The Constitutional Case For Gridlock
These days, it is common to hear people criticize government on the basis that it “can’t get anything done.” Partisan gridlock is often raised as a culprit, and it is almost universally condemned by...
View ArticleThe Virginia Ratifying Convention and the Birth of the Tenth Amendment
The modern debate over the meaning of the Constitution often devolves into a dueling opinions between legal experts and judges. But the true meaning of the document and the kind of government it...
View ArticleNo Federal Power over Guns, Even if the 2nd Amendment Never Existed
Proponents of federal gun control have seized upon the most recent shooting to advance their agenda, predictably trotting out the same worn narratives. Chief among these we find the argument that the...
View ArticleThe Ninth and Tenth Amendments: Keystones of Liberty
The founding generation created a political system that carefully divided powers and that was designed to ensure the general government remained limited in its scope and power. That system has all but...
View ArticleDue Process Is Vital to Freedom
“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” — Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution The clash in American history between liberty and safety is as old...
View ArticleTench Coxe on State vs Federal Power under the Constitution
The federal government has no constitutional authority to do the vast majority of the things it does today. Of course, this truth runs counter to conventional wisdom and everything you learned in your...
View ArticleNine Reasons the “Living, Breathing” Constitution View Is a Lie
The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice nominee Neil Gorsuch have reinvigorated the debate about how to properly interpret the Constitution. The nominee’s reputation as an “originalist” has...
View ArticleConstitution 101: To “Provide for the Common Defense”
Many people use the general welfare clause as their “the federal government can do anything and everything clause.” Others have turned the phrase “provide for the common defense” into a similar...
View ArticleThis Week in History: The Philadelphia Convention Begins
When delegates gathered in Philadelphia 230 years ago this week to consider changes to the structure of the general government, many prominent delegates brought plans to create a much stronger central...
View ArticleThe Preamble to the Constitution: What It Tells Us and What It Doesn’t
For many Americans, knowledge of the Constitution begins and ends with the preamble. A lot of people probably even memorized it at some point in school. I suppose you could laud the educational system...
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The Original Meaning of an Omission
Editor’s Note: This scholarly study, “The Original Meaning of an Omission: The Tenth Amendment, Popular Sovereignty and “Expressly” Delegated Power,” by Kurt T. Lash, is one of the finest examples of...
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Congress: A Wealth-Eating Virus
With the nation in the midst of an economic crisis, many groups and individuals are questioning the massive spending and so-called economic stimulus bills recently passed by Congress. This includes...
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What A Little-Known Colonial Pamphlet Tells Us About the Constitution
Between 1764 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Americans produced a rich series of pamphlets and resolutions listing their grievances against the central government of the British Empire. As...
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You don’t have “Constitutional Rights.” You have Rights.
You do not have constitutional rights.You just have rights.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable...
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There’s Much More than just the Federalist Papers
Neat Stuff We Learn About the Constitution When We Go Beyond The Federalist PapersIf you want to know more about the Constitution, don’t rely exclusively—or even primarily—on the Federalist Papers.For...
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A Limiting Document?
There is a common mantra among those who pursue the old republican principles of freedom and limited government that the Constitution limits the power of the central government, and therefore if we...
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Living, Breathing is the Same as Dead
Many people want strong centralized authority running things.They have an agenda.Things to get done.Needs.Of course, they want to control that centralized authority. That way, they can stop other...
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How The Constitution Ended Slavery
While defending the Constitution I am met often with two questions: 1) If the founders were so great and the Constitution such a great document, why did it preserve slavery? 2) Why did the...
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Constitutional War Powers: A Guard Against Tyranny
In 1787, amidst a sweltering Philadelphia summer and equally heated debates over the proposed constitution, James Madison warned his fellow delegates of the danger that giving the president the power...
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The Constitution Doesn’t Create Rights
I heard an interesting conversation on a radio show the other day.The host was talking about NSA spying, and the discussion turned to recent revelations that the agency listened in on phone calls of...
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