17th Amendment: How it Broke the Safeguard Against Consolidation
By: Michael Boldin When the framers designed the Senate, they envisioned it as a safeguard for the states, with a key component being state legislatures choosing senators instead of the ...
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How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution – Part 4
By Rob Natelson Commentary The first, second, and third installments in this series explained that the Constitution created a small and frugal federal government. Those installments discussed how President Franklin ...
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How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part 3
By Rob Natelson 1934–1937: The Court’s Balancing Act There’s a common myth that President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed his 1937 court-packing plan because SCOTUS struck down all his New Deal programs. ...
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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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Emancipating the Constitution From Non-Originalist Precedent
by John O. McGinnis & Mike Rappaport Non-Originalist Precedent The biggest challenge to the rise of originalism is precedent. Although originalism is enjoying more support in the judiciary and in ...
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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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James Madison on the Ignored “Fundamental Principle of the Revolution”
By: Mike Maharrey Forget schoolhouse history. James Madison exposed a much deeper truth about the American Revolution. It wasn’t just “taxation without representation.” He argued that This clash, Madison declared, ...
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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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Supreme Court limits scope of obstruction law used in Jan. 6 prosecutions
By KYLE CHENEY and JOSH GERSTEIN About 350 Jan. 6 defendants have faced obstruction charges now thrown into doubt by the court. The Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of a ...
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Timely Lessons About Tyranny from the Father of the Constitution
By: John Whitehead James Madison, often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” once predicted that the Bill of Rights would become mere “parchment barrier,” words on paper ...
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