Tench Coxe on the Executive Branch: President, not a King
By: Mike Maharrey American presidents behave almost like elected kings, exercising vast powers with very little accountability. But that wasn’t the plan. Tench Coxe was a key figure in ...
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Clearing Up the Confusion About the Constitution’s Term “Direct Taxes”
By: Rob Natelson The Supreme Court’s June 20 decision in Moore v. United States continues the long-standing controversy over the Constitution’s distinction between “direct” and “indirect” taxes. Writing for the Court, Justice ...
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How Tench Coxe Shaped the Ratification Debates: Essays of A Pennsylvanian
By: Mike Maharrey History often overlooks Tench Coxe, but he was one of the most important founding fathers. While the Federalist Papers are celebrated and widely discussed today, Coxe’s essays, written under ...
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The Supreme Court Was Wrong About Taxes
By: Rob Natelson Along with some good decisions, Supreme Court justices made some mistakes in the term just ended. One mistake involved taxes—and it is likely to bedevil the court ...
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Power From the People: The Revolutionary Roots of the 10th Amendment
By: Michael Boldin Thomas Jefferson called the 10th Amendment the “foundation of the Constitution,” and for good reason too. It enshrines many of the radical principles that sparked the ...
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Deciphering the Commander-in-Chief Clause
By: TJ Martinell The Constitution designates the president as the commander in chief of the “Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, ...
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The Real Enforcement Mechanism for the Constitution
By: Michael Boldin Almost everything people learn about how the Constitution is supposed to be enforced is wrong. As a result, we live under the largest government in history, and ...
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The Meaning of “Regulate Commerce” to the Constitution’s Ratifiers
By: Rob Natelson, Published on: Feb 7, 2024 Constitutional Background The constitutional justification for much of the federal regulatory and administrative apparatus rests on either of two very wide interpretations of ...
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Beyond the Text: Understanding the Constitution’s Original Meaning
By: Mike Maharrey How do we learn the original meaning of the Constitution? A lot of people will say, “Just read it.” That’s an essential first step, but it’s not quite ...
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A Republic. But They Didn’t Keep it
By: Michael Boldin A Republic, if you can keep it. We’ve all heard this phrase – it’s almost legendary. People have used it in campaigns, slogans, as a book title, in ...
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