The Great Bypass: How the Constitution Was Built to Sideline the States
By: Michael Boldin “This Constitution does not attempt to coerce sovereign bodies, states, in their political capacity.” With that one sentence, future Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth identified the single most ...
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The Ninth Amendment: Partner to the Tenth in Limiting Federal Power
By: Michael Boldin The Ninth Amendment. Most people don’t know what it says or means. Others just ignore it. Those who don’t, usually get it completely wrong. The Ninth isn’t ...
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Taxing Power: Luther Martin’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
By: Michael Boldin Luther Martin believed the Constitution’s sweeping taxation power was one of its most dangerous features, a direct threat to both state sovereignty and individual liberty. Long before ...
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Luther Martin vs. Landholder: Anti-Federalist Warnings on Consolidation and Tyranny
By: Mike Maharrey In a heated war of words, Luther Martin responded to a series of essays penned by Oliver Ellsworth under the pseudonym Landholder, defending his colleague Elbridge Gerry against ...
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Luther Martin’s Warning: The Constitution as a Threat to State Sovereignty
By: Mike Maharrey Luther Martin, a prominent Anti-Federalist, warned that the proposed Constitution would destroy state sovereignty by concentrating power in a centralized national government. One of the few opponents ...
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Bill of Rights: Forgotten Role of the 10th Amendment in Its Creation
By: Michael Boldin The Bill of Rights was born from intense battles between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over delegated and reserved powers. This clash not only shaped its contested origins but ...
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A Republic at Risk: Cato’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
By: Mike Maharrey “A vile and arbitrary aristocracy or a monarchy.” That’s what the anti-federalist writer Cato warned we would get under the Constitution. This was because, in his view, ...
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Tench Coxe: A Detailed Breakdown of State vs. Federal Powers
By: Mike Maharrey Despite being little known today, Tench Coxe was an influential founding father, and in early 1788, he provided what was possibly the most comprehensive list of examples ...
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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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Tench Coxe: States and People as Checks on Federal Power
By: Mike Maharrey In his fourth essay of “An American Citizen,” Tench Coxe countered Anti-Federalist fears of federal tyranny by arguing that the Constitution’s structure kept the people and ...
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