The Results Are In: The Obamacare “Penalty” Didn’t Violate the Origination Clause, but Obamacare’s Regulations Did
Is the penalty for not buying insurance in the Affordable Care Act (ACA—Obamacare) unconstitutional as a “tax” that originated in […]
Get Members of Congress Out of the Business of Rigging Campaign Rules
The Supreme Court’s latest campaign finance decision, McCutcheon v. FEC, has sent up the predictable howls. In McCutcheon, the Court
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Ownership of Federal Land: Answers Suggested by the Bundy Standoff
The Bundy stand-off in Nevada has induced several people to ask me about the extent to which the federal government
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The American Founders: Latin Lovers
Take out a dollar bill and look on the back. There you will see the two sides of the Great
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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,
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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,
Sources for Understanding the Constitution's Original Force Read More »
Justice Thomas, Quoting Rob Natelson, Had the Constitution Correct In the Arizona Citizenship-for-Voting Case
NOTE: This is the first of several short commentaries on recent Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court recently ruled that
Constitutional Arcana: The Forgotten Navigation Convention of 1786
In an earlier post, I reported that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was far from unique: that during the lifetime
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The Constitution’s officers
Proceeding on the very reasonable theory that the Founders knew what they were doing . . . Seth Barrett Tillman has spent considerable effort reconstructing the meanings of different office/officer phrases.
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Did the Founders expect the Courts to Declare Laws Unconstitutional?
Every so often I’m asked whether the Founders anticipated judicial review. In other words, whether the Founders expected the courts
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The Great Forgetting
The meaning of some of the Constitution’s 18th century terminology was lost during the 19th century, leading to widespread misunderstanding.
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The greatly misunderstood Chief Justice John Marshall
One of the most enduring myths in American constitutional history is that Chief Justice John Marshall was a judicial activist
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