{"id":2587,"date":"2011-03-18T13:37:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T18:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2011-03-18T13:37:15","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T18:37:15","slug":"defining-coercion-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Coercion Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the Future of Freedom Foundation<\/strong><\/a>, posted online<\/strong> <\/a>today…<\/p>\n

Freedom Daily December 2010<\/p>\n

DEFINING COERCION DOWN<\/p>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

Coercion is the essence of government in the same way that profit is the essence of private businesses. The state can impose new prohibitions and restrictions, create new penalties, or impose taxes in order to finance benefits. It is misleading to conceive of politicians as offering both carrots and sticks: Government must first use a stick to commandeer the money to pay for the carrot. <\/p>\n

Every increase in the size of government means an increase in coercion \u2014 either an increase in the amount of a person\u2019s paycheck that government seizes or an increase in the number of types of behavior for which a government can jail, imprison, or fine a citizen. Every increase in government spending means an increase in political power \u2014 and a new pretext to seize private paychecks. <\/p>\n

In order to understand the contemporary concept of the state, it is important to recognize the radical changes in the concept of coercion that have occurred over the past century in federal courts. The common use of the word \u201cslavery\u201d in the disputes of the Revolutionary period captured colonists\u2019 hatred of the arbitrary coercive power vested in British government officials and Parliament members. Even if that power was not used by every British colonial official on a daily basis, the mere fact that power existed in the statute books fatally compromised the colonists\u2019 freedom. In the mid 1800s, Southerners\u2019 habit of referring to slavery as \u201cthe peculiar institution\u201d indicated their squeamishness about admitting the degree of coercive power that that institution required. <\/p>\n

In modern times, we have a new \u201cpeculiar institution\u201d: government coercion. Many political thinkers\u2019 fixation on government benevolence obscures the reality of the growing subjugation of American citizens to government employees. Federal agencies have been able to seize far more power over citizens in part because judges and others have redefined many forms of government coercion out of existence. <\/p>\n

Defining coercion <\/p>\n

The word \u201ccoercion\u201d is not used in the U.S. Constitution. However, the Bill of Rights is a compact to restrict the amount of force that the government may use against the citizenry. As one Pennsylvania writer observed in 1776, a constitution \u201cdescribes the portions of power with which the people invest the legislative and executive bodies, and the portions which they retain for themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n

A 1937 Senate report aptly declared that \u201cthe Constitution … is the people\u2019s charter of the powers granted those who govern them.\u201d The Bill of Rights recognized the rights of American citizens \u2014 it did not bestow those rights on a conquered populace. Americans of the Revolutionary era would permit a national government to come into existence only if the leaders of that government would solemnly pledge to limit their power in perpetuity. The Bill of Rights has never provided perfect protection, but it is an invaluable standard by which to judge the legitimacy of any law or government policy. <\/p>\n

The word \u201ccoercion\u201d was used in 378 Supreme Court decisions between 1960 and 1998. Many, if not most, of those cases involved convicted criminals who claimed that their confessions had not been fully voluntary or prayer in school and other issues involving religion. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas observed in 1957 that \u201cit was obvious that coercion might be the product of subtlety as well as of violence.\u201d In a 1991 case, the Court observed, <\/p>\n

Our cases have made clear that a finding of coercion need not depend upon actual violence by a government agent; a credible threat is sufficient…. Coercion can be mental as well as physical, and … the blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisition. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of the Court\u2019s decisions on police procedures have restrained the boundless power of government agents. But, while the Supreme Court and other federal courts were creating intricate rules for questioning of criminal suspects, the Court stuck its head in the ground regarding government agencies\u2019 abuse of peaceful citizens. <\/p>\n

In the early 1900s, the Supreme Court often vigorously protected citizens\u2019 property and contracts against the power grabs of legislatures and government agencies. But after President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s threat to pack the Court in 1937, the Supreme Court wrote one blank check after another to federal agencies in the late 1930s and early 1940s \u2014checks upon which the agencies are still drawing. <\/p>\n

Siding with special interests <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1938 case U.S. v. Carolene Products Co., the Court upheld a 1923 federal law enacted to benefit dairy producers by banning the interstate shipment of evaporated milk mixed with coconut oil. Geoffrey Miller, the associate dean of the University of Chicago Law School, observed, <\/p>\n

The statute upheld in the case was an utterly unprincipled example of special interest legislation. The purported \u2018public interest\u2019 justifications … were patently bogus…. The consequences of the decision were to expropriate the property of a lawful and beneficial industry; to deprive working and poor people of a healthful, nutritious, and low-cost food; and to impair the health of the nation\u2019s children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Canned milk mixed with coconut oil (so-called filled milk) was much cheaper than canned whole milk because coconut oil was much cheaper than butterfat. Filled milk was also healthier than fresh whole milk, because filled milk was sterilized at high temperatures while the fresh whole milk of that period often transmitted typhoid fever and tuberculosis. But the dairy industry hated the product because butterfat was the primary source of dairy farmers\u2019 profit. (The lobbying campaign against filled milk included racist depictions of Asians who did not consume as much whole milk as Americans.) <\/p>\n

The Court swallowed Congress\u2019s assertion that filled milk encouraged consumer fraud, although the main evidence offered was that recent immigrants who could not read English might buy the product by mistake. Congress also claimed that filled milk \u201cthreatened the public health,\u201d but the only \u201cthreat\u201d occurred because filled milk lacked the vitamin A that butterfat contained. There was no evidence that drinking filled milk deterred people from consuming vitamin A from other sources. By this same standard, Congress could have banned the vast majority of items sold in American groceries. Besides, for many consumers, it was not a choice of filled milk or whole milk, but of filled milk or no milk at all. <\/p>\n

Justice Harlan Stone wrote, \u201cRegulatory legislation affecting ordinary commercial transactions is not to be pronounced unconstitutional unless … it is of such a character as to preclude the assumption that it rests upon some rational basis within the knowledge and experience of the legislators.\u201d And how much evidence was necessary to presume a \u201crational basis\u201d for legislation? \u201cAny state of facts either known or which could reasonably be assumed\u201d would suffice, Stone announced. Thus, as long as government only destroyed people\u2019s freedom to contract, or their freedom to work, or their freedom to use their own land, or their freedom to buy and sell, such coercion was almost always unworthy of judges\u2019 notice. <\/p>\n

Carolene Products enshrined the notion that the edicts of politicians have far more credibility than the voluntary decisions of private persons \u2014 that politicians are more trustworthy when seizing power over citizens\u2019 property than citizens are when using their own property. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeautification\u201d and the general welfare <\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1954, in Berman v. Parker, the Supreme Court blessed confiscation in the name of beautification. The Court heard a challenge to a federal urban renewal program operating in the District of Columbia. The previous year, a federal district court had struck down the program, observing, \u201cThere is no more subtle means of transforming the basic concepts of our government, or shifting from the preeminence of individual rights, to the preeminence of government wishes, than is afforded by redefinition of \u2018general welfare,\u2019 as that term is used to define the Government\u2019s power of seizures.\u201d But the Supreme Court overturned the lower-court decision and gave government officials almost unlimited power to confiscate and redistribute land. <\/p>\n

Justice William Douglas, writing for the Court, declared, \u201cThe concept of the public welfare is broad and inclusive. The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well-balanced as well as carefully patrolled.\u201d Douglas concluded, \u201cOnce the object is within the authority of Congress, the right to realize it through the exercise of eminent domain is clear.\u201d Catholic University professor of politics Dennis Coyle characterized this decision: \u201cThe implicit message of the Court was that in land use regulation, the king can do no wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

The resulting waves of urban destruction did long-term damage to the health of American cities; a 1998 Washington Post report cited the massive slum destruction campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s and the resulting dislocations as a major cause of the skyrocketing homicide rates in subsequent decades. <\/p>\n

Douglas also stated in that decision, \u201cWhen the legislature has spoken, the public interest has been declared in terms well-nigh conclusive.\u201d Almost 30 years later, in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Court awarded sweeping discretion to federal agencies to interpret federal laws as they chose \u2014 and thus, in many cases, to decree the limits of their own power. Lawyer Michael Greve, the director of the Center for Individual Rights, observed that the Supreme Court now relies on an \u201cinsanity test \u2014 if an agency\u2019s interpretation of a federal statute is not clinically insane, then it stands.\u201d The combination of the Court\u2019s acceptance of legislatures\u2019 definition of the public interest and its deference toward government agencies\u2019 interpretations of laws creates an overwhelming bias against citizens who are seeking relief from government oppression. <\/p>\n

Since the 1930s, Supreme Court decisions routinely rested on a blanket assumption that whatever any legislature does is \u201cto promote the general welfare.\u201d In a 1955 case upholding an Oklahoma law that severely restricted the practice of opticians, Justice Douglas declared, \u201cIt is enough that there is an evil at hand for correction, and that it might be thought that the particular legislative measure was a rational way to correct it.\u201d Merely alleging that private evil exists becomes sufficient to sanctify practically any political seizure of power. (The Court does not show such naivete towards politicians\u2019 motives in First Amendment cases involving freedom of the press or speech.) <\/p>\n

The State is specific officials, specific penalties, and specific jails and prisons. The coercive power is the reality and the political rhetoric is the illusion. No number of speeches by politicians can counterweigh the vast expansion of the federal statute book. There is no rhetorical or metaphysical trick by which government can transcend its coercive nature. <\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy [2006] as well as The Bush Betrayal [2004], Lost Rights [1994] and Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (Palgrave-Macmillan, September 2003) and serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the Future of Freedom Foundation, posted online today… Freedom Daily December 2010 DEFINING COERCION DOWN by James Bovard Coercion is the essence of government in the same way that profit is the essence of private businesses. The state can impose new prohibitions and restrictions, create new penalties, or impose taxes in order to finance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[659,22,677,656,7,673,45,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-2587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-democracy","9":"tag-dictatorship","11":"tag-freedom","13":"tag-rule-of-law"},"yoast_head":"\nDefining Coercion Down - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defining Coercion Down - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"from the Future of Freedom Foundation, posted online today… Freedom Daily December 2010 DEFINING COERCION DOWN by James Bovard Coercion is the essence of government in the same way that profit is the essence of private businesses. The state can impose new prohibitions and restrictions, create new penalties, or impose taxes in order to finance […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Defining Coercion Down\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1822,\"commentCount\":3,\"keywords\":[\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Democracy\",\"dictatorship\",\"dictatorship\",\"Freedom\",\"Freedom\",\"Rule of Law\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/\",\"name\":\"Defining Coercion Down - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/03\\\/18\\\/defining-coercion-down\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Defining Coercion Down\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Defining Coercion Down - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Defining Coercion Down - James Bovard","og_description":"from the Future of Freedom Foundation, posted online today… Freedom Daily December 2010 DEFINING COERCION DOWN by James Bovard Coercion is the essence of government in the same way that profit is the essence of private businesses. The state can impose new prohibitions and restrictions, create new penalties, or impose taxes in order to finance […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Defining Coercion Down","datePublished":"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/"},"wordCount":1822,"commentCount":3,"keywords":["Attention Deficit Democracy","Attention Deficit Democracy","Democracy","dictatorship","dictatorship","Freedom","Freedom","Rule of Law"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/","name":"Defining Coercion Down - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-18T18:37:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/18\/defining-coercion-down\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Defining Coercion Down"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions\/2588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}