More Founding-Era Evidence that Some State Functions Derive Only From the Constitution (With Some Comments on the Amendment Process)
In prior posts, I’ve discussed two key elements of constitutional law: 1. The Constitution grants some powers to persons and entities other than the federal government. These persons and entities include state legislatures, state governors, state conventions, the Article V “Convention for proposing Amendments,” Congress as a free-standing assembly, and the Electoral College. 2. When […]
Rob and “The Original Constitution”
Rob discusses why he wrote his popular book, The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant, in this Independence Institute Freedom Minute.
What the 1777 Georgia Constitution Tells Us About the Article V Convention Process
When interpreting a legal document, you often can get clues from looking at any predecessors to the document. For example, what did earlier drafts say? What did previous documents that served as models provide? Did the framers of the final version mirror earlier wording, or did they change it? If a phrase in an earlier […]
Cruz Withdrawal Postpones “Natural Born” Issue
This article first appeared in the Forth Worth Star Telegram. A silver lining to the withdrawal of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, from the presidential race is that we will be spared a battle over whether he met the Constitution’s requirement the president be a “natural born citizen.” The evidence is not all one way, but […]
Newly-Published Ratification Documents Confirm Our Conclusions on the Amendment Process
The Wisconsin Historical Society publishes successive volumes of the Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States. As its name indicates, the Documentary History is a multi-volume set of books containing documents from the debates over the Constitution’s ratification. The Wisconsin Historical Society published fairly recently two volumes from the debates in Maryland. There […]
Is the “Compact for America” Plan to Amend the Constitution Constitutional? Unfortunately not.
II’s Article V Information Center has just issued a law report concluding that the “Compact for America” approach to amending the Constitution is, unfortunately, almost wholly unconstitutional.
New Article on What “Taxes” Are (And Aren’t) Under the Constitution, and the Implications for Obamacare
Was the Supreme Court right to call Obamacare’s insurance penalty a “tax?”
What is an Amendments Convention “Application?” What is a “Call?”
Article V of the Constitution states that “The Congress . . . on Applications of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments.”
Antonin Scalia, RIP
Justice Antonin Scalia was one of the most eloquent opinion writers in the history of the United States Supreme Court–perhaps the greatest of all. His dissents may have been the most powerful ever written. Justice Scalia was more than an outstanding lawyer: He was an perceptive social commentator. In tribute, I reproduce below his […]
What Does the Constitution Say About Federal Land Ownership?
The “Bundy stand-off” in Oregon at a federal wildlife refuge has triggered (or, rather, re-triggered) questions about the constitutionality of federal land ownership. Westerners in particular question why the federal government should own nearly 30% of the country. In the West, the issue is particularly important. The federal government has title to about half the […]
English Law and the Constitution
Credits: This article arose out of conversations with constitutional commentator Gary Porter. After I wrote my article on the meaning of the constitutional term “natural born,” some people asked me why the English version of that term applied rather than versions prevailing in other countries. The reason is that when the drafters of the original […]
Claims that Senator Cruz is not “Natural Born” Need to be Taken Seriously
Note: A shorter version of this article originally appeared at The Originalism Blog at the University of San Diego. Some commentators are dismissing as merely frivolous the claim that Senator Ted Cruz is not a “natural born citizen” as the Constitution uses that term, and therefore ineligible for the presidency. This dismissive attitude is a […]
