How a Conspiracy Cracked a Monopoly
Anyone interested in the constitutional debate over the “Affordable Care Act” should pick up a copy of the new book, A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case. This “conspiracy” was not a political plot or an illegal combination. Rather, it is one of the nation’s two top constitutional law websites—a […]
John F. Kennedy, RIP
History tends to correct the errors of contemporaneous perceptions, and on the 50th anniversary of his assassination there were far fewer mentions than in prior years about President Kennedy’s “greatness.” I was coming of age when President Kennedy was shot, and well remember the shock, first in my high school study hall and next in […]
Sources for Understanding the Constitution’s Original Force
Would you like to examine some of the documents we use to better understand the original Constitution? Several years ago, I wrote the first Internet essay on how to find the sources vital to interpreting the Constitution as the Founders intended it to be. I have just updated that essay. It is called A Bibliography […]
Sources for Understanding the Constitution's Original Force
Would you like to examine some of the documents we use to better understand the original Constitution? Several years ago, I wrote the first Internet essay on how to find the sources vital to interpreting the Constitution as the Founders intended it to be. I have just updated that essay. It is called A Bibliography […]
Can Treaties Override the Constitution? An Issue Posed By Bond v. United States
One of the most common questions posed to me when I discuss the Constitution on talk radio is “Can a treaty override the Constitution?” The question has arisen particularly in view of the pending Supreme Court case of Bond v. United States. In that case, Congress is claiming a power under the Treaty Clause that […]
What About that Warren Burger Letter Against An Article V Convention?
Groups opposed to calling an Article V convention often cite an old letter written by the late Chief Justice Warren Burger opposing such a convention. It is strange that those groups should be quoting Berger, because they also purport to oppose the liberal activism—notably the abortion decision of Roe v. Wade—practiced by the Court when […]
Rebutting the Claim that an “Anti-Corruption” Principle Should Re-Write the First Amendment
Law professors are overwhelmingly left-of-center, and they spend an undue amount of time trying to justify nearly unlimited federal power. Sometimes they torture constitutional history to do so. For example, several have long asserted that the Constitution’s grant of power to Congress to regulate “Commerce” was designed to grant authority to regulate the entire economy—or […]
Supreme Court’s Obamacare Decision Renders Federal “Tort-Reform” Bill Unconstitutional
Just to show you that hypocrisy is alive and well in Washington, D.C. (as if you didn’t know), Title V of the Republican bill to “repeal and replace Obamacare” contains some of the same constitutional problems that led 27 states to challenge Obamacare. Under Title V, Congress would partially assume command of state jury trials […]
Comparing an Article V Convention to a National Party Convention is Absurd
Some alarmists are comparing an Article V convention to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The argument is that an amendments convention can be manipulated or stampeded just as a national party convention can be. The comparison is absurd—so much so that it shows mostly a lack of knowledge of the Article V process. First, […]
Who Says History is Relevant to Article V? Well, the U.S. Supreme Court, For One!
In 1988, Oxford University Press published Russell Caplan’s book Constitutional Brinksmanship. It revealed some of the extensive history behind the Convention for Proposing Amendments in Article V of the Constitution. More recently, we have learned much more about that history. We now know that there were over 30 multi-colony and multi-state conventions before the Constitution […]
Shut 'Er Down!
Two stories in today’s Denver Post show how cynically the mainstream media are playing the story about what they misleadingly call a “government shutdown.” Of course, it’s really not a shutdown, just a slowdown—more on that below. And in our constitutional system the states, not the feds, are the primary line of government. The states […]
Colorado's Billion-Dollar Tax Hike Proposal: Really Bad Constitution-Writing
Hear Justin Longo’s interview with Rob on Amendment 66. Colorado’s Amendment 66—the billion dollar tax hike—is a constitutional monstrosity. Amendment 66 is, technically, not entirely a constitutional amendment. It is an unusual hybrid of constitutional amendment and change in the state tax law. The secretary of state refers to it as Initiative 22, and it […]
