The First Salvo in the Ratification Debates: James Wilson’s State House Speech
By: Bob Fiedler While most people today think of the Federalist Papers as the leading defense of the Constitution’s original meaning, it was actually a speech by James Wilson that had a far ...
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Patrick Henry Demands a Bill of Rights
By: TJ Martinell On June 7, 1788, Patrick Henry delivered one of many long speeches at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, demanding the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the proposed U.S. Constitution ...
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The Struggle for Ratification: Advocates and Opponents Debate Judicial Review (Part 1)
By: Bob Fiedler One of the most striking and unique and hotly debated aspects of the American system of government is judicial review. Where precisely does this doctrine arise from? Technically, ...
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The Ratification-Era Understanding of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”
by Michael Stokes Paulsen Yesterday, I set forth Alexander Hamilton’s treatment of the scope of the constitutional power of impeachment in The Federalist: the broad range of offenses embraced by ...
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