Understanding the Constitution: the 14th Amendment: Part I
- Constitution
- November 15, 2021
Note: This series of six articles originally appeared in the Washington Post’s “Volokh Conspiracy,” a leading constitutional law website. Part I appears below, and Parts III-VI will be posted in the coming weeks. How Article V was Drafted and Ratified The commissioners who met in Philadelphia to propose a plan to render the American
READ MOREArticle V activists have had to deal with the defamatory, and potentially actionable, charge that they are supported by socialist billionaire George Soros. As far as I can determine, however, no one in the movement has been able to identify any pro-Article V Soros money at all. On the contrary, Soros-funded groups have repeatedly assailed
READ MORENote: This article was first published in the American Thinker. The Assembly of State Legislatures (ASL) has adjourned from its latest meeting, still without having produced a set of rules for an Article V amendments convention. I have been an enthusiastic supporter of ASL. I have to acknowledge, however, that missteps have impeded its progress.
READ MORENote: Government spending to promote a specific political candidate is usually illegal, but we all know it happens. A recent example is the incident described below, which occurred in Lakewood, Colorado, a city of about 150,000 people located just west of Denver. This short article first appeared as a letter to the editor of the
READ MORENote: This column appeared originally at the American Thinker. In a recent post, I examined suggestions that a convention of the states for proposing amendments adopt a supermajority rule for proposing any amendment. Most commonly suggested is that the convention replace the traditional “majority of states decides” standard with a two thirds requirement. I explained
READ MORENote: This was originally a four-part series published at the leading constitutional law website, “The Volokh Conspiracy,” which is affiliated with the Washington Post. This succession of four parts discusses such questions as why the Supreme Court was wrong to characterize the Obamacare insurance penalty as a “tax,” why the apportionment requirement was adopted and
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