Constitutional Breakdown: How the GOP-Dem Tax and Spend Compromise Throttles the Voters’ Will
The impending taxing and spending compromise between congressional Republicans and Democrats and the Obama administration demonstrates how the federal constitutional system has broken down. And how the breakdown can sabotage democracy. Under the emerging terms, as reported in the press, the Republicans will receive at least a temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for […]
Was the Constitutional Convention a “Runaway?”
[Rob Natelson is the author of The Original Constitution: What It Really Said and Meant – an objective explanation of the Constitution as understood by the Founders.] There’s an old accusation leveled against the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The Convention was a very long time ago, so the accusation shouldn’t matter any more. […]
Airport searches and the Fourth Amendment
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” – […]
Why law professors don’t tell us much about our Constitution
Real scholarship is about facts, not argument.
Does the Constitution’s Commerce Power justify ObamaCare?
(To learn more about this topic, listen to Justin Longo’s interview with Rob Natelson — “Constitutionally, what does the word “commerce” mean?“) ObamaCare has set off a national debate on whether the measure is constitutional under Congress’s “Interstate Commerce Power.” The Constitution granted Congress the Interstate Commerce Power in two clauses. The first clause gave […]
Twenty Legal Rules for Conventions for Proposing Amendments
(To learn more about this topic, listen Justin Longo’s interview with Rob Natelson — “What Would an Article V Convention Look Like?“) This is the third in a series of three articles about the Constitution’s OTHER method of constitutional amendment – that is, rather than the amendment coming from Congress, the states force a “convention […]
Lest we forget…the horrendous consequences of ObamaCare
With the election just days away but passage of ObamaCare months in the past, it’s easy to forget the punishment inflicted by the “healthcare” law the President and Congress crammed down our throats. The following from the Spokane Spokesman-Review summarizes it. Before Election Day, pass it on.
How would a convention for proposing amendments work?
Last week I reported on the growing movement to “save the Constitution by amending it” – the much-precedented process of amending the Constitution to push the government back toward Founding-Era principles. Previous amendments have been proposed by Congress, and ratified by the states. But I noted that Congress is unlikely to propose amendments to limit […]
Amending the Constitution to Save It
To learn more: hear a podcast of “amending the Constitution to save it” at https://ivoices.org/. During the previous year or so there has been more and more interest in the idea of “amending the U.S. Constitution to save it.” Several websites are now devoted to that idea. One illustration is the site entitled “10 Amendments […]
Pro-Freedom Candidates Passing Up Candidate Forums? Good!!!
We’ll drop the constitutional-wonk stuff this week, and talk some practical politics. Our local paper has a story about how the Boulder, Colorado League of Women Voters had to cancel a candidate forum because local Republican candidates decided to direct their attentions elsewhere. The story has some generalized comment about how GOP candidates are allegedly […]
