Constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead will appear on a special broadcast of “Glenn Beck Live” on April 9, 2015, to debut his forthcoming book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (due out on April 14) and discuss the constitutional crisis plaguing the nation.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case in which California public school students were prohibited from wearing American flag t-shirts to school, allegedly out of a fear that it might be disruptive. In refusing to hear the appeal without giving any reason for the decision, the Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling that upheld the ban out a concern for school safety.

Noting that botched executions have become a hallmark of many state and federal executions, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional those laws and policies which allow government officials to keep lethal injection protocols for death row executions shrouded in secrecy, thereby giving rise to torturous executions in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments.

In a resounding victory for The Rutherford Institute’s efforts to combat a climate of political correctness, especially as it relates to First Amendment activity, the Supreme Court of New Jersey has unanimously held that a provision of the state’s “hate crime” statute is unconstitutional, agreeing that the law was unduly vague in violation of fundamental due process.

Rejecting claims that student “hecklers” can silence patriotic speech, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse a lower court ruling that declared it unsafe for California public school students to wear American flag t-shirts to school.

Denouncing the government’s confiscation of agricultural crops as feudalistic theft, The Rutherford Institute is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a Depression-era government program requiring raisin producers to surrender a substantial portion of their crop, in some years almost one-half, to the government without any guarantee or promise of payment.

The Rutherford Institute has joined with the ACLU, Wikipedia, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other educational, legal, human rights and media organizations to file a major First and Fourth Amendment lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Department of Justice and their directors over the government’s mass surveillance campaigns.

Pointing out that individuals awaiting trial (pretrial detainees) are particularly vulnerable to government abuse and should not be forced to prove that their alleged abusers intended to harm them in order to claim their rights were violated, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to remove restrictions some courts have imposed on civil rights lawsuits for excessive force by inmates against jail personnel, thereby discouraging the use of excessive force by prison officials.

In a resounding win for the First Amendment, a federal court judge has granted The Rutherford Institute’s request for a permanent injunction against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) barring Metro officials from preventing guitarist Alex Young from engaging in “busking,” or performing in public places for tips, near DC-area Metro stations.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have asked a federal court to reject a request by health officials to dismiss a Fourth Amendment lawsuit filed on behalf of a 37-year-old disabled man who was wrongfully arrested, strip searched, handcuffed to a table, diagnosed as having “mental health issues,” apparently because of his slurred speech and unsteady gait, and subsequently locked up for five days in a mental health facility against his will and with no access to family and friends.

Weighing in on a case that pits government attempts at censorship against expression protected by the First Amendment, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that specialty license plates are private speech which may not be censored on the basis of viewpoint.

Citing a fundamental right to privacy, travel and association, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit police from gaining unfettered access to motel and hotel guest registries.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute will present oral argument in Raub v. Campbell before the U.S. Court of  Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Jan. 28, 2015, asking the court to reinstate the lawsuit of a decorated Marine who was seized by a swarm of Secret Service, FBI and local police officials and involuntary committed for a week because of controversial song lyrics and political views he posted on his Facebook page.

At the urging of attorneys for The Rutherford Institute, a federal court has ordered a community college to cease its censorship and allow two social activists to hand out what might be perceived as “politically incorrect” informational flyers on campus.

In a 7-2 ruling in Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the federal government’s attempts to eviscerate protections for employee speech under the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).

In a strong endorsement of religious liberty, the United States Supreme Court has unanimously held that the Arkansas Department of Corrections violated the rights of a Muslim prisoner by refusing to allow him to grow a short beard in accordance with his religious beliefs.

After being contacted by attorneys with The Rutherford Institute, officials with the Greene County Public Schools have agreed to rescind the suspension of a four-year-old preschool student who, after allegedly acting up in class, was handcuffed and shackled by a school resource officer and transported to the sheriff’s office.