John Whitehead
When Worship Makes You a Target: ICE Raids in Churches Pose Significant Threat to First Amendment & Religious Liberty
RICHMOND, Va — The Rutherford Institute is calling out the double standard inherent in the government’s willingness to prosecute political protesters for disrupting worship services while allowing ICE agents broad discretion to disrupt those same services by carrying…
Fool’s Gold: The Art of the Steal & the Privatization of the Presidency
“Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself… President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his…
Supreme Court Rules President Cannot Tax by Decree, Strikes Down Use of ‘Emergency’ Powers to Impose Billions in Stealth Tariff Taxes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a major rebuke of presidential power, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that President Trump cannot impose billions of dollars in tariffs on the American people by declaring a national emergency. At stake was…
Protecting Sex Predators: The Sordid Reality Of The Global Power Elite
“When did pedophilia become a partisan issue? The American people deserve to know the whole truth about Jeffrey Epstein and every single powerful person who enabled him. Every name, every flight log, every cover up, all of it ……
Defending the Constitution Is Not a Crime: Twin Rulings Block Trump Administration Retaliation Against Veteran Lawmakers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two back-to-back rulings have rebuffed efforts by the Trump administration to retaliate against military veterans for exercising their First Amendment rights and reaffirming that military service members’ oath is to the Constitution. A federal grand…
The Politics Of Hate: Weaponized Discord Is the Deep State’s Most Effective Tool
“Love your enemies.”— Jesus Christ “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”—President Trump “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend… Love has within it a redemptive power…and this…
Constitutional Attorneys Calls on Supreme Court to Rein In Digital Fishing Expeditions, Prohibit Police Use of Geofence Warrants as Mass Surveillance Dragnets
WASHINGTON, DC — If you carried a cell phone past the wrong street corner at the wrong moment, police could already have your movements, your digital trail, and your identity—without ever suspecting you of a crime. That is…
Locked Down – Rounded Up – Warehoused: The Rise Of America’s Concentration Camps
“No doubt concentration camps were a means, a menace used to keep order.”—Albert Speer, Nuremberg Trials In 2021, amid a global pandemic, warnings that the federal government might repurpose warehouses into detention facilities on American soil were dismissed…
Judge, Jury, Executioner: When the Government Decides Who Lives or Dies
“How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?”—Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind” What does it say about a political movement that demands absolute reverence for life in the womb…
U.S. Supreme Court Opens Courthouse Doors for Political Candidates—But Not for Everyday Americans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a decision that makes it easier for political candidates to challenge election-related harms while leaving ordinary Americans without similar recourse, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that candidates may challenge state laws governing the counting…
One Year After Federal Courts Opened the Door to Warrantless Home Invasions, ICE Claims Power to Enter Homes Without Judicial Warrants
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One year after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to protect homeowners from warrantless searches by police based merely on a suspicion that a person on probation or parole resides on the premises, agents with Immigration…
Nullify The Police State: The People’s Veto To Rein in a Lawless Government
“The people have the power… We are the government.”—John Lennon We are living through a period of open lawlessness at the highest levels of government. Executive orders are issued to sidestep Congress. Federal law enforcement is deployed as a tool of…
This Is What Tyranny Looks Like Now: No Crowns. No Coups. Just Unchecked Power.
NYT: “Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage? Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?” President Trump: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the…
Constitutional Attorney Sounds Alarm Over Trump Administration Efforts To Retaliate Against Veterans For Defending The Constitution
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As an organization that has long defended the First Amendment rights of veterans and active-duty service members, The Rutherford Institute is raising serious concerns about attempts by the federal government to intimidate or punish military…
Stop the Steal: Projection, Retaliation, & the Theft of Our Republic
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots… His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretences. He is willing to embrace any issue, however…
2025 Annual Report: Protecting Liberty in a Year of Unchecked Government Power
The Rutherford Institute’s 2025 Annual Report documents a year in which constitutional freedoms faced some of the greatest assaults in modern American history. In 2025, the federal government expanded executive power, deployed the National Guard into civilian communities,…
2025: The Year The Government Stopped Pretending It Cared About Freedom
Some years chip away at freedom. Others tear the mask off. 2025 was the year the government stopped pretending it was constrained by the Constitution—when executive power expanded openly and unapologetically, surveillance became ambient, dissent became dangerous, and…
