Commentary “Power to the People” was a chant used by anti-war and civil rights protesters in the ’60s. John Lennon wrote a song with that title in 1971. The idea flowed from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution which begins, “We the People.” The concept behind that phrase was that the people, not the government, are sovereign…
Defending the Constitution From the ‘Living Constitutionalists’
Commentary “Originalism” means applying the Constitution as the Founders understood it. Originalism is just a modern name for how English and American judges and lawyers have read most legal documents for at least 500 years (pdf). By respecting the understanding behind a document, originalism keeps the document alive. By contrast, there’s no simple definition of…
Lost Liberties
Commentary If one can say the pandemic has had any positive side effect, it has been to help us focus on what the loss of liberties looks like. Such losses do not occur immediately but erode over time as people become increasingly comfortable with government claiming to know what is best for us. The Biden…
Defending the Constitution: The Framers Did Not Violate Their Trust
April 12, 2021
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Commentary This is the fifth in a series of essays defending the U.S. Constitution against common accusations against it. This essay examines the claim that that the framers—the Constitution’s drafters—staged a coup d’état by proposing a new Constitution. As usually stated, the allegation is that: The Confederation Congress adopted a resolution calling a convention limited…
Defending the Constitution: Why the Founders Couldn’t Abolish Slavery
Commentary This is the third in a series of essays defending our Constitution against unfair accusations from so-called “progressives.” The first essay rebutted the charge that the Constitution discriminated against women. The second corrected the claim that the three-fifths compromise was motivated by racism. This essay responds to incessant efforts to link the Constitution with…
Defending the Constitution: The ‘Three-Fifths Compromise’ Was Not Based on Racism
Commentary This is the second in a series of essays answering defamatory charges leveled against the U.S. Constitution. The first in the series addressed the allegation that the Constitution discriminated against women. In fact, as that essay showed, the framers took pains to ensure the document was gender-neutral. Another false charge is that the Constitution…
Opinion: The Founders Warned Us About Abuses Like H.R. 1
Commentary H.R. 1, the bill that would seize control of federal elections from the states, comes with an unusual twist. It supposedly promotes “access.” But it says anyone challenging its constitutionality is barred from every court in the nation but a single federal trial court in Washington, D.C.! Under H.R. 1, some citizens get more…
The Founders Warned Us About Abuses Like H.R. 1
Commentary H.R. 1, the bill that would seize control of federal elections from the states, comes with an unusual twist. It supposedly promotes “access.” But it says anyone challenging its constitutionality is barred from every court in the nation but a single federal trial court in Washington, D.C.! Under H.R. 1, some citizens get more…
How a ‘Convention of States’ Really Works
Commentary “Ignorance lies not in the things you don’t know, but in the things you know that ain’t so.” — Will Rogers In an earlier, widely shared, essay I contended that state legislatures should require Congress to call a “convention of the states.” Article V of the Constitution empowers such a convention to propose constitutional amendments…
Opinion: How a ‘Convention of States’ Really Works
Commentary “Ignorance lies not in the things you don’t know, but in the things you know that ain’t so.” — Will Rogers In an earlier, widely shared, essay I contended that state legislatures should require Congress to call a “convention of the states.” Article V of the Constitution empowers such a convention to propose constitutional amendments…
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