Constitutional Studies

Can Treaties Override the Constitution? An Issue Posed By Bond v. United States 0
- November 10, 2013
One of the most common questions posed to me when I discuss the Constitution on talk radio is “Can a treaty override the Constitution?” The question has arisen particularly in view of the pending Supreme Court case of Bond v. United States. In that case, Congress is claiming a power under the Treaty Clause that
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What About that Warren Burger Letter Against An Article V Convention?0
- November 2, 2013
Groups opposed to calling an Article V convention often cite an old letter written by the late Chief Justice Warren Burger opposing such a convention. It is strange that those groups should be quoting Berger, because they also purport to oppose the liberal activism—notably the abortion decision of Roe v. Wade—practiced by the Court when
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Rebutting the Claim that an “Anti-Corruption” Principle Should Re-Write the First Amendment 0
- October 27, 2013
Law professors are overwhelmingly left-of-center, and they spend an undue amount of time trying to justify nearly unlimited federal power. Sometimes they torture constitutional history to do so. For example, several have long asserted that the Constitution’s grant of power to Congress to regulate “Commerce” was designed to grant authority to regulate the entire economy—or
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Supreme Court’s Obamacare Decision Renders Federal “Tort-Reform” Bill Unconstitutional 0
- October 18, 2013
Just to show you that hypocrisy is alive and well in Washington, D.C. (as if you didn’t know), Title V of the Republican bill to “repeal and replace Obamacare” contains some of the same constitutional problems that led 27 states to challenge Obamacare. Under Title V, Congress would partially assume command of state jury trials
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Comparing an Article V Convention to a National Party Convention is Absurd 0
- October 12, 2013
Some alarmists are comparing an Article V convention to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The argument is that an amendments convention can be manipulated or stampeded just as a national party convention can be. The comparison is absurd—so much so that it shows mostly a lack of knowledge of the Article V process. First,
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Who Says History is Relevant to Article V? Well, the U.S. Supreme Court, For One!0
- October 10, 2013
In 1988, Oxford University Press published Russell Caplan’s book Constitutional Brinksmanship. It revealed some of the extensive history behind the Convention for Proposing Amendments in Article V of the Constitution. More recently, we have learned much more about that history. We now know that there were over 30 multi-colony and multi-state conventions before the Constitution
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