Article I of the US Constitution
The United States Congress is the branch of government that passes laws. The authority to do this is granted by Article I of the Constitution. The Constitution is organized into seven articles. Article...
View ArticleWe the People: Gouverneur Morris & the US Constitution’s Preamble
There were many luminaries at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Washington, Franklin et al. Often overlooked is the Preamble’s author, Gouverneur Morris. The Constitution’s Preamble has stood as the...
View ArticleThe First American Christmas: The Battle of Trenton
In December, 1776 the British had driven Gen. George Washington and his men out of New York and across New Jersey. Things looked bleak for the Americans. In their escape from the British the Americans...
View ArticleArticle VII of the US Constitution: Ratification
The Articles of Confederation was the original operating document of the United States. Under the Articles, there was a weak central government. The government had little authority to raise revenue and...
View ArticleBill of Rights of the US Constitution: Promise Made, Promise Kept
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. These amendments limit the power of the federal government. The Constitution was a grant of power to the...
View ArticleSeparation of Powers in the US Constitution: 1800 Years of Thought
All American schoolchildren are taught about the three branches of the federal government: legislative, executive and judicial. The Constitution’s establishment of these branches came from over 1800...
View ArticleFirst Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of Religion
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are referred to as the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment protects “freedom of expression” for Americans by restricting government authority to pass...
View ArticleThe Web of Law: International, Natural, Common, Constitutional, Statutes &...
While the Constitution is the organic legal document of the United States, it is not the only source of law or legitimate government authority. There is a hierarchy and interrelationship among the...
View ArticleThe First Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of Speech
The US Constitution’s first ten amendments are called The Bill of Rights. The First Amendment limits the authority of government to enact laws impinging upon the natural rights of the people to...
View ArticleFirst Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of the Press
Like Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, in the United States the concept of Freedom of the Press as it developed has been uniquely American. Along with free speech for the general population,...
View ArticleNatural Law and the Legitimate Authority of the United States
Government needs a basis to exercise authority over people. Citizens must accept government authority. A government lacking acceptance of the people over whom it exercises authority will not endure....
View ArticleFirst Amendment to US Constitution: Right to Peaceable Assembly
The Constitution’s First Amendment contains limits on government interference with very well known unalienable rights: religion, speech and press. The Amendment specifically restricts government...
View ArticleAmerican Federalism: Source, Purpose and Establishment Part I
“The federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers, and designed for different purposes.” James Madison The Federalist,...
View ArticleAmerican Federalism: Source, Purpose and Establishment Part II
Beginning with The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639,[1] Americans grew increasingly accustomed to local self-government. They also learned the freedom and liberty that came along with a...
View ArticleUS Constitution’s First Amendment: Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses five rights. The limits on government interference with religion, speech and the press were the result of the uniquely American experience. The...
View ArticleTrayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the Founders’ Faith in Grand Juries
“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution…” Thomas Jefferson The death of Trayvon Martin during an...
View ArticleThe Second Amendment: A Personal Natural Right to Keep and Bear Arms
“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.” District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) With those...
View ArticleThe Government May Be “Shut Down” But The Constitution Is Hard At Work
Despite a century long[1] effort to eviscerate and ignore the Constitution, the government “shut down” demonstrates the document’s stubborn staying power. As the news media works to “analyze” who will...
View ArticleThe Third Amendment to the US Constitution
“Every word of the Constitution decides a question between power and liberty,” James Madison The Constitution’s Third Amendment has never been the controlling law in any case decided by the US Supreme...
View ArticleThe Sword of Liberty: Constitutional Education and Adventure
Book Review: The Sword of Liberty by Loren J. Enns1 Thomas Jefferson expressed the sense of the Founders of the American Republic: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these...
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