Free Republic

Full Title: Constitutional Originalism or the "living Constitution": Gorsuch's nomination and a tale of two law profs Judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination has brought to the fore the seemingly dry argument about two competing theories of Constitutional interpretation, Originalism and the "living Constitution." Gorsuch himself is an "originalist" while the Democrat party arrayed against him puts its faith in a "living Constitution."Two recent essays both discuss Originalism and "the living Constitution": Prof. Glenn Reynolds' "Who the People?" in USA Today, and Prof. Mary Bilder's "The Constitution Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means" in the Boston Globe. Dry though the argument...

From a Renaissance fresco, “Take Rome as your example if you wish to rule a thousand years; follow the common good, and not selfish ends; and give just counsel like these men.” The Roman republic lasted several hundred years because it kept corruption of its institutions at bay. Its fall into empire and despotism began when the tribunate succumbed to corruption and no longer served to check the consuls. Once the senate was tamed through threats and promises of enrichment at public expense, there was no turning back. It happened quickly. Sulla marched on Rome in 82 BC and Julius...

BREAKING NEWS! Today North Dakota became the tenth state to successfully adopt our Article V legislation! This is a historic victory for the grassroots warriors of COS North Dakota, our legislative champions, and the American people. North Dakota joins nine other states calling for an Article V Convention of States for the purpose of proposing constitutional reforms that limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and set term limits for federal officials, including Congress and the judiciary! Americans see a flailing federal government that is out of ideas. We are ready to break the shackles...

In earlier posts we learned the legal and political sovereign over colonial America was the King-in-Parliament. After independence, both sovereignties relocated to the new state legislatures. From Part IV, the Constitution put the Declaration’s recognition of legal sovereignty in the people into practice. Peaceful Revolution. Man is incapable of creating a perfect institution, suitable for all times. Through Article V, the decay and eventual death that typifies republics was no longer inevitable. The Constitution never pretended to perfection or to the exclusion of future improvements. On the contrary, the healing principle in Article V enables the legal sovereign to return...

With everything that’s going on in politics these days, it helps to remember the power that we have as individuals to make change. Examples of this are far too few, of course. But there is one that stands out. And you’ve probably never heard it. The story begins in 1982. A 19-year-old sophomore named Gregory Watson was taking a government class at UT Austin. For the class, he had to write a paper about a governmental process. So he went to the library and started poring over books about the U.S. Constitution — one of his favorite topics. “I'll never...

After several years of trying, the Arizona State Legislature has just joined 8 other states in passing a Convention of States Resolution calling for a convention to propose amendments to the US Constitution. Today the AZ Senate joined the House in voting for this resolution. The called-for amendments proposals convention will be mujch more than an academic debate and an appeal as a supplicant to the US Congress. Article V (Part 2) of the US Constitution gives state legislatures the power to amend the US Constitution without the permission or approval of Congress, the President, or the Supreme Court. Yes,...

The Framing generation bequeathed a brilliant governing form to posterity. Perhaps its most notable feature is the separation of powers. Far less well-known, yet just as important, is what the Framers did with legal and political sovereignty. To review from previous posts: • The legal sovereign has unlimited, absolute, and supreme law-making power. The Constitution is the supreme law-making expression of the legal sovereign. • The political sovereign is the single person or body that writes statutes. As per Article I § 1, Congress is America’s political sovereign; it is responsible for crafting statutes necessary and proper to implement enumerated...

Our big spending national government—whether Republican, Democrat or whatever—ran up a national debt approaching ten trillion dollars during the 220 and some odd years prior to Obama taking office. During Obama’s 8 year term, our big spending government nearly doubled that debt. No one’s fault (cough, cough), but we and our posterity are now staring at an unbelievable, unmanageable, unsustainable, unpayable mountain of twenty trillion dollars in accumulated debt with no let up in sight! In fact they want to continue the wholesale printing and spending of money we don’t have and they’re planning on raising the debt ceiling to...

Subtitle: Sovereignty on the Move. Sovereignty is absolute. Notwithstanding the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God, a person or body is the legal sovereign when he or it has unlimited law-making power, when there is no person or body superior to him or it. During America’s colonial period, a single body, the King-in-Parliament (or equivalently, Parliament) was the legal sovereign. As legal sovereign, and being unencumbered by a written constitution, nothing limits the earthly, supreme lawmaking power of Parliament. Parliament can amend its unwritten constitution as it sees fit, and no Parliament is bound by a previous Parliament. By the...

The Declaration of Independence did not answer the question of American sovereignty very well. Despite the recognized right of the people to alter or abolish their form of government, the question of sovereignty continued to be an important theoretical question of politics throughout the following decade. Some held that legal and political sovereignty devolved to Congress. Others believed it belonged to the mass of the people. Unlike today, the concept of special conventions of the people as legal sovereign hardly existed in the early 1770s. Instead, the various congresses, and conventions of representatives from the colonies, or any other gatherings...

From a study of the debates at the 1787 Federal Convention and contemporary discussion in the States, our Framers anticipated Article V would be employed far more often than has proved to be the case. A fundamental part of our Constitution is the provision for future changes. Since all earthly creations suffer from decay and corruption, our Constitution is likewise in need of maintenance and repair. Defects accumulate in our governing form. Unless corrected and reversed in the reserved setting of a convention of states, errors and contradictions will accelerate until a divided society erupts in revolution. We must accept...

The Texas Senate, by a 20-11 vote, agreed Tuesday to a call for a Convention of States to consider amendments to the U.S. Constitution to rein in federal power and set federal term limits. The Senate also agreed to impose a state jail penalty on a legislator who violates his or her oath as a delegate to a potential national Convention of States, a measure intended to allay concerns about a runaway convention that might seek to amend the Constitution in ways not intended by the Legislature. Under Article V of the Constitution, two-thirds of the states can call for...

AUSTIN – Texas moved a big step closer on Wednesday toward asking Congress to call a “convention of states” aimed at rolling back the reach of the federal government and perhaps even overhauling the U.S. Constitution. “The federal government has treated the states as nothing more than a subcontractor to implement federal will,” said state Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican who shepherded two pieces of legislation necessary for Texas’ participation in a convention.

The State Senate of Tennessee has laid the legislative groundwork for something that hasn't been done in the United States of America since the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. With a vote of 27-3, the Tennessee Senate has voted to call a "convention of the states" in order to draft and pass an amendment to the Constitution that would require balanced budgets to be passed every year. For those who are little fuzzy on their high school U.S. history knowledge, the Tennessean explains that the U.S. Constitution can be amended in two ways. The first would require a two-thirds...

Early last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott delivered the keynote address to the Texas Public Policy Foundation. My heart skipped a beat when I read the title to his press release, Governor Abbott Unveils Texas Plan, Offers Constitutional Amendments to Restore the Rule of Law. Take a moment to click the link and scan the highlights. Now, when the governor of the second largest state in the Union, “gets it,” all of us in the COS movement should applaud. Few can match the combined political and professional resume’ of Greg Abbot. He was a Texas trial judge, an adjunct professor...

One of Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency items moved one step further Thursday when a Senate committee recommended a resolution that would back a convention of states. The Senate State Affairs Committee approved Senate Joint Resolution 2, by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, which calls for a national convention that would allow states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution — an action that could only happen with a two-thirds majority, or 34 states, signing onto the idea.

The John Birch Society (JBS) can thank itself for this post. A few days ago, the JBS unintentionally put a smile on my face when I attempted to comment on a column at their website. See the saved screenshot below. In response to a piece at The New American (TNA), Wyoming and Arkansas Reject Call for Convention of States Con-Con, I was prevented from posting to the comment section. Since it never went to moderation, the content of my comment was irrelevant. I wondered, how many other COS supporters are banned as well? Hmmm, maybe Mark Meckler, Michael Farris, and...

There’s a tendency among 21st century patriots to assume the foundation of republican free government, conventions of the sovereign people, was known from the moment of independence in 1776. While the essential purpose (security of rights) of any government, expressed so eloquently by Thomas Jefferson, was widely accepted, the actual process to arrive at such government remained elusive. How were thirteen distinct societies to go about replacing their previous monarchal régimes? Let’s look at one, Virginia. Virginia’s Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, dissolved the House of Burgesses when it passed a resolution on June 1st 1774 declaring a day of fasting...

The Utah House called Friday for a convention of the states to consider new amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which supporters said is the only way to rein in an out-of-control federal government. It passed HJR3 on a 45-29 vote, and sent it to the Senate for consideration. The resolution calls for a convention that would consider amendments to "impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress." "We are in jeopardy of losing our republic," said HJR3's sponsor,...

By an eyelash, portions of my community avoided a ban on housecats. I am not kidding. Last Saturday, my wife and I attended a meeting of county commissioners, civic groups, and the public. Its purpose was to explain an upcoming US Fish & Wildlife (USFW) approved regulation regarding protection of . . . a mouse. That’s right, the St. Andrews Beach Mouse. Government biologists couldn’t find one in rural Gulf County Florida, but our sand dunes and climate are perfect, they say, for the little critters. Habitat protection for a never-seen rodent will cost the average homebuilder at least several...