Part I: Judicial activism: Here’s a core reason for it you’ve never heard about
The Founders erected the American legal system to operate in the context of Anglo-American judicial values. The rules placed expressly or implicitly in the Constitution . . . were designed to operate in that context. However, the context changed.
Drafting a Balanced Budget Amendment: It’s tougher than you might think
Of course, it is one thing to criticize, but another to try to craft something better.
If you want to win a Supreme Court case, it helps to play to “progressive” values
Observe how many of the Left’s ideological buttons the plaintiff’s lawyers pushed: non-profit, recycling, mandatory government fee, poverty, disabilities, environment—and that interminably-overused mantra: community.
The last convention of states ever held? It Centered on the Upper Colorado River
“This latest convention of states operated according to standard convention of states protocols.”
Supreme Court’s Ruling Against the PC Police
The Supreme Court’s decision this week in Matal v. Tam sent a clear warning to government officials who seek to curtail speech they deem offensive: We won’t let you do it! The warning was particularly pointed for the PC Police at state universities who try to close down viewpoints they find “offensive.” A federal law ordered the […]
The Define and Punish Clause doesn’t authorize vast federal power either
Legal commentators have spread a good deal of ink trying to show that the Constitution authorizes the enormous expansion of the federal government since the 1930s. Leading the way have been some associated—as professors, students, or alumni—with the most privileged educational institutions: Harvard, Yale, Chicago, and so forth. Their publications inflated the Commerce Clause to […]
Fake News: How Leading Liberal Newspapers Spread the “Runaway Convention” Story
Although there were scattered antecedents, “runaway convention” claims and certain associated myths were first distributed widely during the 1960s and 1970s. In a previous Article V Information Center study, I documented how those stories were publicized by leading opinion-molders in the national liberal establishment. Their goal was to disable the Article V convention process to […]
The Convention of States in American History
In this short essay, constitutional historian Rob Natelson thumbnails the three-centuries long history of “conventions of the states.” When delegations from the states assemble in Phoenix, Arizona later this year, they will be basking in a long and rich American tradition. As far back as 1677, British colonies in North America sent “commissioners” (delegates) to […]
Convention Rules for a Convention of the States
The convention of the states meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in September will need a set of rules. Moreover, that convention will be engaged in further rule-writing because the Arizona Legislature called it partly to suggest rules for a prospective Article V Convention for Proposing Amendments. I suggest the planners start with the Model Rules provided […]
Where Congress’s Power to Regulate Immigration Comes From
Congress’s power to regulate immigration comes from the law of nations—the meaning of which many constitutional commentators are unfamiliar.
How Progressives Promoted the “Runaway Convention” Myth To Protect the “Warren Court’s” Judicial Activism
You may have heard alarms that if we hold a national convention for proposing constitutional amendments the gathering would be an uncontrollable constitutional convention (“con-con”) that could propose anything at all. The claim is called the “runaway scenario.” It has almost no basis in history or law. But it has long frightened Americans away from […]
The Constitution does indeed permit immigration caps as part of ‘the law of nations’
Some pro-immigration activists question whether the federal government has any constitutional power over immigration. “Where,” they ask, “is the word ‘immigration’ among the powers the Constitution grants to Congress?”
