John Marshall Refuted Claims that the Feds Have “Inherent Sovereign Authority”
Chief Justice John Marshall refuted “inherent sovereign authority” claims.
Without The Constitution You Might Be Someone’s Slave Today—And Other Crucial Facts About The Founding
On June 14, I keynoted a conference on the American Founding. The conference was sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an educational and publishing non-profit that focuses on civic education for college students. The keynote included six crucial facts about the framing and ratification of our Constitution: First: The Constitution was the product of careful […]
The Constitutional Convention Did Not Exceed Its Power and the Constitution is not “Unconstitutional”
Judging by recent claims in the media such as this one, there is still a lot of life in the old tale (dating back to the Anti-Federalists) that the 1787 federal convention “ran away” and that the Constitution was unconstitutionally adopted. I’ve dealt with both claims in this column occasionally (see, e.g., here and here), […]
Why the Framers Could Suggest Ratification by Only Nine States
In prior postings such as the one here, I have explained why it is wrong to claim that the commissioners (delegates) to the 1787 Constitutional Convention exceeded their power in recommending that the Articles of Confederation be replaced by a new instrument. Another aspect of the same charge is that the Framers exceed their power […]
