Paul Jacob
Encyclopedia
Limited government
Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He writes a weekly column for Townhall.com
Townhall.com
Townhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...
and his short radio commentary feature, "Common Sense," is syndicated by the Citizens In Charge Foundation
Citizens In Charge Foundation
The Citizens in Charge Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization based in Virginia. The Foundation is the only national organization dedicated to promoting the initiative & referendum process....
on over 120 radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
stations around the U.S. He has held positions with the Libertarian Party (United States)
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
, U.S. Term Limits
U.S. Term Limits
U.S. Term Limits is a non-profit organization that lobbies for term limits for elected officials at every level of government in the United States. Among other activities, USTL supports ballot initiatives in numerous states. The organization was established in 1992, and is one of several led by...
, Americans for Limited Government
Americans for Limited Government
Americans for Limited Government describes itself as a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free-market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties...
, the Citizens In Charge Foundation
Citizens In Charge Foundation
The Citizens in Charge Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization based in Virginia. The Foundation is the only national organization dedicated to promoting the initiative & referendum process....
and the Sam Adams Alliance
Sam Adams Alliance
Sam Adams Alliance is a non-profit organization based in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in Chicago in 2006, the group describes itself as a "fiercely independent organization dedicated to inspiring and encouraging grass-roots citizen activism."...
.
Political philosophy
Because Jacob emphasizes institutional and procedural reforms—most notable being ballot initiative and referendumReferendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
rights and legislative term limits--his libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
philosophy appears more centrist than either Left-libertarian or rightist
Paleolibertarianism
Paleolibertarianism is a school of thought within American libertarianism associated with the late economist Murray Rothbard, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is based on a combination of right-libertarianism in politics and cultural conservatism in social thought...
. Though often writing from a background of cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism is described as the preservation of the heritage of one nation, or of a shared culture that is not defined by national boundaries. Other variants of cultural conservatism are concerned with culture attached to a given language such as Arabic.The shared culture may be as...
, his frequent criticisms of what he regards as Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
"excesses" distances his writing from that of most other columnists usually defined as "on the right". Examples of Jacob's views can be read in his columns on Townhall.com, as well as in his "Common Sense" commentaries. Frequent targets of his commentary include Republicans known for their pork barrel
Pork barrel
Pork barrel is a derogatory term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district...
spending, such as Senator Ted Stevens
Ted Stevens
Theodore Fulton "Ted" Stevens, Sr. was a United States Senator from Alaska, serving from December 24, 1968, until January 3, 2009, and thus the longest-serving Republican senator in history...
, and both Democrats and Republicans who support campaign spending regulations, such as Senators Russ Feingold
Russ Feingold
Russell Dana "Russ" Feingold is an American politician from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He served as a Democratic party member of the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2011. From 1983 to 1993, Feingold was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.He is a recipient of the John F...
and John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
. Paul Jacob has repeatedly argued that the McCain-Feingold
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
law, and all similar campaign finance reform measures, are clear violations of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.
Draft resistance
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
registration resister. His crusade against forced military service and for the all-volunteer army was featured in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine. In 1985, after being convicted of violating the Selective Service Act, he served five and a half months in federal prison, longer than any American draft resister since the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. During the trial, Congressman Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
testified on his behalf.
Jacob's argument against the draft can be found in his brief essay titled "The Draft is Slavery," originally published as one of several "afterwords" to J. Neil Schulman
J. Neil Schulman
Joseph Neil Schulman is a novelist who wrote Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza which both received the Prometheus Award, a libertarian science fiction award....
's science fiction novel The Rainbow Cadenza
The Rainbow Cadenza
The Rainbow Cadenza is a science fiction novel by J. Neil Schulman which won the 1984 Prometheus Award for libertarian science fiction. It tells the story of Joan Darris, a laser art musician, and her interactions with her society....
.
Support for Legislative Term Limits
U.S. Term Limits
U.S. Term Limits is a non-profit organization that lobbies for term limits for elected officials at every level of government in the United States. Among other activities, USTL supports ballot initiatives in numerous states. The organization was established in 1992, and is one of several led by...
, the nation's most active term limits lobby, from its inception in 1992 until 1999, becoming the movement's leading voice. Jacob helped citizens in 23 states place limits on their congressional delegations, prompting columnist Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
to call him "the most hated man in Washington." But on May 22, 1995, those state-imposed congressional term limits, encompassing nearly half the U.S. Congress, were struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in the case of U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton. Today, 15 state legislatures, 36 governors and thousands of local officials, including those in nine of the country's ten largest cities, are under term limits. Jacob held several positions with U.S. Term Limits (including national director, senior fellow, and president), until resigning his board membership in early 2007.
Rise in the Libertarian Party
Jacob served on the National CommitteeLibertarian National Committee
The Libertarian National Committee controls and manages the affairs, properties, and funds of the United States Libertarian Party. It is composed of the party officers, five at-large representatives elected every two years at the national convention, and a theoretical maximum of ten regional...
of the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
and then in 1987 and 1988 as the party's national director. In 1988, he worked to put Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
on the ballot for president as a Libertarian, winning ballot access
Ballot access
Ballot access rules, called nomination rules outside the United States, regulate the conditions under which a candidate or political party is either entitled to stand for election or to appear on voters' ballots...
in 47 states, the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
.
Citizens in Charge & Citizens in Charge Foundation
In 2001, Jacob started Citizens In Charge, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group dedicated to protecting the voter initiative process where it exists and expanding it to more states and localities. Between 2002 and 2004, CIC worked closely with Let Minnesota Vote in an unsuccessful effort to bring statewide initiative & referendum to Minnesota. CIC provided much of the funding for voter issue education in the state’s 2002 legislative elections, through direct mail, television ads and radio spots. In those elections, five incumbent state senators were defeated by pro-initiative challengers, but the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party retained control of the state senate and continued to block a vote of the people on statewide initiative. CIC also led a 2004 lobbying effort against restrictions on the initiative in Florida, working with the Florida Initiative League and later with Hands Off Florida. In 2005, Citizens In Charge was instrumental in blocking a number of proposed legislative restrictions to the initiative process in Nevada. Jacob serves as president of the organization.Jacob is also founder and president of the Citizens In Charge Foundation
Citizens In Charge Foundation
The Citizens in Charge Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization based in Virginia. The Foundation is the only national organization dedicated to promoting the initiative & referendum process....
, which works to educate the public, opinion leaders, and elected officials on the initiative and referendum process. The Foundation currently produces his radio and internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
commentary program Common Sense.
The Sam Adams Alliance
Jacob was a senior advisor at the Sam Adams AllianceSam Adams Alliance
Sam Adams Alliance is a non-profit organization based in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in Chicago in 2006, the group describes itself as a "fiercely independent organization dedicated to inspiring and encouraging grass-roots citizen activism."...
from 2007-2008. Paul acted as a spokesperson for Sam Adams, and the Alliance produced his daily Common Sense.
Ballot Initiative Petition Drive
In 2005 and 2006, Jacob worked with an OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
group, Oklahomans in Action, to place on the ballot an initiative, Stop Overspending, which is one of several measures run in different states known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights
Taxpayer Bill of Rights
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is a concept advocated by conservative and free market libertarian groups, primarily in the United States, as a way of limiting the growth of government...
, or TaBOR. Among the paid petitioners used were some that had come to Oklahoma from other states to work on the drive. On October 2, 2007, Jacob was formally indicted in Oklahoma on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the state on the matter of hiring out-of-state petitioners. Jacob claims the petition's organizers had sought, and received, approval for this from the Oklahoma Secretary of State. A conviction would have carried a maximum fine of $25,000, and the maximum jail sentence of ten years in prison. Jacob was indicted with two others in the case, and each pleaded not guilty. A website—FreePaulJacob.com—was put up in Jacob's defense.
Criticism of Indictment
The indictment drew criticism from around the state and all over the country for being politically motivated. 2008 independent presidential candidate Ralph NaderRalph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
referred to the laws such as the one Jacob was charged with breaking as “Jim Crow laws,” adding, “We’ve seen this before against African Americans. The Wall Street Journal editorialized against the prosecution twice, calling it "bizarre", and Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
asked the question "Has North Korea Annexed Oklahoma?".
Law Struck Down and Charges Dropped
On December 18, 2008 the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the underlying Oklahoma law that barred out of state petition circulators, noting that it was in violation of the First AmendmentFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson
Drew Edmondson
William Andrew "Drew" Edmondson , is an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, Edmondson served as the 16th Attorney General of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2011...
appealed the decision on behalf of Secretary of State Susan Savage. On January 21, 2009 the Tenth Circuit court denied the state's appeal, effectively ending the case. The Attorney General's office dismissed the charges against Jacob and the other defendants, with Edmondson saying "The statute under which these defendants were charged has been declared unconstitutional, and the appellate process is complete...The statute is no longer enforceable." On January 22, 2009, Jacob released the following statement in response to the charges being dropped:
"Today is a great day for justice, for freedom of speech and the right to petition one’s government. It is a great day for Rick Carpenter, Susan Johnson, and me—now known as the Oklahoma Three.
The charges brought against us by the attorney general have now been dismissed. They should never have been brought in the first place. We did not break the law and, as we all now know, the law itself is unconstitutional.
Our prosecution has sadly had a chilling effect on Oklahomans, who want to reform their government and to hold it accountable through the petition process. My goal throughout this ordeal has been to encourage Oklahomans and Americans everywhere not to let their rights be eroded through fear and intimidation. Today we have won a victory.
But the battle to protect citizen rights is far from over."