‘Fiddle man’ sues trooper, 2 prosecutors for oppression day before trial

Stella Hargrove, circuit court judge, insists Arthur Jay Hirsch face trial in her court Tuesday on abusive criminal charges A man going on trial Tuesday on charges of driving on a suspended license and possessing a pistol sued two state attorneys and a state trooper involved in his prosecution, alleging they lied under oath and […]

State lacks grounds to prosecute free user of roads, fiddler says in motion

Lawrenceburg, Tenn., hosts a tractor pull for area farm families. Its courts are hearing a challenge to the state’s lawless seizure of country lanes, city streets and highways. (Photo Yesterday’s Tractors) By David Tulis Today Arthur Jay Hirsch filed in Lawrence County, Tenn., circuit court this motion for dismissal of his case due to lack […]

Resisting arrest a constitutional right lost in rise of Progressivism

Las Vegas cop beat a restaurant patron because he doesn’t clear out quickly enough. (Photo copblock.org) See Part I of Mr. Roots’ essay here. The rise of policing despite constitution; or how cops became legally superior By Roger Roots Nothing illustrates the modern disparity between the rights and powers of police and citizen as much […]

The rise of policing despite constitution; or how cops became legally superior, apart

Protesters in dowtown Chattanooga join thousands around the country in late 2014 protesting police slayings of unarmed people. (Photo Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson on Facebook) Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ “textualist” and “originalist” methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, […]

The orphaned right: How states squelched Americans’ right to travel

States by myriad efforts to regulate the use of cars like these on Brainerd Road in Chattanooga slowly whittled away the right to travel by car, converting its use to a privilege. Attorney Roger Isaac Roots is a legal scholar, criminologist and civil liberties activities who lives in Livingston, Mont. He has written many scholarly […]