The Materials You Need for Researching the Original Constitution
Note: This article originally appeared at The American Thinker. When lawyers and judges interpret legal documents, they usually try to ascertain the understanding of the parties to the document—or, more precisely, something they call the “intent” behind the document. The Founding Era phrase was “intent of the makers.” The “intent of the makers” is what […]
A Woman as President? The Gender-Neutral Constitution.
Note: This article was originally published at the leading constitutional law website, The Volokh Conspiracy, which is affiliated with the Washington Post. Consider these two quotations: “Indeed, the argument is made that under originalism it would be unconstitutional to elect a woman as president or vice president because the Constitution refers to these officeholders as […]
Answering Questions About the Voting Rules at a Convention for Proposing Amendments
Note: 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 […]
The Constitution's Financial Terms
Note: 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 […]
Trying to Alter the Traditional Amendments Convention Voting Rule Is a Mistake
Note: This article first appeared in The American Thinker. Advocates of a federal balanced budget amendment are closing in on the 34 states necessary to require Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments. Other groups, such as the Convention of States project, are working assiduously toward the same goal. If they succeed, it will […]
Some of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Mistakes in the Douglas County School Choice Case
As people who follow education reform already know, the Colorado Supreme Court recently struck down the Douglas County school board’s school choice program. It did so based on Article IX, Section 7 of the state constitution. This is sometimes called Colorado’s “Blaine Amendment,” although that phrase is technically a misnomer. Actually, the Blaine Amendment was […]
Still More Evidence That An Amendments Convention is a "Convention of States"
The term “convention of states” (or “convention of the states”) dates at least from the year 1780. By 1788 it was being applied specifically to a convention for proposing amendments under the new Constitution. Throughout the 19th century, the phrase “convention of states” was probably the most common way to denominate an Article V convention—even […]
What does “Due Process of Law” mean? Hint: SCOTUS had it wrong: It’s irrelevant to same-sex marriage
Note: An earlier version of this article appeared in The American Thinker. The Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution each has a Due Process Clause. The Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause prohibited the federal government from depriving any person of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The Fourteenth Amendment extended that […]
Creating Constitutional Protections Against American Socialism
Note: This article is cross-posted on CNSNews. If any public policy lesson stands out from the experience of the 20th century, it is that socialism doesn’t work. I use the word “socialism” in its technical sense of government ownership of the means of production—or, in lay language, government operation of business enterprises. Socialism in this […]
How A Famous English Convention Clarifies the Role of a Convention of States
Note: This article first appeared on the American Thinker website. In the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, a “convention” can mean a contract, but the word is more often applied to an assembly, other than a legislature, convened to address ad hoc political problems. The “Convention for proposing Amendments” authorized by Article V of the Constitution is […]
Rob Natelson on TV: Explaining the Constitutional Issues in "Birthright Citizenship"
How the Constitutional Case Against Citizenship for Children of Illegal Entrants SHOULD Be Argued
This is a corrected version of an article originally appearing at the American Thinker website. It is the third of a three-part series. In two prior postings (here and here), I listed flaws in the constitutional arguments of opponents of birthright citizenship for children of aliens living here illegally. For children to be American citizens […]
