John Whitehead

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People  (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Don’t Vote for a Psychopath: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government

Studies have shown that despite clear evidence of the damage that has already been inflicted on our nation and its citizens by a psychopathic government, voters continue to elect psychopaths to positions of power and influence.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Uncle Sam Art

Politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths. "I think you would find no expert in the field of sociopathy/psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder who would dispute this... That a small minority of human beings literally have no conscience was and is a bitter pill for our society to swallow — but it does

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Don’t Be Fooled: The 2020 Election Has Already Been Decided

Voting booths have already been hijacked by a political elite comprised of Republicans and Democrats who are determined to retain power at all costs. The outcome is a foregone conclusion: the Deep State will win and “we the people” will lose.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Election 2020 Feature photo

Republicans and Democrats alike fear that the other party will attempt to hijack this election. President Trump is convinced that mail-in ballots are a scam except in Florida, where it’s safe to vote by mail because of its “great Republican governor.” The FBI is worried about foreign hackers continuing to target and exploit vulnerabilities in the

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The 20-Year Journey From 9/11 To COVID-19 and the Freedoms Lost Along the Way

Here is what it means to live under the Constitution, post-9/11 and in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Portland protest Feature photo

You can map the nearly 20-year journey from the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic by the freedoms we’ve lost along the way. The road we have been traveling has been littered with the wreckage of our once-vaunted liberties, especially those enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. The assaults on our freedoms that began with the

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Tomato Gardeners: The Latest Victim in the Government’s War on Drugs

Merely growing a vegetable garden on your own property, or in a greenhouse on your property, or shopping at a gardening store for gardening supplies—incredibly enough—could set you up for a drug raid sanctioned by the courts.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
backyard marijuana garden Feature photo

A journal entry from a California resident describes the government’s aerial searches for marijuana plants:  They came again this morning at about 8:00 o’clock. A large cargo-type helicopter flew low over the cabin, shaking it on its very foundations. It shook all of us inside, too. I feel frightened … I see how helpless and tormented I am

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Looking for an Excuse to Crackdown, Police Departments are Pitting Protesters Against Each Other

Civil discontent leads to civil unrest, which leads to protests and counterprotests, and instead of restoring order, local police stand down. Tensions rise, violence escalates, and federal armies move in.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Police Protest Feature photo

CHARLOTTESVILLE (Rutherford) –– There’s a pattern emerging if you pay close enough attention. Civil discontent leads to civil unrest, which leads to protests and counterprotests. Without fail, what should be an exercise in how to peacefully disagree turns ugly the moment looting, vandalism, violence, intimidation tactics and rioting are

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Divide We Fall: America Has Been Blacklisted and McCarthyism Refashioned for a New Age

Who needs a government censor when the American people are already doing such a great job at censoring themselves and each other.

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
Racial Injustice California

CHARLOTTESVILLE (Rutherford) –– For those old enough to have lived through the McCarthy era, there is a whiff of something in the air that reeks of the heightened paranoia, finger-pointing, fear-mongering, totalitarian tactics that were hallmarks of the 1950s. Back then, it was the government—spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House

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The System Is Rigged: Qualified Immunity Is How the Police State Stays in Power

Lawyers tend to offer complicated, convoluted explanations for the doctrine of qualified immunity, which was intended to insulate police from frivolous lawsuits, but its real purpose, writes constitutional attorney John Whitehead, is to rig the system,

John Whitehead
By John Whitehead
DC Protests Feature photo

CHARLOTTESVILLE (Rutherford) –– The system is rigged, the government is corrupt, and “we the people” continue to waste our strength by fighting each other rather than standing against the tyrant in our midst. Because the system is rigged, because the government is corrupt, and because “we the people” remain polarized and divided, the police

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