constitution
Paging James Madison!
What the Founders Feared
“The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” -- James Madison (1751-1836) America today would terrify the Founding Fathers. Armed troops roam the streets of major cities, masked government agents arrest people...
Can the President Tax You?
This week the Supreme Court will begin the process of deciding if the president can impose a sales tax on products and services which originate in foreign countries and are purchased in the United States. The president calls these taxes tariffs. Tariffs are nearly as...
The Right to Try
In all of the founding documents, the 13 states are referred to in the plural. In the concluding paragraph of “The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen united States of America,” which is always referred to as merely “The Declaration of Independence,” it says that...
A Constitution of No Authority
What if the whole purpose of the Constitution was to establish and to limit the federal government? What if Congress's 16 enumerated powers in the Constitution no longer limit Congress but are actually used as a justification to extend Congress's authority over nearly...
‘Show Me Your Papers!’
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons,houses, papers, and effects against unreasonablesearches and seizures shall not be violated,and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describingthe...
Constitution Day and Tucker’s Rule
Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, a time for government-mandated veneration of the U.S. Constitution. Educational institutions receiving federal funds must hold a program for students about our frame of government. According to Nicholas Kent, an undersecretary at the...
Taking the Constitution Seriously
Last week, the President of the United States did not take the Constitution seriously. He ordered the murders of 11 people who were riding in a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea around 1,300 miles from the U.S. Afterward he said he did so because he believed that they...
President Trump Bails on the Constitution
The Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses the national government’s power in regard to bail. As with many other provisions in this set of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the declaration regarding bail is one of limitation on the national...
The States and the Presidency
It is (my) intention to ... demand recognition of the distinctionbetween the powers granted to the Federal Governmentand those reserved to the States or to the people.All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Governmentdid not create the States; the States...
Burn A Flag…Go To Jail?
Burning the Flag or Torching the Constitution: Only One Destroys Freedom
Cancel culture—political correctness amped up on steroids, the self-righteousness of a narcissistic age, and a mass-marketed pseudo-morality that is little more than fascism disguised as tolerance—has shifted us into an Age of Intolerance. Nothing illustrates this...
The Runaway Texas Democrats
“The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”-- Ninth Amendment to the US Constitution When the Texas legislature decided to engage in the reapportionment of congressional districts...
Can the President Impose Taxes?
This week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -- which sits right below the Supreme Court -- is hearing a case of profound constitutional importance. It is the government’s appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, which...
To Enforce the Laws Faithfully
When the IRS announced two weeks ago that it would not enforce a section of federal law commonly called the Johnson Amendment, many clerics rejoiced. The Johnson Amendment -- named for its author, then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson -- strikes a bargain with charities. You...
No Due Process at Gitmo
Last week, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., invalidated a plea agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been incarcerated at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for 20 years. Mohammed has been charged with conspiracy to commit mass murder in...
My 46 Years of Contempt of Congress
“Those bastards didn’t send back my article! Now I have to re-type the whole piece before I can submit it somewhere else!” I growled standing by the apartment cluster mailbox on a sultry afternoon of July 3, 1979. “Did they just throw away or steal the stamps from the...
Searching for Monsters
“America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy ...She might become the dictatress of the world,But she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.”-- John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) In the middle of his term as Secretary of State, the future president...
The Coming Police State
We have seen this before. A foreign entity attacks American persons or property and the government warns that its sleeper cells have infiltrated the United States and it is somehow necessary to expand the powers of the government and shrink protections for civil...
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