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Archive for the 'U.S. Constitution' Category

How The Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful

by Doug Mataconis @ Saturday, August 28th, 2010. Filed under History, Individual Liberty, U.S. Constitution

Debating Nullification At The Liberty Papers

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, August 20th, 2010. Filed under Blogging, The Liberty Papers, U.S. Constitution

Brad Warbiany and I have a Point/Counterpoint up about the debate over Nullification over at The Liberty Papers.
Brad’s Post: Nullification Is The Civil Disobedience of Federalism
My Post: Civil Disobedience Or Not, Nullification Is Unconstitutional

The Case Against Nullification

by Doug Mataconis @ Friday, July 9th, 2010. Filed under History, Individual Liberty, U.S. Constitution

The once discredited idea of nullification, the idea that the individual states have the authority to nullify Federal laws inconsistent with the Constitution, is making a comeback thanks largely to a new book entitled Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century by Thomas Woods. Today, over at The Volokh Conspiracy, law professor [...]

James Madison v. Woodrow Wilson

by Doug Mataconis @ Saturday, June 5th, 2010. Filed under History, Individual Liberty, Politics, U.S. Constitution

George Will had a great column this week describing the political battles today as a battle between visions laid down by two men born 105 years apart:
Today, as it has been for a century, American politics is an argument between two Princetonians — James Madison, Class of 1771, and Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879. [...]

Federal Government Seeks Dismissal Of Virginia’s ObamaCare Lawsuit

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, May 25th, 2010. Filed under Barack Obama, Health Care Reform, Ken Cuccinelli, Politicos & Pundits, Politics, U.S. Constitution, Virginia, Virginia Politics

An entirely predictable response from the Federal Government to Ken Cuccinelli’s lawsuit against ObamaCare:
RICHMOND — The Obama administration asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss Virginia’s challenge of the health-care overhaul law, arguing that the state has no standing to sue over the law and that Congress’s power to regulate interstate trade makes the measure [...]

A Typo In The Constitution

by Doug Mataconis @ Sunday, May 16th, 2010. Filed under History, Humor, U.S. Constitution

Eugene Volokh tracks down a typographical error in the original draft of the Constitution:
In the Date Clause of article VII (see the high-resolution version of the original), which gives the date as “the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven,” the “Eighty” [...]

The Unfortunate Return Of The Line-Item Veto

by Doug Mataconis @ Saturday, May 8th, 2010. Filed under Barack Obama, Politicos & Pundits, Politics, U.S. Constitution

Like nearly every President before him, Barack Obama is apparently going to be seeking the authority of the line-item veto:
WASHINGTON — President Obama, in his latest effort to signal fiscal responsibility against the rising debt, plans this month to ask Congress to give him and future presidents greater power to try to delete individual items [...]

Republican Congressman: Deport American Citizens !

by Doug Mataconis @ Thursday, April 29th, 2010. Filed under Congress, Immigration, In The News, Individual Liberty, Political Parties, Politics, Republicans, U.S. Constitution

California Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. wants to deport American citizens:
Not all American citizens, mind you. Just the natural-born American citizens that are the children of illegal immigrants.
At a tea party rally in Ramona in San Diego County over the weekend, Hunter fielded a question about the issue.
“Would you support deportation of natural born [...]

Randy Barnett Talks About The Constitutionality Of ObamaCare

by Doug Mataconis @ Thursday, April 29th, 2010. Filed under Barack Obama, Health Care Reform, Individual Liberty, Politicos & Pundits, Politics, U.S. Constitution

Law Professor Randy Barnett recently spoke with The Healthcare Channel about the Constitutional issues surrounding health care reform.
In Part One, Barnett talks principally about the Constitutionality of the health insurance mandates:

In Part Two, Barnett talks about other Constitutional issues implicated by the health care reform law, including Tenth Amendment issues:

Supreme Court To Hear Appeal Of California Video Game Law

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, April 26th, 2010. Filed under Freedom of Speech, Individual Liberty, Supreme Court, Technology, U.S. Constitution

Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law that made it illegal to sell “violent” video games to minors. Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the State of California’s appeal in that case:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether free speech rights are more important than helping [...]

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