federalism

Evidence on the Powers the Constitution Leaves Exclusively to the States 0
- May 18, 2015
This column also appears at CNSNews. The Constitution enumerates the powers of the federal government. But has anyone listed the exclusive powers of states—the realm the federal government may not invade without violating the Constitution? When discussing state authority, the Founders usually pointed out only that the federal government’s powers were, as Madison said, “few
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Resisting Federal Usurpation: Comments by Theophilus Parsons 0
- January 4, 2015
Several years ago, I wrote on this site about the contributions to the American Founding of Josiah Quincy. Another little-known Founder who should be more widely celebrated today was Theophilus Parsons. Parsons was from the same Massachusetts circle that produced Quincy. He was an an outstanding lawyer and an eloquent spokesman for republican government and
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The Washington Post Picks Up the Flag from the Convention Alarmists 0
- October 27, 2014
The past week saw yet another assault on those reformers who seek to cure federal dysfunction by promoting a “Convention for proposing Amendments.” The latest attack took the form of an opinion column that in content offered nothing new. It featured many of the usual errors of commission and omission: The author confused a “Convention
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More evidence that “progressivism” increasingly is totalitarianism 0
- July 7, 2014
Early this year in The American Thinker and in this column I discussed state marijuana legalization and federalism. I cautioned against advocates of freedom and federalism forming alliances with the “progressive” left on those issues in which the left claimed to favor free choice. I pointed out that that for that bunch”free choice” is nearly
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Conservatives need to support trial by jury, too 0
- June 18, 2014
Although I’ve often criticized the constitutional tone-deafness of “progressives,” conservatives can sometimes exhibit such tendencies as well. Over at The Seventh Amendment Advocate, Andy Cochran points out why trial by jury in civil cases—as guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment—is important, and how some conservatives disregard it. The problem arises because when constituency politics often trumps
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Momentum for Amendments Convention Accelerates 0
- June 5, 2014
It increasingly looks like a “convention for proposing amendments” is really going to happen. The last 18 months have witnessed a flood of new state legislative applications for such a convention. New Hampshire re-booted the process in 2012 with an application for a convention limited to considering a balanced budget amendment. Late last year, the
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