Governors Should Veto National Guard Deployments More Often
by Ryan McMaken, Mises Institute Donald Trump and California Governor Jerry Brown have failed to come to an agreement over how California National Guard troops should be used at the US-Mexico border. Gov. ...
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The Origins of “Militia” in the Second Amendment
by Ryan McMaken, Mises Institute While apparently waiting for a taxi, or to be seated for lunch, Larry King was accosted by TMZ in a discussion which eventually led to King declaring that the ...
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Pick One: Constitutional Principles or Your Policy Preferences
In 1788, James Madison offered a blueprint for stopping “unwarrantable measures” enacted by the federal government. In Federalist #46, the “Father of the Constitution” advised a refusal to cooperate with ...
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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 ...
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The Rise of the Culture of Originalism
Constitutional theorists succeed practically only when they change the legal culture. Jack Balkin has remarked that some legal arguments that were once off the wall can become “on the wall,” ...
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Restoring Judicial Impeachment
In March 1804, the House of Representatives did something for the first and, sadly, last time: It impeached a justice of the Supreme Court for abusing the office of a ...
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The 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 ...
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Today in History: Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty” Speech
On March 23, 1775, tensions in Virginia were at their highest point during the imperial crisis with Britain. The House of Burgesses, the state’s elected assembly, was about to make ...
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The Problem with the “Simple Principle” of Liberty
I cannot compete with Michael Munger, Nathan Schlueter, or Nikolai Wenzel in citing the authorities of libertarian and classical liberal thought. Being more a lumper than a splitter, I would ...
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We the Bureaucrats
Every year, the Harvard Law Review invites a well known scholar to write the Foreword, which generally involves an important matter of constitutional law. Writing the Foreword is one of ...
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