Birthright Citizenship Opponents Should Not Rely on 14th Amendment Congressional Debates
An earlier version of this article first appeared in The American Thinker. Opponents of birthright citizenship often cite fragments of the congressional debate over the Fourteen Amendment’s Citizenship Clause to argue that the amendment’s drafters intended to exclude the children of visiting foreigners. However, reliance on these fragments is a mistake. Opponents of birthright citizenship […]
An Objective Guide to Birthright Citizenship
An earlier version of this article appeared in The American Thinker. This is a guide to the constitutional issue of whether a child is a citizen if born in the United States to alien parents here illegally. If you are simply looking for arguments to bolster your political views, look elsewhere. If you are genuinely […]
Term Limits for the Supreme Court?
This article first appeared in the American Thinker. Term limits are among the reforms being proposed by advocates of curbing federal government abuses through the Constitution’s Article V amendment process. The idea of congressional term limits has been around for some time. But more recent discussion centers on term limits for the judiciary, especially for […]
Rob Responds to Editorial Praising Order Forcing Baker to Make Same-Sex Wedding Cake
The following response to a Denver Post editorial first appeared in the Aug. 23, 2015 Denver Post. Are those signs that say “no shirts/no service” now illegal? Your August 14 editorial endorses a court ruling forcing a baker—at the cost of his livelihood!—to assist conduct his religious faith says is immoral. “Commercial establishments can’t pick […]
Proposed Rules for An Article V Convention!
If 34 state legislatures forced Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments, what would the rules look like? The Convention of States movement (CoS) wanted an answer to this question. So its president asked me to take the lead in drafting sample rules. Then CoS would present them to state legislators for comment. This […]
"Runaway Convention" Nonsense—One More Time
Seldom has a claim so weak been so often advanced than the claim that a convention for proposing amendments would be a “constitutional convention” that could “run away”—that is, disregard its limits and propose amendments outside its sphere of authority. I have little patience with this sort of alarmism, partly because it is so patently […]
A Convention of States in “Gone With the Wind”
Margaret Mitchell, the author of the hugely popular novel Gone With the Wind, was a newspaper reporter and the child of a family steeped in history. Her father, a prominent Georgia attorney, was one of the leading lights in the state historical society. That her book has a plethora of references to historical events occurring […]
A "Prestige Journal" Effort to Rebut Rob
Most of the “prestige” law journals have shown no interest in publishing my articles, including those that later turned out to be influential. This is not surprising, since year after year those journals remain firmly in the hands of the legal Left. But the prestige journals have shown considerable interest in publishing articles that cite […]
Whither the Article V Convention Movement? David Guldenschuh Reports
The movement for a “convention for proposing amendments” won some stunning successes in the 2014 state legislative sessions. There was more progress during the 2015 sessions—several applications were passed and none was repealed—but the rate of progress slowed. So where are we now? Georgia lawyer and Article V expert David Guldenschuh has issued a detailed […]
The Legal Case for Federal Land Disposal is Much Stronger than Critics Think
The American Lands Council is a Utah-based organization that argues that the federal government should transfer part of its massive land holdings to the states. In recent weeks, apologists for federal land ownership have been savaging the American Lands Council and its leader, Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, in the Utah press. I don’t agree with […]
Wisdom From A Framer on Federalism, Guns, and the Amendment Process
This article was first published on CNS News. A newly published speech by one of our Framers offers important clues to the constitutional role of the states, of the right to keep and bear arms, and of the amendment process. Charles Carroll of Carrollton represented Maryland at the Constitutional Convention. After the convention was over, […]
Although Chief Justice Roberts’ Dissent in the Arizona Legislature Case Cited My Research, I Actually Agree With the Majority!
In my last post, I discussed the effect on Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n. In this post, I explain why the Arizona case was decided correctly. Some people may be surprised that I think the holding was correct. I’m politically […]
