CONSTITUTION - Supreme Court - Independence Institute

Is the “Compact for America” Procedure to Amend the Constitution Constitutional?—An Update 0
- May 10, 2016
Because of widespread interest in the Article V Information Center’s report on the legality of the “Compact for America” approach to amending the Constitution, we are reprinting it here. Distilled to its essence, the “Compact” approach is unconstitutional because it seeks to change, through state legislative action (statutes and interstate compacts), the amendment procedure specified in
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New Article on What “Taxes” Are (And Aren’t) Under the Constitution, and the Implications for Obamacare 0
- March 27, 2016
Was the Supreme Court right to call Obamacare’s insurance penalty a “tax?”
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Antonin Scalia, RIP 0
- February 13, 2016
Justice Antonin Scalia was one of the most eloquent opinion writers in the history of the United States Supreme Court–perhaps the greatest of all. His dissents may have been the most powerful ever written. Justice Scalia was more than an outstanding lawyer: He was an perceptive social commentator. In tribute, I reproduce below his
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What Does the Constitution Say About Federal Land Ownership?0
- February 6, 2016
The “Bundy stand-off” in Oregon at a federal wildlife refuge has triggered (or, rather, re-triggered) questions about the constitutionality of federal land ownership. Westerners in particular question why the federal government should own nearly 30% of the country. In the West, the issue is particularly important. The federal government has title to about half the
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More On Why Amendment Procedures Are Not Governed by the States’ Tenth Amendment Powers 0
- January 30, 2016
A few groups pushing constitutional amendments are trying to convince state legislatures to adopt laws and interstate compacts that rely on state authority reserved by the Tenth Amendment. This is a serious mistake—one that likely will lead to defeat in the courts. In a recent article, I pointed out that the courts have held repeatedly
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The Impending Convention for Proposing Amendments — Part V 0
- January 3, 2016
Note: This series of six articles originally appeared in the Washington Post’s “Volokh Conspiracy,” a leading constitutional law website. Parts I II, III, and IV appear below this post, and Part VI will be posted in the near future. How the Convention for Proposing Amendments Became the Subject of Popular Mythology Throughout the century and
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