Author: Rob Natelson

Rob Natelson is the Independence Institute’s Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence and heads the Institute’s Article V Information Center. He was a law professor for 25 years, serving at three different universities. Among other subjects, he taught Constitutional Law, Constitutional History, Advanced Constitutional Law, and First Amendment. He is also the Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Montana Policy Institute. Rob is especially known for his studies of the Constitution’s original meaning. His research has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford. The results have included several break-though discoveries. Click here for more information about Rob

Why donors should give to think tanks and NOT colleges & universities

“Some donors try to target their grants to certain activities only. But academic administrators have ways of evading such restrictions. [At think tanks] the money probably will be used far more efficiently than if it were dissipated on academic bureaucracy.”

Polis lock-down order adds chaos to unconstitutionality

Public Health Order 20-24 is an 11 page, mostly single-spaced, mash of bureau-fog.

City destroys home without paying: Will the Supreme Court take the case?

The Takings Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . . . reads in part, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Denver’s COVID-19 house arrest order is probably unconstitutional

“[Denver] has overreacted and has potentially violated the constitutional rights of city residents and millions of others.

Video: Rob Natelson and Jon Caldara discuss “Nat’l Popular Vote” & protecting the Electoral College’s integrity

Rob explains why II submitted a Supreme Court brief to protect presidential elector discretion and why the National Popular Vote Compact is a terrible idea

New scholarly article explains amendments conventions

The new article “marshals a massive amount of historical evidence to show that a convention for proposing amendments is simply a ‘convention of the states,’ a frequent kind of gathering in U.S. history, and one whose make-up and procedures is well known.

Underselling Originalism

Originalism is not a modern invention “[T]he ‘intent of the makers’ had been the lodestar of documentary construction since at least the 1500s.”

Global warming and the Constitution’s amendment process: How to tell whether a ‘consensus’ Is true

How academics formed a completely erroneous “consensus” about the convention procedure of Article V.

Two new briefs in the Supreme Court’s Electoral College case

[The integrity of presidential electors] has taken on great urgency as “progressive” state legislatures increasingly meddle with free elections.

New article: 18th century law shows impeachment requires a crime

Examples of high misdemeanors . . . were bribery, assault, and attempted murder.

The English tradition of liberty under law is a gift to us all

Britain was the first major country in world history to abolish slavery.

The new ERA campaign: constitutional malware

The incentives behind the campaign are obvious. The ERA is poorly drafted and vague (which is why it was rejected). If it became part of the Constitution, the result would be legal chaos. Activists know they would be able to feed off that chaos . . . .