A common theme you hear in many libertarian circles is that no legislator or elected official has done anything good or can hold consistently pro-liberty positions.

A quartet of former Republican State Representatives from Maine, Maryland, Ohio, and Wisconsin will put that theory to rest at the 2011 RLC National Convention in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday, February 12. We encourage you to learn more about these pro-liberty leaders below and register to attend the Convention to hear their remarks.

Jamie Callender is an attorney, college professor, and former State Representative who served in the Ohio House from 1997 to 2004. He represented a Democratic area despite being a Republican with a strong libertarian streak. With his leadership, Ohio was able to greatly expand school choice — an issue he is very passionate about. He was term limited out of office. Callender currently serves as a Professor of Public Policy at Kent State University. He and his family live in Lake County, Ohio in the Cleveland metropolitan area.

R. Kenneth Lindell is a former one-term Maine State Representative. In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Maine, Ken was also Chairman of the Ron Paul for President campaign in Maine. Ken is also a Certified Financial Planner. He and his wife Althea, along with their three children, reside in Frankfurt, Maine. He has been a longtime advocate of the liberty message and also attended the 2006 RLC National Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Don Murphy is a former elected Delegate from Baltimore County, Maryland. He was first elected in 1993 and served until 2002. He is a co-founder of the Patapsco Valley Republican Club, served as Chairman of the Baltimore County Republican Party, and served as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention. In 2010, he was a Senior Advisor to RLC-endorsed Senate candidate Dr. Eric Wargotz. Don is also the founder of Republicans for Compassionate Access, a group of Republican legislators who believe in a patient’s right to choose medical treatment under a doctor’s care. Delegate Murphy has attended every RLC National Convention since 2006.

Terri McCormick is Vice Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin and is a former three-term State Representative who represented Appleton and Neenah. She is also a two-time candidate for Congress. Terri pioneered one of the first state charter school laws in the country and formed the Wisconsin Charter School Association. She is an advocate of term limits and upheld her term limits pledge. Legislation she authored expanded small business growth in the state of Wisconsin and also created a prescription drug purchasing pool for seniors. Terri is the author of the book, “What Sex Is a Republican? Stories from the Front Lines of American Politics and How You Can Change the Way Things Are.”

In New York City, the Department of Sanitation, aka “New York’s Strongest,” are tasked with clearing the streets of snow. The sixth most powerful storm in city history pounded New York on December 26, leaving as much as twenty inches of snow covering the Big Apple. Three days later, hundreds of streets remained completely unplowed. New Yorkers, true to their reputation, complained loudly and long, with anecdotal information suggesting that something was amiss with the normal street cleaning operations.

On December 29, Mayor Mike Bloomberg visited a Hunt’s Point hardware store where he expressed his “disappointment” in the snow clearing efforts. ”We did not do as good a job as we wanted to do or as the city has a right to expect,” the Mayor said. ”I cannot tell you for sure why it was a lot worse this time than at other times.”

Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association (USA), apparently had the answer which eluded the Mayor. Nespoli blamed the recent cuts to the Sanitation Department’s workforce, directly tied to New York’s budget woes, for the city’s “sluggish” response. ”The city currently has 2,400 men and women working 12-hour shifts following a series of cuts, he said.

RLC member and City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) reported that three plow workers from the Sanitation Department, and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan to Sanitation as part of the cleanup effort, came to his office and confessed that the inept response to the storm was a “shameless job action” perpetrated by Sanitation Department bosses in response to a “raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts” necessitated by the city’s budget crunch.

”They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said Halloran . “(Sanitation workers) were told (by supervisors) to take off routes (and) not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, (and) shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file.”

Listen to Dan on FOX News.

While New York City sanitation workers worked to tow a front-end loader after it got stuck, they also destroyed a parked Ford Expedition in the process.

In a sign of the strength the Tea Party and its supporters, House Republicans will be requiring legislators to cite the Constitution with every proposed law. When the GOP-controlled House convenes for the first time on January 5, legislators will read the Constitution aloud and then require all bills to cite the constitutional authority to enact any given law.

But whether such flourishes will engender real legislative changes or simply offer window dressing is up for debate. “I think it’s entirely cosmetic,” said Kevin Gutzman, a history professor at Western Connecticut State University and a conservative libertarian who sympathizes with the Tea Party. “This is the way the establishment handles grassroots movements. They humor people who are not expert or not fully cognizant. And then once they’ve humored them and those people go away, it’s right back to business as usual.”

The House Historian’s Office has no record of the Constitution being read aloud on the House floor. It’s estimated that the document, which is more than 4500 words long, and which has 27 amendments, will take about one hour to read aloud. Probably the best hour Congress has spent in quite a while.

As we head into the New Year, it’s an excellent time to get involved with the Republican Liberty Caucus and other grassroots Tea Party groups across the country.

Health Care’s Individual Mandate Struck Down Thanks to RLC Endorsed Attorney General

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli did not have to battle on the issue of health care. He could have taken the easy path and simply focused on other issues. Instead he decided to put principle first and filed suit against the federal government’s individual mandate that forces Americans to purchase a product.

The Virginia legislature and the Tea Party also deserve credit because the Health Care Freedom Act they passed in anticipation of the Obama health law gave Cuccinelli grounds to file the suit.

Today U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson ruled that the individual health insurance mandate “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of Congressional power” and it’s ultimately “about an individual’s right to choose to participate.”

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia selected Attorney General Cuccinelli as its only statewide-endorsed candidate in 2009. He has demonstrated why through his continued efforts to uphold the rule of law and protect individual rights.

In 2008, then-State Senator Cuccinelli addressed members of the RLC at a meeting in Fredricksburg, Virginia. You can hear his remarks here, here, here, and here.

Two passionate and outspoken defenders of liberty will be addressing delegates at the Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention on February 12, 2011 in Arlington Virginia — John Dennis and Dr. Murray Sabrin.

John Dennis (pictured with RLC members), a San Francisco entrepreneur and father, took on Queen Nancy Pelosi during the 2010 election cycle. His campaign was endorsed by Cindy Sheehan, Log Cabin Republicans, and The San Francisco Examiner. Before entering his race, John founded the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Dr. Murray Sabrin was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in New Jersey in 2008. Sabrin is executive director of the Center for Business and Public Policy at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. Sabrin was also the 1997 Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey and the first third party candidate to receive matching funds and participate in televised debates.

Dr. Sabrin is a former Board Member of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He was born in Germany to parents who survived the Holocaust and fled Nazi Europe. He earned a Ph.D. in economic geography from Rutgers University, he is a regular opinion columnist for numerous New Jersey newspapers, and he is the author of several books. Murray has worked in commercial real estate sales and marketing, personal portfolio management, and economic research in addition to his present position as Professor of Finance at Ramapo College.

Please register for the 2011 Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention today to hear from these passionate defenders of individual liberty and limited government!

Without philosophical or intellectual leaders, we are void of ideas.

Two prominent intellectual figures in the liberty movement will be speaking at the Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention on February 12, 2011 in Arlington Virginia — David Boaz and Dr. Randy Barnett.

David Boaz is best known as the author of Libertarianism: A Primer, published in 1997 and described by The Los Angeles Times as “a well-researched manifesto of libertarian ideas.” He has been involved in the libertarian movement for nearly 40 years. He frequently addresses topics such as education choice, the growth of government, the War on Drugs, and the libertarian movement. He is a frequent guest on national television and radio shows.

Randy E. Barnett is an attorney and a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts. He writes and speaks about the libertarian theory of law and contract theory, constitutional law, and jurisprudence. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute and the Goldwater Institute. Professor Barnett’s book The Structure of Liberty won the Ralph Gregory Elliot Book Award in 1998. In 2009, he drafted the Bill of Federalism, 10 proposed amendments to the US Constitution designed to limit federal power and strengthen individual rights. Barnett’s arguments on libertarian theories within jurisprudence and contract theory have been criticized by other libertarian academics ranging from Richard Epstein and David Mayer to N. Stephen Kinsella and Walter Block.

Please register for the 2011 Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention today to hear from these liberty-minded intellectual leaders!

For the first time in recent memory, the Republican Liberty Caucus will host an outreach booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference from February 10-12, 2011 in Washington, DC.
The Republican Liberty Caucus National Convention will also occur on February 12, 2011 in nearby Arlington, Virginia — a short metrorail or cab ride from the CPAC location.

We decided to host our Convention on the final day of CPAC to piggyback on the fact that many potential Convention attendees and many likely Convention attendees may already be in town for CPAC.  Interested parties can choose to attend one event — or both.  Most major CPAC events, including the Campaign for Liberty and assorted liberty movement events, will occur on February 10-11, while our Convention will occur on February 12.

This is an excellent opportunity to inform or remind folks that no public policies will change without changing the Republican Party structure and makeup; hence, the RLC’s existence.  “Education” is important, but “action” is also necessary.

If you’re planning to attend CPAC, please make sure to stop by the Republican Liberty Caucus booth and say hello to us!  If you wish to register for CPAC, you can check out the following links:

• Gary Johnson CPAC Packages
• Young Americans for Liberty / C4L CPAC Packages
• CPAC Official Site – Agenda and List of Speakers

Please make sure to register and attend the 2011 RLC National Convention on Saturday, February 12, 2011 in Arlington, VA — the largest gathering of liberty Republicans in the country!

If you would like to volunteer to work the RLC booth at CPAC 2011, please get in touch with us.

Dave is right! Liberty is under attack.

We must become MORE involved, not less involved.

We must work to further our cause. 2011 is a time to build our organization.

Join your state chapter, make a monthly pledge, or make a donation of any size to the Republican Liberty Caucus.

As opposition mounts to the Transportation Security Administration’s new intrusive pat-down and naked body scanner interrogations for America’s airline travelers, courageous RLC-endorsed legislators are fighting back.

In the past three days, legislation has been introduced by two RLC-endorsed legislators at the federal level and in the state of New Jersey.

Yesterday, RLC Advisory Board member Dr. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced H.R. 6416, The American Traveler Dignity Act. The legislation would specifically outlaw fondling or groping of private law-abiding airline travelers by federal employees.

Also yesterday, Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed Congressman Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee gave a factual overview of the assault on individual privacy and health risks of the naked body scanners:

And earlier this week, New Jersey Senate and House legislators introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the federal government to change TSA’s anti-liberty procedures. The coalition was led by Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed Senator Michael J. Doherty:

Stay tuned to the RLC blog for details on other legislative action items regarding the Transportation Security Administration’s invasive policies.

AUSTIN, TX — The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) denounces the recent changes in the airport passenger screening practices of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

RLC Chairman Dave Nalle said the intrusive nature of new TSA procedures draws attention to the fundamental flaws in the government’s strategy of attempting to address the threat of terrorism through increasingly draconian domestic security measures.

“In the name of public safety, government agencies have been given more and more power at great cost to our civil liberties and in violation of the Bill of Rights,” Nalle said.  “The emergence of an unaccountable state security apparatus in America is a reminder of Ben Franklin’s maxim that ‘they who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.’”

“The new TSA procedures of giving randomly selected passengers a choice between a full body, backscatter x-ray scan and an intrusive, hands-on body search are unacceptable,” Nalle contends.  “These searches are a clear violation of our 4th Amendment rights, because they are not reasonable and are carried out with no probable cause.”

“The increase in security at airports with more technology and more violation of the privacy rights of passengers cannot be justified on the basis of any increase in the threat of terrorism, because there has been no such increase,” Nalle explained.

The RLC believes that the level of power and authority granted to agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration is out of proportion to any actual threat against the American people.  Terrorism is not a significant threat on flights within the United States and basic security measures instituted immediately after 9/11 have been sufficient to deter any similar attacks since that time.

The Republican Liberty Caucus believes that the people of the United States have had enough and calls on the federal government to curb abuses by the TSA and other agencies.  We recommend putting control of passenger security in the hands of the airlines, which have a vested interest in making sure that flights are safe.  We also support the passage of Representative Ron Paul’s “American Traveler Dignity Act” (H.R. 6416), which would make TSA employees accountable for their actions.

Nalle observed, “With the increasing level of government intrusion into our lives in the name of security, America reminds me too much of what I saw in the Soviet Union, where I lived as a teenager.  How long will it be before police will be stopping us in the street at random to ask for our identity papers?”

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