing Squad, Calls on Supreme Court to Allow for Alternative Method of Execution Under Eighth Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a death row inmate’s request for an alternative, less painful, method of execution. Pointing out that a medical condition could result in significant pain as a result…

Digital Tyranny: Beware of the Government’s Push for a Digital Currency

“The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.”—Thomas Paine The government wants your money. It will beg, steal or borrow if necessary, but it wants your money any way it can get it.…

The Rise of Global Fascism and the End of the World as We Know It

“This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.” — “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot Barely three years into the 2020s, and we seem to be living out the prophesies of the Book…

Where Does Free Speech End & Government Censorship Begin on the Football Field? School Bans Coach From Silently Praying After Games

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Do football coaches have a First Amendment right to kneel and offer up a personal, silent prayer on the field after a football game or practice? More than a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court refused…

The State of Our Nation: Things Are Getting Worse, Not Better

“Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the…

Supreme Court Sees Nothing Wrong with Prolonged, Warrantless Spying of One’s Home by Police Using Hidden Cameras

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to stop police from using hidden cameras to secretly and warrantlessly record and monitor a person’s activities outside their home over an extended period of time. In refusing to…

Perpetual Tyranny: Endless Wars Are the Enemy of Freedom

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known…