Entries by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

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A Memorial Day Message From Our Founder

On this Memorial Day weekend, I think it is appropriate to truly contemplate and think about the soldiers and families who have sacrificed their lives and loved ones, and given their time and dedication to our country.
Sometimes it is beyond reach to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and feel, to the most heightened sense, what it would be like to say goodbye to our loved ones for perhaps the last time. Do we take the time to feel empathy for the soldier who has to walk away from his family – mother, father, wife, husband, daughter, son – to be potentially killed out in the field – to die away from family – in perhaps some distant land, in enemy territory, on foreign soil?

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Happy Independence Day! Read The Declaration of Independence with your family and friends!

Happy Independence Day! Read The Declaration of Independence with your family and friends!

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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How The Supreme Court Constitutes America – Guest Essayist: William Morrisey

In defending the establishment of the United States Supreme Court, Alexander Hamilton maintained that the absence of an independent judicial power had handicapped the government established by the Articles of Confederation. The way the Articles government had been structured made the rule of law–even the modest legislation enacted by Congress–more or less impossible.

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Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church And School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012) (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: John O. Tyler

Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012): Protecting Religious Liberty in American Schools In Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012), the federal government tried to force a church, against its will, to hire a minister to teach in the church’s school. The US Supreme Court held that the […]

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Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church And School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012) – Guest Essayist: Gennie Westbrook

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The Supreme Court has interpreted this prohibition to mean that state action that imposes restriction on the free exercise of religion is permitted only when there is a “compelling state […]

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Justice Anthony Kennedy (Born 1936) – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams

Republican President Dwight Eisenhower reputedly said that appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William Brennan were among his biggest mistakes as president as they helped usher in a wave of liberal jurisprudence at odds with Eisenhower’s conservative philosophy.  Republican President George H.W. Bush might have said the same about Justice David Souter for the […]

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Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath

In 2011, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA). A California law prohibited the sale of violent video games to minors and required labelling of content and designation of suitable users. Parents would still have the choice to buy video games deemed violent and give them to their children. The law was […]

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Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008) – Guest Essayist: State Representative David Eastman

Does the Constitution Give Americans the Right to Vote Without Photo Identification? In 2005, the State of Indiana passed a state law requiring that most Indiana voters who voted on Election Day would have to show government-issued photo ID before voting. The law provided an exception for those who lived in senior centers, and provided […]

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Bush v. Gore (2000) And Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board (2000) – Guest Essayist: James D. Best

The 2000 presidential election came down to who won Florida. Twenty-seven days after the election, the presidency remained undecided. Surrogates for George W. Bush and Al Gore clashed in a close-quarters fight that seemed to have no end.  Both parties persisted and refused to yield. The media filled nearly every broadcast moment and column inch […]

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McDonald v. Chicago (2010) – Guest Essayist: David Raney

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 McDonald v. Chicago case considered whether the Second Amendment’s protection of the individual right to possess and use privately-owned firearms as affirmed in the Court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision also applies to state and local governments.

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District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: David Raney

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller case considered whether the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to possess and use privately-owned firearms.

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District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) – Guest Essayist: James D. Best

District of Columbia v. Heller provided clarity to a long and quarrelsome debate about the application of the Second Amendment. The crux of the case was whether the right to “keep and bear arms” was an individual right or a collective right associated with regulated militias. The Supreme Court (5-4) ruled the Second Amendment an […]

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Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) – Guest Essayist: Steven H. Aden

Vote: (5 to 4) Majority: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito. Dissenters: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer. Gonzales v. Carhart is one of those rare cases that highlights the difference an election can make to Supreme Court decision-making. While the Justices of the Supreme Court are (arguably) largely immune from political pressure because they serve for […]

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Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) And Worcester v. Georgia (1832) – Guest Essayist: John Vinzant

In 1827, the state of Georgia passed several acts that affected the Cherokee Nation within Georgia’s borders.  Georgia extended criminal jurisdiction over crimes committed by Cherokees within the Cherokee Nation.  Traditionally and legally, the Cherokee had their own criminal jurisdiction.  The Georgia legislature also declared the Cherokees had no legal title to the land that […]

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Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016)

During the Senate hearings on his nomination to the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch commented, “Justice [Antonin] Scalia’s legacy will live on a lot longer than mine.” Whether or not this is a prophetic remark is too early to tell. However, Judge Gorsuch’s statement recognizes the enormous impact that Scalia has had–and will have–on American […]

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Lawrence v. Texas (2003), United States v. Windsor (2013) And Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Lawrence v. Texas (2003), United States v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015): The June 26th SCOTUS Trifecta by Justice Anthony Kennedy On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States held a special Friday session the week before end of term to announce its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court […]

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Roe v. Wade (1973) And Planned Parenthood Of Southeastern PA v. Casey (1992)

Before the 1960s, all states had stringent laws banning abortions.  The women’s movement of the 1960s demanded access to abortion as one of the rights of women. Abortion rights activists began working at liberalizing state laws on abortion since it was a state issue in the federal system.  The advocacy successfully chipped away at several […]

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Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

In June, 1961, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the constitutionality of an 1879 Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptive devices for the purpose of preventing pregnancy, as well as the counseling of such use. The law applied to married and unmarried couples. However, the law had apparently only been enforced once, […]

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Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (1906-1997)

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (1906-1997): An Associate Justice Who Led the Court and Which is Often Referred to as The Brennan Court On July 20, 1990, Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. resigned from the Supreme Court of the United States, after serving nearly 34 years (including three months with a recess appointment and […]

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New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

A group of well-known civil rights leaders ran a full-page advertisement, “Heed Their Rising Voices,” in the New York Times on March 29, 1960. The ad described an “unprecedented wave of terror” in police attacks and other government sponsored oppression against peaceful demonstrators in Montgomery and other southern cities. The ad closed with a plea […]

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Justice Hugo Black (1886-1971)

Hugo Black (1886-1971): The Justice with the Plain Meaning Approach Hugo Black served more than thirty-four years on the Supreme Court, the fifth longest tenure in the Court’s history.  During his time on the Court, Black developed a reputation as a justice who strongly believed the United States Constitution was to be given its plain […]

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Dennis v. United States (1951)

Is Advocating the Violent Overthrow of the United States a First Amendment Right? On June 22nd 1940, France surrendered to Germany, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Smith Act the very same day. It was believed that the rapid fall of France was due in no small part to subversion by communists allied […]

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Chief Justice William Howard Taft (1857-1930)

Chief Justice William Howard Taft (1857-1930): The Only Former President to Serve on the Supreme Court of the United States When Chief Justice Edward White died in May 1910, President Warren G. Harding immediately turned to former President William Howard Taft, who had appointed White to the Supreme Court, to succeed White.  Taft served on […]

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Gitlow v. New York (1925) And Bradenburg v. Ohio (1969) (Part 2)

Benjamin Gitlow and Clarence Brandenburg would seem to have had little in common, but each was responsible for bringing a case that resulted in an important revolution in interpreting the meaning of free speech.

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Gitlow v. New York (1925) And Bradenburg v. Ohio (1969)

The late 19th and early 20th Centuries saw the passage of a number of state and federal laws allowing prosecutions for political speech that advocated or implied violence against government. In 1917 and 1918, for example, Congress passed the Espionage Act, the first major federal law against seditious speech since the Sedition Act of 1798.

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Engel v. Vitale (1962) And Everson v. Ewing (1962) (Part 2)

“Almighty God, we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country:” Engel v. Vitale (1962) In the Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township (1947), the Supreme Court decided that it was constitutional for the state of New Jersey to reimburse parents for the cost of bus transportation, even to […]

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Engel v. Vitale (1962) And Everson v. Ewing (1962)

In Engel v. Vitale (370 U.S. 421 [1962]), the Supreme Court took up the question of school prayer and rejected as unconstitutional the New York state practice of beginning each school day with the recitation of the Regent’s Prayer.  It was the first of a series of decisions regarding public prayer that included rejecting recitation […]

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Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935): The Oldest Justice at Retirement from the Supreme Court I, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., after serving as a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge for twenty years, was nominated to a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States and served for almost thirty years on the highest court […]

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Abrams v. United States (1919)

“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ….” Though there is some debate over its original meaning, the First Amendment is commonly thought to have prohibited administrative prior restraint on public speaking or writing. Still, a speaker or publisher was responsible for the consequences of his words. If the […]

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Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989)

“A Puzzle Inside an Enigma: Untangling Affirmative Action” In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court invalidated fixed quota systems for affirmative action as a remedy for historic racism, but decided that using race as a factor in college admissions was constitutional. It was a confusing decision with a 4-4-1 […]

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Griggs v. Duke Power (1971), California v. Bakke (1978), USWA v. Weber (1979), Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980)

The 1950s and 1960s saw significant gains for civil rights of African Americans. In the 1950s, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered public schools desegregated and the non-violent civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. kept the continuing disadvantages faced by African Americans in the public eye. In the 1960s, federal laws protecting […]

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Chief Justice Earl Warren (1891-1974)

Earl Warren: The Governor from California Becomes The 14th Chief Justice Nine chief justices and nearly 120 years separate John Marshall from Earl Warren.  While each chief has influenced the Supreme Court and helped to shape its history, Warren and Marshall are often mentioned together as the greatest of the 17 chiefs.  This column explores […]

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Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) And Brown v. Topeka Board Of Education (1954) And Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) In December 1952, African-American lawyer Thurgood Marshall appeared before the Supreme Court representing a seven-year-old black girl from Topeka, Kansas named Linda Brown who had to ride the bus to her segregated black school instead of walking to the neighborhood school.  Marshall and other NAACP Legal Defense […]

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United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938) (Part 2)

United States v. Carolene Products Co. 304 U. S. 144 (1938) This case belongs to a string of cases dating from the late nineteenth century involving substitute or imitation dairy products. Carolene Products arose from a controversy over “Milnut,” a beverage made from mixing skimmed milk with another product that is not milk fat (usually […]

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United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)

United States v. Carolene Products Co. 304 U. S. 144 (1938) If you concede the constitutionality of the administrative state, where does that leave citizens’ liberties? That is, if you claim(some might say pretend) that the United States Constitution authorizes unelected, tenured officials the power to frame, enforce, and adjudicate laws you grant a privilege […]

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Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (1968)

In the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the Supreme Court had ruled 8-1 that the Civil Rights Act of 1875, outlawing racial discrimination in most public places, was unconstitutional. The owners of businesses such as railroads, theatres, and hotels could impose segregation in their facilities, or they could refuse to serve African Americans altogether. The […]

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The Insular Cases (1901)

A large mural in the Capitol Building in Washington is titled “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.” It was painted by Emanuel Leutze in 1861 as a representation of Manifest Destiny, the optimistic world view of 19th century Americans that the country inevitably would be settled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. […]

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Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911)

John Marshall Harlan: The Great Dissenter John Marshall Harlan served more than thirty-three years on the Supreme Court, the sixth longest term in the Court’s history.  During his long tenure, Harlan became known as “The Great Dissenter,” signing more than 300 dissenting opinions from 1877-1911.  Harlan’s grandson, John Marshall Harlan II, would later also serve […]

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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act which required railroads to provide separate accommodations, including separate cars, for blacks and whites.  A group of Creoles and blacks in New Orleans formed a committee, the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law, to challenge this law.  Homer Plessy, whose light-colored skin […]

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Civil Rights Cases (1883)

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, outlawed slavery throughout the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, defined citizenship and prohibited the states from violating equal protection and due process of law for all persons. During Reconstruction following the Civil War, states of the former Confederate States of America were […]

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Justice Stephen J. Field (1816-1899)

It is an understatement to describe Stephen Johnson Field as a giant among Supreme Court justices. He served more than 34 years on the Court, longer than any but Justice William Douglas. He authored 544 opinions, exceeded only by Justice Samuel Miller. He and his fellow justices during the 1880s, including Miller, Joseph Bradley, and […]

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The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)

Presiding over a trial in the federal Circuit Court in Corfield v. Coryell (1825) to recover a seized vessel, Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington took the occasion to ponder the expansive scope of the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV of the Constitution. Because the clause is to facilitate interstate comity and harmony, it […]

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Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1777-1864) (Part 2)

Roger B. Taney was born and raised on a southern Maryland tobacco plantation.  He attended Dickinson College and received a classical education before reading law under Jeremiah Chase, one of three judges on the state’s General Court.  He passed the bar exam and married the sister of his close friend, Francis Scott Key.  He entered […]

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Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1777-1864)

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice, served thirty-four-and-a half years in that role. Roger B. Taney, who succeeded Marshall, served for twenty-eight-and-a- half years, including during almost the entirety of the Civil War. (Marshall and Taney are, respectively, the first- and second- longest serving Chief Justices.)

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Ex Parte Merryman (1861)

On April 27, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln took one of the most dramatic steps ever taken by an American chief executive, and suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. He did so, under a provision in Article 1, section 9 of the Constitution: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not […]

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Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) (Part 2)

Arrogance & Injustice in the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Case In the 1850s, the United States was deeply divided over the issue of slavery and its expansion into the West. The northern and southern sections of the country had been arguing over the expansion of slavery into the western territories for decades. The Missouri […]

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Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Dred Scott was born into slavery in Virginia around 1799, but was moved to Missouri where he was sold to Dr. John Emerson, an army surgeon.  Given Dr. Emerson’s military career, he moved frequently and took Scott with him.  Eventually, Dr. Emerson moved with Scott to the State of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin, […]

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Palko v. Connecticut (1937)

Palko v. Connecticut resulted from the appeal of a capital murder conviction. Palko was charged with killing a police officer during the commission of an armed robbery. Although he was charged with first degree murder, he was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The state of Connecticut appealed the sentence, […]

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Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) And Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)

In The Republic, Plato designed his ideal society as one in which the wives and children of the Guardians (the ruling elite) would be held in common. This would prevent the corrosive societal effects of nepotism that result when parents raise their children and, due to their natural affinity, seek to secure wealth and status […]

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Chicago, Milwaukee And St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota (1890)

 Chicago, Milwaukee and St, Paul Railroad v. Minnesota, 134 U.S. 418 (1890) became a landmark case in establishing a new direction for government regulation of business, though that new direction gave way to the coming of the New Deal. Prior to the Chicago, Milwaukee decision, courts had pretty much deferred to legislatures in deciding […]

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Ex Parte Vallandigham (1864) And Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

Article 1 Section 9, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the “Great Writ,” a protection against arbitrary imprisonment that dates back at least to the Magna Carta of 1215: “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require […]

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Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan And Trust Co. (1895)

Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust Company, 158 U. S. 601 (1895), arose when a stockholder of the company sued to prevent the company from voluntarily paying a tax on its profits. The tax had been assessed pursuant to an act of Congress that levied a tax of two percent per year on incomes over […]

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The Legal Tender Cases (1870)

The legal tender controversy involved Supreme Court decisions that spanned a decade and a half beginning in 1870 with Hepburn v. Griswold 75 U.S. 603 (1870), in which the Legal Tender Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 345, making United States Treasury notes legal tender, was invalidated on constitutional grounds.  In Hepburn, Chief Justice Salmon P. […]

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Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819) and Ogden v. Saunders (1827)

Bankruptcy Power – Sturges v. Crowninshield, 17 U.S. 122 (1819) and Ogden v. Saunders, 25 U.S. 213 (1827) Shortly after the first person mixed her labor with a thing and called it “mine,” some person furnished property to another, together with an obligation to return it. With that, the problems of debtor and creditor were […]

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Justice Mahlon Pitney (1858-1924)

Mahlon Pitney was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President William H. Taft in 1912, and served there for ten and one-half years until his retirement in December, 1922.  He is generally regarded as a footnote in the annals of American Supreme Court justices.  But for the ten years that he was on […]

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Coppage v. Kansas (1915)

During what Mark Twain called the Gilded Age at the end of the nineteenth century, American commerce grew exponentially and the American economy became the largest in the world. Wealthy industrialists organized their businesses to maximize efficiency and profits, contributing to an increase in buying power for all segments of American society and drawing millions […]

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Adair v. United States (1908)

Can Congress Discriminate Against Non-Union Members? In 1898, Congress passed the Erdman Act, making it a crime to fire an employee for belonging to a union. Because the Constitution does not expressly give the federal government the power to regulate employment, Congress limited the law to apply only to employees involved in interstate commerce, thereby […]

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Lochner v. New York (1905)

Making up Rights?: Lochner v. New York (1905) In April 1901, Utica, New York bakeshop owner, Joseph Lochner, was arrested for allowing one of his few employees, baker Aman Schmitter, to work more than sixty hours in a week. A grand jury indicted Lochner for violating a New York bakeshop law regulating work hours. In […]

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Holden v. Hardy (1898)

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the industrial revolution transformed the American landscape, culture, economy, and relationships between workers and management. The transformation brought significant gains in prosperity for both workers and management, but it also meant laborers worked long hours in dangerous conditions in factories and mines. Workdays of ten to twelve […]

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Justice David J. Brewer (1837-1910)

David J. Brewer: Foreign Born Justice Who Sat with His Uncle David J. Brewer was born on June 20, 1837, in Smyrna, Asia Minor (today Turkey), the fourth of six Supreme Court Justices born outside the United States.  Brewer sat on the Court with his uncle, Stephen J. Field, to date the only relatives to […]

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In re Debs (1895)

Obstruction of Commerce & the Mail “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night (nor Pullman Strike) stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”   This (slightly altered) saying, an inscription found on the General Post Office in New York City, is widely regarded as the motto of the U.S. […]

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Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)

In 1976, Americans celebrated a bicentennial, the anniversary of a revolution against an intrusive, heavy-handed, and unresponsive national government. Repeated petitions and remonstrances by the people’s elected local representatives had been dismissed and ignored by the political elite who controlled that far-away national government, and who considered the people ignorant bumpkins. Among the causes of […]

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Wickard v. Filburn (1942)

In 1938, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (the “1938 Act”), which it enacted to address and correct provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 for farm subsidies that the Supreme Court had found unconstitutional.  The 1938 Act established marketing quotas and price controls.  Roscoe Filburn, a farmer in Ohio, admittedly sowed […]

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National League of Cities v. Usery (1976)

National League of Cities v. Usery: “I’m Not Dead” As the Left often does, once they are out of national power, they rediscover the power of state sovereignty. Ironically, they are using it to resist the new administration’s federal immigration policy in formalistically the same way as did the Right during the early days of […]

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National Labor Relations Board v. Jones And Laughlin Steel Company (1937)

After his landslide reelection victory in 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a message to Congress on February 5, 1937, that decried the alleged, but fictional, congestion of judicial dockets due in part, he explained, to the incapacity of aged or infirm judges. He proposed a law that would allow him to appoint up to six […]

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Carter v. Carter Coal (1936)

George Lafayette Carter was a reclusive Virginia industrialist who became a millionaire through business developments based on mining in what became known as the Mountain Empire, encompassing parts of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. By the time of his death in 1936, he had built his fortune through extensive coal field purchases, founding numerous […]

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Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)

Louis Brandeis: First Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court Until 1916, the United States Supreme Court had never had a Jewish justice.  That changed on January 28, 1916, when Louis Brandeis, the “People’s Lawyer,” was nominated to the highest court in the land by President Woodrow Wilson. Brandeis served for almost twenty-three years and authored […]

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Schechter Poultry Corp v. U.S. (1935)

The “Sick Chicken” Case: Schechter Poultry Corp v. U.S. (1935) In 1933, the American economy was mired in the great depths of the Great Depression characterized by unprecedented unemployment and deflation of prices for business and farmers. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors believed that the problems of the economy were rooted in excessive […]

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Gold Clause Cases (1935)

Soon after his first inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to close the gold window. At the time, the American currency was tied to the value of gold, and the financial crisis was putting serious pressure on government gold reserves. To deal with the problem, the government devalued the dollar. As an emergency measure, Congress […]

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Home Building & Loan v. Blaisdell (1934)

To stem home and farm foreclosures during the Great Depression, Minnesota passed a law which allowed a mortgagor to pay court-determined rent set below the contractual mortgage amount. The mortgage holder could not foreclose as long as the mortgagor paid the reduced rent.

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Nebbia v. New York (1934)

In the late 1920s, farmers across the country generally did not participate in the prosperity of the decade. They were often unable to sell their crops to distributors for sufficient prices to cover their costs of production. Especially in New York, where the milk industry was the cornerstone of agricultural economy, tension between dairy farmers […]

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Champion v. Ames (1903)

The Industrial Revolution created theretofore unimaginable wealth, some of which trickled down as wages to workers in the mills and factories of the 19th century. Though substandard by today’s measure, those wages were sufficiently high and working conditions sufficiently appealing to attract people from farms to the growing cities. Waves of immigrants, mostly impoverished Europeans, […]

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Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897)

After the Civil War, United States commerce experienced rapid growth, both among the states and in international markets. Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 regulating interstate trade. Many state legislatures wrote constitutional provisions and statutes intended to protect their states’ businesses from what they perceived as unfair competition from other states.

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United States v. E.C. Knight (1895)

Federal Regulation and the Rise of Big Business: United States v. E.C. Knight (1895) The late nineteenth century was a time of business consolidation as the American economy experienced a “great merger movement” with the rise of big business. Through means foul and fair, corporations formed trusts that dominated entire industries to combat competitive pressures […]

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Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

Dartmouth College was chartered in 1769 by King George III. In 1816, over thirty years after the conclusion of the American Revolution, New Hampshire’s legislature attempted to alter Dartmouth College’s charter  by giving  the Governor of New Hampshire authority to appoint trustees to the board and creating a state board with veto power over trustee decisions—in […]

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New Jersey v. Wilson (1812)

New Jersey v. Wilson, 11 U.S. 7 Cranch 164 164 (1812) Are the terms of a contract inviolate?  Can a contract run in perpetuity and affect something other than the parties involved?  Can contracts be impaired (modified or broken) without the consent of both parties?    These were the questions facing the Court in 1812 when […]

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Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago (1897)

In October 1880, the Chicago City Council decided to widen Rockwell Street, requiring the City to acquire certain private property owned by individuals and a right-of-way owned by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company.  The City of Chicago brought a condemnation suit in state court, and the jury awarded compensation to the individuals but […]

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Baker v. Carr (1962)

In 1962, the Supreme Court embarked on what has been described by one scholar as “the most significant reformist activism in which the Warren Court engaged,” other than civil rights cases involving blacks. The constitutional arena was the apportionment of legislative districts, and the case was Baker v. Carr. Chief Justice Earl Warren called Baker […]

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San Antonio v. Rodriguez (1973)

From our nation’s earliest days, the national government has been involved in education, due to its significance in preparation for constructive citizenship in a republican form of government. In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance set aside public lands specifically for the establishment of schools. Through additional grants of land and money, formation of administrative agencies, the […]

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Justice George Sutherland (1862-1942)

Justice George Sutherland: One of the Four Horsemen Introduction  In the Supreme Court’s history, six justices were born outside of the United States.  The fifth of those born on foreign soil was George Sutherland (second born in England).  After a career in private practice and public office, Sutherland became an Associate Justice of the Supreme […]

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Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926)

In Euclid v. Ambler, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the Village of Euclid in Ohio, mostly farmland east of Cleveland, to impose zoning restrictions on property owners. Today, zoning is a near-universal practice. While zoning did not originate with the village of Euclid, the Euclid case was the first federal case, and it […]

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Gelpcke v. City of Dubuque (1863)

Gelpcke v. City of Dubuque, 68 U.S. 1 Wall. 175 (1863) – “Oscillations” in the Law On its face, Gelpcke v. Dubuque appears to be about the validity of municipal bonds and not much else, but there were deeper legal issues at play. Namely, who has the ultimate authority to interpret a state constitution or […]

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Texas v. White (1869)

TEXAS v. WHITE ET AL., 74 U.S. 700 (1869) is one of the most important decisions made by the Supreme Court, because it addresses the nature of the Union. More specifically, is the Union bound together through the consent of the States or the coercive power of the United States government.

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Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence asserted that “all men are created equal.” And yet, slavery was legal in all thirteen colonies at the time. Beginning with Pennsylvania in 1780, northern states moved toward the revolutionary ideal by enacting gradual abolition statutes. All children born in Pennsylvania after that time were free persons, though any […]

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Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1851)

Unlike many of his decisions, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the foundational case Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), which upheld the right of Gibbons to operate a ferry between Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and New York City in competition with his former partner, Ogden, was well-received by the public. It negated a New York State monopoly […]

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Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)

In 1785, Boston’s population was around 18,000; across the Charles River, Charlestown counted 1,200. Forty years later, Boston’s population had more than tripled, to 60,000; that of Charlestown to 8,000. The need to accommodate the increased travel and commerce between Boston and points inland resulted in protracted litigation before the Supreme Court in the 1830s […]

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Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky (1837)

In 1832, Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States, applied for an early renewal of the bank’s charter.  He feared that bank opponent, President Andrew Jackson, would move to destroy the bank after he was re-elected.  So, Biddle tried to outmaneuver the president before the election.  His opponent, Henry Clay, and […]

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Craig v. Missouri (1830)

In 1821, the State of Missouri enacted legislation entitled, “An act for the establishment of loan offices,” which permitted the Missouri Treasurer to issue loan certificates – a form of paper currency issued by the state – up to a total of $200,000.  The Missouri Supreme Court found the loans to be valid, and the […]

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Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

In the early 1830s, the city of Baltimore was developing as a bustling urban center and port.  The city diverted the streams around John Barron’s successful wharf and lowered the water level, which negatively impacted his business.  He sued the city to recover his financial losses.

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Willson v. Black Bird Creek Marsh Company (1829)

The Dissolution of the Dormant Commerce Clause:  Willson v. Black Bird Creek Marsh Co. In The Colorado Kid, author Steven King says, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.”  This is certainly true when it comes to issues of public policy and constitutional law.  In this essay, we discuss the concept of the “Dormant” […]

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Green v. Biddle (1823)

Green v. Biddle: Clear Title and the Relationship of States to the Federal Government The easy conveyance of clear title to real property is an essential element of both a stable and prosperous civil society. “Clearing” title by conveying “unappropriated” lands to a central government is one way that fledgling or developing nations spur exploration, […]

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Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

At the Peace of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War, the United States (defined, as in the Declaration of Independence, as the individual states) were recognized by the British as free and independent. While the British relinquished to those United States territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, the several states did not thereby relinquish […]

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Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

At times during our nation’s history, the executive branch of the United States government has tested the limits of its power by taking actions that are not explicitly granted to the president or executive branch.  For example, in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (the “Steel Seizure Case”) (1952), the Supreme Court addressed the […]

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United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936)

The three branches of the United States government are often questioned with respect to whether their exercise of powers exceeded the limitations imposed upon them by the United States Constitution. In U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936), the issue was the extent of the president’s and executive branch’s power to conduct the foreign affairs of […]

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Field v. Clark (1892)

Can Congress give away its legislative powers to other branches of government, including administrative agencies?  In the case of Field v. Clark, the Supreme Court decisively said “no,” laying down a precedent that stands against much of what our government does today.

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McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

In May, 1818, James William McCulloch was a cashier at the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank of the United States.  McCulloch issued a series of bank notes on which the bank did not pay a Maryland state tax.  The state treasurer quickly sued to recover the money and won a judgment in Maryland’s highest […]

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Ex Parte McCardle (1869)

Ex parte McCardle was forged in the superheated atmosphere of Southern reconstruction after the Civil War. The struggle to shape that reconstruction pitted the “Radical” Republicans (representing the pre-war abolitionist wing) against moderates within the party. Democrats, reduced to a rump faction, could do little more than get out of the way and, if palatable, […]

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Propeller Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh (1851)

On June 19, 1846, the Rochester, New York, Democrat newspaper reported that over 4,000 people assembled to witness the launch of a new steamship (then often called a “propeller” due to the novel screw propulsion mechanism), the Genesee Chief. She was described as “faultless in her model and appointments.” At 144 feet long, with 20 […]

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Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845)

Justice Joseph Story: The Youngest Justice Appointed to the Court Most lawyers in private practice at the age of 32 are preparing for potential consideration for, and transition to, partnership.  At that same age, after a distinguished government and law firm career in Boston, Joseph Story took his seat on the United States Supreme Court […]

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Swift v. Tyson (1842)

Section 34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 provides that “the laws of the several states, except where the Constitution, treaties or statutes of the United States shall otherwise recognize or provide” were to be applied and followed “as rules of decision in trials at common law.” George Swift, a Maine resident, was assigned a […]

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Cohens v. Virginia (1821)

Over the years, the Supreme Court has addressed several constitutional topics in cases involving lotteries. Perhaps none is as significant as Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in Cohens v. Virginia. The case was the third major act in a decades-long contest over the nature of the Union and, more specifically, over the constitutional relationship between […]

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Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835)

“The Great Chief Justice,” John Marshall (1755-1835) The longest-serving Chief Justice in our history, author of every major Supreme Court ruling in the first third of the nineteenth century—including the one establishing the principle of judicial review—John Marshall earned undisputed honor as “the Great Chief Justice.” He deserves honor also as a great man.

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Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Marbury v. Madison (1803) – A Landmark Decision Establishing The Supreme Court’s Role In an effort to fill the Chief Justice vacancy on the Supreme Court before leaving office, President John Adams offered the position to John Jay, who declined, citing the lack of dignity and respect of the Supreme Court.  Secretary of State John […]

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The United States Supreme Court: Landmark Decisions and the Justices Who Made Them

Introduction: Why Study the Landmark Decisions? What does it mean to “constitute” America? How would anyone do that? And why? And what is “America,” anyway? “America can mean simply the “New World”—the two American continents, “new to the late-Renaissance Europeans who stumbled upon them en route to China, if not to the Asian settlers who’d […]

Actress Janine Turner propels student’s career

    Contact: Shonda Werry Constituting America Tel: 202-246-0307 Email: constitutingamerica@yahoo.com   CONSTITUTING AMERICA PROMOTES STUDENT’S PSA: 3.4 MILLION VIEWS Constituting America, founded by actress Janine Turner (Northern Exposure, Friday Night Lights, Cliffhanger) and Cathy Gillespie, to air student’s winning PSA on the Constitution nationwide on February 13th. February 8, 2017 (Colleyville, TX) Constituting America […]

Constituting America’s Seventh 90 Day Study: The United States Supreme Court: Landmark Decisions And The Justices Who Made Them

INTRODUCTION The United States Supreme Court: Landmark Decisions And The Justices Who Made Them   JUDICIAL POWERS Marbury v. Madison (1803) – Justice of the Peace William Marbury versus Jefferson’s Secretary of State James Madison who was not allowed to deliver commissions for judicial appointments: Boundary between constitutionally separate executive and judicial branch powers. Chief […]

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Constitutional Issues In The 2016 Election

Faithful readers of Constituting America’s 90-Day Study have followed the story of our constitution through each of our presidential elections. We have seen that the moral foundations of both of our constitutions—the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution that replaced it—find their most cogent expression in the Declaration of Independence.

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2012, Barack Obama Defeats Mitt Romney

  Only once before the twenty-first century has America had three consecutive eight-year presidencies: the years 1801-25 in which three members of “the House of Virginia,” Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe each won two general elections and served for eight years. Historians have called the end of this period “the Era of Good […]

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2008, Barack Obama: Forty-Fourth President of the United States

  Barack Obama: Forty-Fourth President of the United States Nickname: The First African-American President Terms in Office: 2009-2013; 2013-present Fast Stats Born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii Parents: Barack Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro Barack Obama is still living and in office Age upon Start of First Term: 47; Age upon […]

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2004, George W. Bush Defeats John Kerry: Due Process, Terrorism, And The Constitution

  “One of (PATRIOT Act II’s) provisions would apparently enable federal employees to strip US citizens of their rights without due process. More broadly, it would create a separate, very shadowy justice system for terrorist suspects in which most of the rights and procedures normally guaranteed criminal suspects can be abrogated at the discretion of […]

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2000, George W. Bush Defeats Al Gore, Ralph Nader: A Case Study On Choosing Electors

  Congress Sets Times for Electors Article II, Section 1. Clause 4: The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. Title 3, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code describes the timeframe for the […]

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1996, Bill Clinton, Presidential Elections, And Constitutional Rule Of Law

  At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 a Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” to which Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” The 1996 presidential election cycle and the twenty years hence have demonstrated the fragility of Franklin’s “If.”

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1992, Bill Clinton Defeats George H.W. Bush

  Bill Clinton: Forty-Second President of the United States Nickname: The Comeback Kid Terms in Office: 1993-1997; 1997-2001 Fast Stats: Born August 19, 1946, in Hope Arkansas Parents: William Jefferson Blythe III and Virginia Dell Cassidy; Stepfather: Roger Clinton Bill Clinton is still living Age upon Start of First Term: 46; Age upon Conclusion of […]

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1988, George H.W. Bush Defeats Michael Dukakis

  A Thousand Points of Light: George H.W. Bush and the 1988 Election George H.W. Bush had three significant obstacles to overcome if he wanted to be elected president in 1988.  The first was that Bush’s election seemed to be a referendum on eight years of the Reagan presidency.  Americans were split over that legacy […]

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1984, Ronald Reagan Defeats Walter Mondale: Geraldine Ferraro Nomination As Vice President And The Constitutional Implications Of The Feminist Movement

Morning in America: Ronald Reagan & the 1984 Election In his 1984 State of the Union Address, President Ronald Reagan laid out his principles and vision that had guided his first term and provided the foundation for his re-election campaign. He reminded voters that the economy was growing rapidly and was back on track after […]

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1980, Ronald Reagan Defeats Jimmy Carter, John Anderson: The Critique Of The Administrative State

  In many ways, the circumstances surrounding the 1980 presidential election mirror those surrounding the 2016 elections: America’s economy in the doldrums and an electorate hungry for change. But the 2016 elections allow us the hindsight of nearly four full decades of history, and teach us that if we aren’t willing to learn those lessons, […]

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1976, Jimmy Carter: Thirty-Ninth President Of The United States

  Jimmy Carter: Thirty-Ninth President of the United States Nickname: The Peanut Farmer Terms in Office: 1977-1981 Fast Stats Born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia Parents: James Earl and Lillian Gordy Carter Jimmy Carter is still living Age upon Start of Term: 52; Age upon Conclusion of Term: 56 Religious Affiliation: Southern Baptist Political […]

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Our Constitution Works: President Ford’s Date With Destiny

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, the Grand Rapids Economic Club and the National Constitutional Center hosted “Our Constitution Works: President Ford’s Date with Destiny” on October 20, 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The following is a partial transcript of the videotaped panel discussion. Used with permission. Doug DeVos, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Trustee, […]

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1972, Richard Nixon Defeats George McGovern: Watergate

  During the 1972 election, incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon won an astoundingly large margin, garnering 520 electoral votes. Despite his huge advantages during the election, President Nixon and his campaign operatives engaged in unethical and illegal activities during the campaign. The ultimate victim of Nixon’s crimes turned out to be Nixon himself, as he […]

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A Different Take On Watergate

The American Mind with Charles R. Kesler: Presented by The Claremont Institute. Originally published on Jan 30, 2014 in the third segment with University of Nevada Reno Professor John Marini, Marini and Kesler discuss President Nixon and his losing battle with Washington bureaucracies. Used with permission. PRESIDENT NIXON VS. THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE.  An Interview with […]

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1972, Richard Nixon: Thirty-Seventh President of the United States

  Richard M. Nixon: Thirty-Seventh President of the United States Nickname: Red Hunter Terms in Office: 1969-1973; 1973-1974 Fast Stats Born January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California Parents: Francis Antony and Hannah Milhous Nixon Died April 22, 1994, in New York, New York; age 81 Age upon Start of First Term: 56; Age upon […]

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1968, Supreme Court Decisions On Civil Rights: An Issue Raised By George C. Wallace

  Anyone who believes that today’s political discourse has reached a new low should consider the political career and rhetoric of George C. Wallace, a 1968 Presidential candidate for the American Independent Party, a party formed by Wallace after the Democratic Party rejected his segregationist agenda.  Wallace was at the forefront of resistance to the […]

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1968, Richard Nixon Defeats Hubert Humphrey, George C. Wallace: The Rise Of The “New Left”

  A House Divided: The Presidential Election of 1968 The presidential election of 1968 was held amidst a deluge of violence and civil unrest. That the United States managed to survive this annus horribilis was a testament to the resilience of its people and of its constitutional framework. The simple fact that the election proceeded […]

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1964, Lyndon B. Johnson Defeats Barry Goldwater – The “Great Society” And The Constitution

  Part of this essay is taken from Brion McClanahan’s 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her (Regnery History, 2016). The 1964 election between Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson was a watershed election.  Goldwater “flipped” the South and by the early 1970s, the South was voting solidly Republican for […]

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1960, The Election Of The First Catholic President As A Vindication Of The First Amendment’s Clauses On Religious Freedom And Religion Establishment

  JFK, Catholicism, and the 1960 Election The American Founding ushered in a “new order for the ages” that included the unprecedented and remarkable natural right of liberty of conscience.  The First Amendment protected this universal right of all humans and banned Congress from establishing an official religion.  The Constitution also banned all religious tests […]

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1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower Defeats Aldai Stevenson

  The election of 1956 saw Adlai Stevenson again tasked with the unenviable duty of an electoral contest against Dwight D. Eisenhower, which, it will come as no surprise, did not end in Stevenson’s favor.  Eisenhower is well known to students of history and government, Stevenson, a one-term governor of Illinois, barely garners a mention […]

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A Memorial Day Message by Constituting America Founder & Co-Chair Janine Turner

Constituting America first published this message from Founder & Co-Chair Janine Turner over Memorial Day Weekend, 2010, the inaugural year of our organization.  We are pleased to share it with you again, as we celebrate our 6th birthday!   On this Memorial Day weekend, I think it is appropriate to truly contemplate and think about […]

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1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower Defeats Adlai Stevenson: Communism And Civil Liberties

  Communism and Civil Liberties: The Election of 1952 The election of 1952 brought about the first GOP presidential victory in more than 20 years.  It came about at a time while many in America were weary from World War II, and they were very apprehensive about the potential for subversion by the Soviet Union […]

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1948, Harry Truman: The Atomic Bomb, Cold War, Marshall Plan & The Fair Deal and Civil Rights Reform

  Harry S. Truman: Thirty-Third President of the United States Nickname: The High-Tax Harry Terms in Office: 1945-1949; 1949-1953 Fast Stats Born May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri Parents: John Anderson and Martha Ellen Young Truman Died December 26, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri; age 88 Age upon Start of First Term: 60; Age upon […]

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1948, Harry Truman Defeats Thomas Dewey, Strom Thurmond (“Dixiecrat”), Henry Wallace (Progressive Party): “States’ Rights” And Civil Rights Issues Raised By Dixiecrats

__ 1948: The Dixiecrats The primary elections of 2016 have invited comparisons to political factions in American politics that haven’t appeared in such clear focus for nearly seventy years. Although the Republican Party of 1948 had papered over its divisions between moderate-to-liberal business interests on the East Coast—represented by New York Governor Thomas Dewey—and Middle-Western […]

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1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Thomas Dewey: Constitutional Implications Of Roosevelt’s Liberal Internationalism, United Nations

  Global War and Peace: The 1944 Election In his 1944 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a “Second Bill of Rights” that redefined the rights of the founding bill of rights. This radical pronouncement promised economic security and “positive rights” guaranteed by the federal government.

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1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Unprecedented Run For A Third Term

FDR’s Third Term and the Twenty-Second Amendment On November 5, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first and only U.S. president to be elected for more than two terms. A newspaper headline depicted the historic moment with a joke that captured the public’s ambivalence toward Roosevelt’s unprecedented break from tradition: “Safe on third!”

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1936, Supreme Court Opposition To New Deal Laws

  The United States Supreme Court and the New Deal Many a law student is familiar with the line, “A switch in time, saved nine.”  It refers to the actions of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen J. Roberts – Supreme Court justices who switched their votes from holding the legislative program of […]

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1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Alfred Landon: Administrative Centralization And Its Implications For Constitutionalism

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt, running for re-election in 1936, received 60.8% of the popular vote, second-highest popular vote percentage since that method of selecting presidential electors became dominant in the 1830s. Only Lyndon Johnson’s 61.1% over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Richard Nixon’s 60.7% over George McGovern in 1972, and Warren Harding’s 60.3% over James Cox […]

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1932, The “New Deal”

  In 1932, the U.S. economy reached its nadir during the Great Depression.  Unemployment had risen to more than 20 percent, or 11 million Americans, matched by a similar number of the underemployed as factories and businesses closed their doors.  Banks were closing at an alarming rates as people instantly lost their life savings.  Hundreds […]

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1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt Defeats Herbert Hoover: How The Great Depression Threatened Constitutionalism

  The 1932 Presidential election took place during the height of the Great Depression.  While a number of candidates ran on third party tickets, the main fight for the White House featured the incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt and none of the other candidates garnered more than 2% of the popular […]

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1928, The Effects Of Urbanization On The U. S. And Its Implications For Constitutional Government

  How Urbanism Forever Changed America The 1928 Presidential Election remains the zenith of Republican political power.  Republican Herbert Hoover crushed Democrat Al Smith, winning 58 percent of the popular vote and 83 percent of the electoral vote. [1] The landslide was fueled by years of prosperity, affection for outgoing President Calvin Coolidge, and deep […]

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Herbert Hoover: Thirty-First President Of The United States

  Thirty-First President of the United States Nickname: The Great Humanitarian Terms in Office: 1929-1933 Fast Stats Born August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa Parents: Jesse Clark and Hulda Randall Minthorn Hoover Died October 20, 1964, in New York City, New York; age 90 Age upon Start of Term: 54, Age upon Conclusion of […]

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Women’s Suffrage And The Impact On Presidential Elections

  In the 2012 presidential election, 53 percent of the voters were women. Imagine if women, who make up about 51 percent of the American population, couldn’t vote. It wasn’t that long ago when that was a reality.

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1924, Calvin Coolidge Defeats Robert M. LaFollette, Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive Party), And John W. Davis: The Direct Election Of Presidents

  From today’s standpoint, the presidential election of 1924 might appear to be an oddity or an outlier.  In 1924 the nominees of both parties ran on a conservative domestic agenda of limited government and tax cuts.  For this reason author Garland Tucker calls 1924 “The High Tide of American Conservatism.”

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1920, The Sedition Act And Eugene Debs: Raising Of The Issue Of The “Red Scare”

  The Election of 1920: The Sedition Act, Eugene Debs, and the “Red Scare” Eugene V. Debs was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a frequent Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.  Debs became a well-known socialist both through his political activity and as a result of the […]

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Warren G. Harding: Twenty-Ninth President Of The United States

  Twenty-Ninth President of the United States Nickname: Charming Harding Terms in Office: 1921-1923 Fast Stats Born November 2, 1865, in Blooming Grove, Ohio Parents: George Tryon and Phoebe Elizabeth Dickerson Harding Died August 2, 1923, in San Francisco, California; age 57 Age upon Start of Term: 55; Age upon Death: 57 Religious Affiliation: Baptist […]

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1916, Woodrow Wilson Defeats Charles Evans Hughes

  The 1916 Presidential election pitted incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson against Republican Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes.  The election was a very close one and had significant ramifications for the “progressive” movement.

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1912, Eugene Debs’ Socialism And The U. S. Constitution

  Dissenting from the Supreme Court’s 1905 opinion in Lochner v. New York that found unconstitutional a maximum-hour law for bakery employees, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., declared, “[A] constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the State or of laissez […]

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1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”

  By August 1910, Theodore Roosevelt had been out of office for a year and a half. He was unhappy with President William Howard Taft’s performance. Although Roosevelt had effectively designated Taft as his successor and continued to esteem him personally, Taft wanted no part of the rising Progressive movement in American politics. By 1910, […]

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1912, Woodrow Wilson Defeats William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Eugene Debs: Woodrow Wilson’s “New Freedom”

  “The Professor and the Bull Moose” 1912 Election In June, 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt broke with the tradition of candidates not attending conventions and arrived at the Republican National Convention with great fanfare. He fervently announced, “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.” He then proudly labelled himself a “Bull […]

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Progressivism And The Constitution

  In The Federalist No. 47 James Madison asserted that “accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Indeed, the importance of the separation of powers was so widely accepted by the American public in 1788 that Madison could confidently declare it to […]

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1908, William Howard Taft Defeats William Jennings Bryan

  The 1908 Presidential election featured the incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt following through on his promise to not seek a third term and encouraging the Republicans to nominate Secretary of War William Howard Taft.  While a number of third party candidates ran against Taft, the only non-Republican candidate who garnered any significant votes was […]

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1904 And 1908 Elections: Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” vs. William Jennings Bryan’s Populism

  The United States Constitution is silent on the subject of corporations.    After the Civil War, as American society began to quickly evolve from agrarian to industrial, politicians from both major parties raised concerns about the rise of corporations, banks, and businesses, and the need for protection of the individual.  Against this backdrop, two important […]

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1904, Theodore Roosevelt Defeats Alton Parker: Anti-Trust Legislation

  “The Most Absurd Political Campaign of Our Time”:  Teddy Roosevelt, Alton Parker and the Election of 1904 The candidates who squared off in the presidential election of 1904, Republican President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and Democrat Alton Parker, were both native to New York State; beyond that one commonality, they were a study in contrasts.  […]

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1896, William McKinley Defeats William Jennings Bryan: The Gold Standard vs. Bimetallism

  America’s politics leading into the 1896 election looks familiar. The political system was broken: In five presidential elections, no one received 50% and for 20 of 24 years, America had divided government and gridlock in which little got done. The animosity between the parties was beyond normal partisanship: they were still fighting the Civil […]

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William McKinley: Twenty-Fifth President Of The United States

  Twenty-fifth President of the United States Nickname: Major McKinley Terms in Office: 1897–1901; 1901 Fast Stats Born January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio Parents: William and Nancy Campbell Allison McKinley Died September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, New York; age 58 Age upon Start of First Term: 54; Age upon Conclusion of First Term: 58 […]

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Grover Cleveland: Twenty-Second And Twenty-Fourth President Of The United States

  Grover Cleveland Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth President of the United States Nickname: The Veto President Terms in Office: 1885–1889; 1893–1897 Fast Stats Born March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey Parents: Richard and Anne Neal Cleveland Died June 24, 1908, in Princeton, New Jersey; age 71 Age upon Start of First Term: 47; Age upon […]

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1888, Benjamin Harrison Defeats Grover Cleveland: The Constitutional Issues Raised By Cleveland’s Veto Of Pension Legislation For Veterans

  Portions of this essay are from the chapter “Grover Cleveland” in Brion McClanahan, 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her (Regnery History, 2016). Grover Cleveland lost the 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison through voter fraud, and it involved what may be considered the first major lobby group in […]

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1884, Grover Cleveland Defeats James G. Blaine: The Issues Surrounding The Furor Stirred By The “Rum, Romanism, And Rebellion” Slogan, Regarding Religious Freedom And Anti-Catholic Prejudice

  The election of 1884 was the first to put a Democrat in the White House since the Civil War. That it did, albeit narrowly was a testament to the way even the earliest stages of industrialization had transformed the country, setting it on the road to something far removed from its, rural, agricultural, protestant […]

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1880, James Garfield Defeats Winfield Scott Hancock: The Tariff Controversy, Post-Civil War

  When one reflects on the history of the United States, the politics of the Gilded Age are often overlooked. Many find little value in understanding the intricacies of the political wheeling and dealing, often engineered by political machinery in both major parties. Nevertheless, these elections are as a part of the collective American consciousness […]

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1876, Rutherford B. Hayes v. Samuel Tilden: Controversy Over Election Returns In This Election

Not long after the Civil War began, the poet Julia Ward Howe witnessed a procession of Union troops near Washington, D.C. Later that night, words stirred her from her sleep; she arose and caught them on paper. The lines of the Battle Hymn of the Republic that Howe penned that night alerted the hearer that […]

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1876, Rutherford B. Hayes Defeats Samuel Tilden: The End of Reconstruction

  We remember 1865 as the year when our Civil War ended. But by another measure, the standard of von Clausewitz, that war is politics continued by other means, the political conflict that erupted into formal war did not end until after Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president in 1877. The period known […]

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1872, Civil Service Reform

  The regular appearance of remarks on financial corruption in the proceedings of Congress in the Nineteenth Century might seem to indicate that American Government always was susceptible to the highest bidder. Rather, these comments are markers of Americans’ strong dislike and fear of corruption than they are proof that financial corruption was in fact […]

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1872, Ulysses S. Grant Defeats Horace Greeley: The Continuing Controversies Over Reconstruction

  The old bromide that politics makes strange bedfellows was never truer than during Reconstruction, from 1865-1877, a period of profound political chaos. Coalitions unexpectedly broke apart and unexpected coalitions formed. And never did America experience a presidential election that was more strange than the presidential election of 1872. The deep cause of this chaos […]

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1868, Constitutional Issues Surrounding Black Suffrage

  How should we understand the laggard steps of the United States towards the legal enforcement of equal civil and political rights for black Americans? A prevailing sense among Americans today is that the end of legal discrimination was the result of historical evolution. That is, beginning from a morally retrograde starting point, the nation […]

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1868, Ulysses S. Grant Defeats Horatio Seymour: Reconstruction And The Constitution

  Fearless and firm under fire, unflaggingly modest despite reverent acclaim, and always practical – these outstanding qualities of Ulysses S. Grant are acknowledged, whether begrudgingly or enthusiastically, by the many critics of his presidency as well as by his defenders. Grant was quintessentially American, and yet as a leader he proved that his particular […]

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Civil War Amendments

  For nearly the first century of her existence, America had left a promise unfulfilled to both the souls that resided within her borders, as well as humanity at large.  That promise, largely taken for granted today, cost the blood of nearly five thousand in the American Revolution and hundreds of thousands in the Civil […]

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1864, Holding A Presidential Election During A Civil War

  When asked what might derail his agenda for his new Conservative Party government, former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan is said to have responded, “Events, dear boy. Events.” That aptly describes how the political fortunes of war-time Presidents play out. It is surprisingly difficult for incumbent commanders-in-chief to win even if military campaigns are […]

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1864, Abraham Lincoln Defeats George McClellan: Constitutional Issues Raised By Lincoln’s Conduct Of The War

The Election of 1864: Constitutional Issues Raised by Lincoln’s Conduct of the War The 1864 election pitted the incumbent, Republican President Abraham Lincoln, against George McClellan of the Democratic Party.  It was the first election since 1840 in which an incumbent was renominated by his own party.  A major focus of the election was the […]

Impact Statement

We are the only organization that utilizes the movies, music and television with the kids’ own works, to inspire Americans of all ages to learn about the U.S. Constitution by distributing their works through the national media. Our Impact The core of our mission is to educate Americans about the Constitution and the rights and […]

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1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Understanding of the Constitution, Part 2: The Importance Of The Union

  “… if constitutionally we elect a President, and therefore you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown has been dealt with.” – Abraham Lincoln, December 3, 1859 John Brown had been hanged for treason on December 2, 1859.  Brown had lead a raid […]

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1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Understanding Of The Constitution, Part 1: Its Relation To The Declaration Of Independence

  “One would start with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.” – Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Henry […]

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1860, John Bell’s Understanding Of The Constitution

  The election of 1860 featured a number of candidates vying for the Presidency, with the tensions over slavery at the forefront.   Abraham Lincoln would carry the North for the Republican Party and win the election over numerous candidates, including three contenders that garnered significant votes.  Other essays in this series cover the 1860 Presidential […]

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1860, John C. Breckinridge’s Understanding Of The Constitution

  Election of 1860 John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky entered the year 1860 as Vice President, having been elected to that office in 1856 as a Democrat from the Stephen Douglas wing of the party. Taking the oath of office when barely 36 years old, one year above the constitutional minimum, he remains the youngest […]

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1860, Stephen Douglas’ Understanding Of The Constitution

  “Tell them to obey the laws and uphold the Constitution.” Stephen A. Douglas, deathbed instructions for his sons, June 3, 1861[1] Stephen Douglas’ instruction to his sons to uphold the Constitution should have been quite clear. He had spent three decades in public life, including 18 years in the United States Congress. He had […]

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1860, Abraham Lincoln Defeats Stephen Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, John Bell: Constitutional Issues Surrounding Secessionism And “The Crisis Of The House Divided”

  The election of 1860 would polarize the nation and challenge the durability of the Constitution. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia established a new government for the United States of America. For over seventy years, the country had fought fierce political battles over slavery and federalism. Compromises, pacts, and informal precedents managed to […]

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1860, Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address And Mathew Brady’s Lincoln Photo: The Making Of The President

  The Making of the President 1860—Mathew Brady and the Cooper Union Address Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential campaign, yet on a national level, he had served only a single term in the House of Representatives. He had gained renown from his famed debates with Senator Douglas, but remained a minor political figure. How […]

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1856, The Rise Of The Republican Party

  The 1850s was, for the American political party system, a decade of “creative destruction,” to borrow a concept from the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter. This process of collapse and rebirth, sometimes referred to as a political “realignment,” was triggered by the internal contradictions of a constitutional order resting simultaneously on the animating principle of […]

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1856, James Buchanan Defeats Millard Fillmore, John C. Fremont: The Kansas-Nebraska Act

  1856 Race for President—James Buchanan defeats Millard Fillmore and John C. Fremont The political scene in 1856 was chaotic. The Whig Party had collapsed because of a regional dispute over slavery. The American Party (Know-Nothings) had scooped up Whig remnants to rail against immigrants and Catholics. The new Republican Party, formed to fight slavery, […]

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1852, Franklin Pierce Defeats Winfield Scott, John Pitale: The Controversy Over The Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850

  The 1852 election pitted Franklin Pierce of the Democratic Party against General Winfield Scott of the Whig Party, John P. Hale of the Free Soil Party, Daniel Webster of the Union Party, Jacob Broom of the Native American Party, and George Troop of the Southern Rights Party.  In nominating Pierce, the Whig party refused […]

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Election Of 1848: Abolitionism And The Constitution

  The 1848 election pitted former President Martin Van Buren of the Free Soil Party against Zachary Taylor of the Whig Party, Gerrit Smith of the Liberty Party, and Lewis Cass of the Democratic Party.  The incumbent, President James Polk, did not seek reelection due to his declining health and his prior promise to serve […]

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1848, Zachary Taylor Defeats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass: Popular Sovereignty In The Territories, Cass’s Issue That Would Affect U. S. Constitutional Politics For The Next Decade

  The Missouri Compromise of 1820, it has been said often, delayed the Civil War for a generation. The act could not, however, eliminate the reality of slavery and the inherent contradiction of such an institution existing in a society founded on the idea of freedom. The Compromise had loaded the dice in favor of […]

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1844, The Issue Of Oregon Territorial Boundary

  Fifty-Four Forty or Fight! In the early 1840s, thousands of settlers from the Midwest traveled to Independence, Missouri, where they loaded hundreds of pounds of food, tools, and supplies on their oxen-drawn wagons.  They launched an epic overland trek 2,000 miles to the Oregon Territory and braved its dangers in order to participate in […]

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1844, James K. Polk Defeats Henry Clay, James Birney – Texas Annexation As It Related To The Issue Of Slavery

  The election of 1844 was notable in that the incumbent Whig President, John Tyler, who ascended to the Presidency when President William Henry Harrison died one month after his inauguration, was not nominated by his party to seek a second term as President.  Tyler’s focus on the annexation of Texas as a slave state […]

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1841, The Presidency Of John Tyler

  Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, a Wall Street Journal Book; James Taranto and Leonard Leo, Editors; Free Press, 2004. Reprinted with permission.   Tyler understood the president’s role under the Constitution. His defense of the presidency against Congress and his own party should have earned him a […]

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1840, William Henry Harrison Defeats Martin Van Buren: The Appeal Of Running Military Heroes For President And The Issue Of Generalship As A Qualification For Executive Office

  “The President holds the sword of the community” and the Congress “not only commands the purse but prescribes the rules.” The “judiciary has no force or will, but merely an opinion.” Alexander Hamilton states all of this in his Federalist paper #78. The framers knew this separation of power was an important one. Knowing […]

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1836, The Tariff Issue And The Constitution

  The Election of 1836: The Tariff Issue, Nullification and the Constitution The 1836 Presidential election saw Democratic incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren win the election in a campaign that featured four candidates from the newly-formed Whig Party running against Van Buren by region against a background of Southern threats of nullification and secession, […]

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1836, Martin Van Buren Defeats William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, Hugh White: The Unusual Practice Of Running Three Candidates By One Party (The Whigs) In Different Parts Of The Country

  Martin Van Buren was victorious over the Whig Party and its slate of candidates in the election of 1836, but the preparation for this victory had been a long time coming.  Van Buren had been championing the causes of Jefferson’s Democratic Republican party since early in his career.  He was, through his affiliation with […]

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1832, The Anti-Masonic Controversy

  The election of 1832 featured the incumbent Democratic President, Andrew Jackson, against National Republican Party candidate Henry Clay as the main contender.  Jackson easily won re-election.  A third party, the Anti-Masonic Party, also nominated a candidate, William Wirt, who received just under 8% of the popular vote but only 7 of the 286 Electoral […]

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1832, Andrew Jackson Defeats Henry Clay, William Wirt: Re-Chartering Of The Bank Of The U.S.

  “The Bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I shall kill it,” President Andrew Jackson ominously declared on July 4, 1832, to his political confidante and future vice-president, Martin Van Buren, during the apex of his struggle with the Second Bank of the United States.

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1828, Controversy Over Andrew Jackson’s War Record And The Question Of Civilian Control Over The Military

  1828: The General and the Presidency Americans remember Andrew Jackson’s victory over John Quincy Adams in 1828 as the General’s revenge for his narrow loss to Adams four years earlier, when no candidate received a majority in the Electoral College, the election devolved to Congress, and Henry Clay threw his support to the man […]

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1828, Andrew Jackson Defeats John Quincy Adams: The Two-Party System

  Andrew Jackson’s defeat of John Quincy Adams in the 1828 presidential election has often been heralded as the beginning of the second American party system. While historians today offer a more complicated interpretation of the two-party system that emerged in the 1820s and 1830s, the 1828 contest between Jackson and Adams was unquestionably a […]

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1824, The Second Instance Of An Election Decided In The House Of Representatives

  The election of 1824 was eerily similar to the 2016 campaign.  It was characterized by fierce personal attacks launched by the surrogates of candidates and by the candidates who accused each other of corruption.  Several establishment candidates ran but failed to rouse the base.  One highly popular candidate ran as an anti-establishment, Washington outsider […]

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1824, John Quincy Adams Defeats Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, And William Crawford: Party Nominating Conventions And Popular Votes In Elections

  The 1824 presidential election produced the infamous “Corrupt Bargain,” in which the House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams as President rather than Andrew Jackson, who finished first in the popular vote and in the Electoral College (but did not reach a majority in either).  More important, however, is the fact that the 1824 […]

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McCulloch v. Maryland: Not Quite A Campaign Issue?

  McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheaton (17 U.S.) 316 (1819), is widely regarded as the landmark case defining the boundaries of power between national and state government in the American federal system. In McCulloch, the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice John Marshall, explored the extent of implied congressional […]

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1820, James Monroe Won Unopposed: The Missouri Compromise

  The Election of 1820: The Uncontested Race and the Missouri Compromise The election of 1820 was the last presidential contest in which the ticket ran virtually unopposed.  President James Monroe and his Vice President, Daniel D. Tompkins, won all but one electoral vote, which went to John Quincy Adams.  The only other president elected […]

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1816, Constitutional Issues Surrounding The Second Bank Of The U. S.

  The debate over the First and Second Banks of the United States expose the difficulties of constitutional interpretation. Additionally, the debate surrounding the Second Bank of the United States is a study of how principles can give way to political expediency. The following essay will provide a brief overview the Banks, discuss the constitutional […]

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1816, James Monroe Defeats Rufus King: The Hartford Convention

  Rufus King: delegate from Massachusetts to both the Confederation Congress and the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (where, he was one of five members of the influential Committee of Style), long-time U.S. Senator from New York, unsuccessful candidate for governor of New York, two-time American ambassador to Great Britain (where his first successor was James […]

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James Madison Defeats DeWitt Clinton: The Wartime Election Of 1812

  The waging of war is the greatest challenge any person in national authority can face.  It is an all-consuming task.  It is an undertaking that can destroy both leader and nation.  Of all governments, Constitutional Republics face the greatest challenge.  Conscripting armies, rationing materials, the issuing and obeying of unquestionable orders; all of these […]

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1808, James Madison Defeats Charles Pinckney: The Embargo Act Of 1807

  On June 22, 1807, the American frigate USS Chesapeake set sail from Norfolk, Virginia for the waters of the Atlantic to join in a squadron heading to the Mediterranean to battle the Barbary Pirates.  The 50-gun British warship HMS Leopard immediately pounced upon the ship and sought to board her seeking deserters from the […]

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1804, The Constitutional Significance Of The Louisiana Purchase: An Election Issue

  The best argument against Thomas Jefferson’s 1804 reelection might well have been his presidency’s greatest success. The purchase of Louisiana doubled the nation in size, ensured the free flow of commerce along the Mississippi, and removed from the continent the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s France, which would soon take possession of the territory from […]

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1804, Thomas Jefferson Defeats Charles Pinckney: The Significance Of The 12th Amendment

  The election of 1804 is markedly less significant than the “Revolution of 1800.”  While the triumph of Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans over Adams and Hamilton’s Federalist Party is noted by Jefferson as an event that “will ameliorate the condition of man over a great portion of the globe,” 1804 failed to merit such hope for the […]

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1800, Electoral College Tie Between Jefferson And Burr, Throwing An Election Into The House Of Representatives For The First Time

  Today, having the House of Representatives elect the president seems strange, almost freakish. But to the Framers, the participation of the House in this process was expected to be common-place. The problem arises out of the practical need for at least a two-step procedure. There first must be a mechanism to nominate a number […]

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Election Of 1800: Constitutional Implications Of The Alien & Sedition Acts

  In the summer of 1798, the capital of Philadelphia was gripped by several fevers.  Ships from the tropical West Indies brought Yellow Fever to several port cities including Philadelphia, causing thousands to flee for their lives as the number of victims escalated.  The epidemic, however, hardly compared to the political fever taking hold over […]

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1800, Thomas Jefferson Defeats John Adams: The First Peaceful Transfer Of The Presidency From One Political Party To Another

  John Adams’ narrow victory over Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796 foreshadowed the contentious political environment of Adams’ sole term. Soon enough, the Republican opposition went into full battle mode, and Adams’ refusal to respond by playing party chieftain goes a long way toward explaining his narrow loss in 1800.

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1796, John Adams Defeats Thomas Jefferson: Surviving America’s First Election Between Competing Political Parties

Six months before his retirement from the presidency, George Washington gave a farewell address to the nation. Among several memorable passages is his warning about the evils of the spirit of party, particularly as it manifests itself in republican forms of government. “This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature having its roots in the […]

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1792, George Washington Sets The Tone For America As Its First Elected President

  In early 1790, in just the second year of the general government under the new constitution, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton delivered on the charge made to him by the first Congress in 1789 to prepare a plan for the “adequate support of public credit.” This First Report on the Public Credit proposed to pay […]

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1789: George Washington And The First Presidential Election Under The New Constitution

  The First Presidential Campaign—George Washington, 1788-89 George Washington won the first presidency under the newly established Constitution. He ran unopposed, professed not to want the job, remained for the most part at Mount Vernon, and yet won unanimously. Many believe he never campaigned, but instead acquiesced to a call to duty from his countrymen. […]

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Does The Electoral College Still Work?

  Our founding generation would doubtless be surprised to discover that America’s presidential election system has become the subject of some controversy. Indeed, our Founders were rather proud of the process they’d created. “The mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States,” Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1788, “is almost the only part […]

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Why Was The Electoral College Created?

The Electoral College may be one of America’s most misunderstood institutions.  How often do you hear a media outlet or school textbook gratuitously bash our presidential election system as “outdated” or “archaic”? It’s said to be a relic of the horse and buggy era—a process created by slaveholding Founders who didn’t trust the people to […]

Constituting America’s Sixth 90 Day Study: The Intrigue of Presidential Elections and Their Constitutional Impact

Monday, February 15, 2016 Introduction by Constituting America Founder & Co-Chair, Janine Turner & her daughter, Juliette Turner, author of Our Presidents Rock (Harpers Collins/Zondervan) Tuesday, February 16, 2016 Why Was The Electoral College Created? – Tara Ross, author of Enlightened Democracy, the Case for the Electoral College. Wednesday, February 17, 2016 Does The Electoral College Still Work? […]

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Millennials’ Time To Choose – Guest Essayist: Juliette Turner

If one were to look through the list of America’s past presidents, one would quickly conclude that many of the men who held our nation’s highest office would not have reached the Oval Office if they ran today. For example, James Madison’s soft voice and small stature would have branded him as too meek and […]

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The Federal Fruit and Vegetable Cartels – Guest Essayist: Daren Bakst

If you grow fruits and vegetables, the federal government might limit how many fruits and vegetables you can sell. Some raisin growers learned this the hard way when they were fined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for not turning over part of their crop to the federal government. This year, the United […]

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Article I, Section 02, Clause 1-2

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the […]

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Article I, Section 02, Clause 3

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all […]

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Article I, Section 02, Clause 5 and Section 03, Clause 1

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Youth Advisory Board

  Juliette Turner National Youth Director Juliette has been able to learn from her mother’s power to prevail while sharing many of the same life interests. Juliette wrote the bestselling book Our Constitution Rocks!(HarpersCollins/Zondervan) at age 12. Our Constitution Rocks, currently in its second printing with over 50,000 copies sold, is endorsed by Former First […]

Patriot Clubs Middle

The Flag: Let’s start with the simplest symbol that every kid knows – the flag. The flag is the symbol of our nation. It’s what we identify with as Americans.  There’s great flag information and history at this site: http://www.usa-flag-site.org/history.shtml Betsy Ross, a 24-year-old widow and upholsterer, is credited for sewing the first flag in […]

Patriot Club Schools

Spring Colonial Activities for Patriot Clubs or the Classroom:                                      April Showers Bring May Flowers   Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, Montpelier, home of James Madison, and Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson all boasted beautiful gardens.  This is a perfect season to expose students to colonial life, and activities colonial children participated in […]

Patriot Club Elementary

Patriot Club News! August 2016 By Gayle Poole, Texas Patriot Club Leader & Winner, Best Short Film by an Adult, 2013 We had our fourth Patriot Club and had lots of fun learning more about our wonderful Constitution! While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids had fun jumping on hay bales that had examples […]

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House Litigation Seeks To Defend The Constitution

On September 17, Americans will observe the 228th anniversary of the adoption and signing of the U.S. Constitution by the Constitutional Convention.  I commend Janine Turner, Cathy Gillespie and everyone associated with Constituting America for their efforts to defend our Constitution and educate people about its foundational significance.  Also, I am humbled to accept their […]

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The “Living” Constitution

Contributors to this series of articles have shown that executive branch of the United States government, cheered on by Congress and the Supreme Court and abetted by what has become a fourth branch of government—the federal bureaucracy or administrative state—has for some time almost routinely overridden the separation of powers the Framers designed for the […]

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Untried Weapons — Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 6)

Previous essays in this series explored why the Constitution is ineffective at restraining federal officials today, and illustrated how members of the present generation must come to view their relationship to the Constitution if it is to be of service in effectively limiting federal overreach. This series now concludes by highlighting two largely untried and […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 7) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

In our constitutional republic, the Congress of the United States is the legitimate legislative branch of government, charged with making the laws. A decision to adopt any national global warming program is an enormous one, with hundreds of billions of dollars and personal liberties at stake. This is simply not something that ought to be […]

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Untried Weapons — Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 7) – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

Previous essays in this series explored why the Constitution is ineffective at restraining federal officials today, and illustrated how members of the present generation must come to view their relationship to the Constitution if it is to be of service in effectively limiting federal overreach. The most recent essay highlighted current efforts to amend the […]

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It’s Time To Let Native Americans Practice Their Faith – Guest Essayist: Kristina Arriaga

In “Federalist 51,” James Madison wrote, “In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.” He went on to explain that for religious rights to be secure, pluralism is needed. Religious rights, he explained, “consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 5) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

VIEW FROM COPENHAGEN The full scope of what Obama, Browner,  and the EPA intend to do without any congressional authorization was on display at the United Nations climate conference I attended in Copenhagen in December 2009. At a side event hosted by Greenpeace called “Yes, he can! How Obama can deliver stronger emissions reductions,” the […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 4) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

THE CZAR BEHIND THE CURTAIN Driving the implementation of the EPA’s massive power grabs and circumvention of the legislative branch was a key White House official who avoided Senate confirmation by being installed as White House Energy Czar: Carol Browner. The potential Senate confirmation fight Obama sidestepped by creating a czar position for Browner would […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 3) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

THE TRAIN WRECK: THE EPA’S MANY WAYS TO ‘SKIN THE CAT’ Two weeks after the 2010 election and Obama’s “skin the cat” comment, a leading D.C.-based, left-wing advocacy group, the Center for American Progress,  published a 53-page report called The Power of the President: Recommendations to Advance Progressive Change, detailing a sweeping far-left agenda that […]

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Death, Taxes & Bureaucratic Overreach: The EPA’s Relentless, Unconstitutional War On Coal – Guest Essayist: Congressman Morgan Griffith

Using a phrase attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “…In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.”  I would submit that in modern times, nothing is certain except death, taxes, and bureaucratic overreach.

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Untried Weapons – Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 5) – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

This essay continues a series exploring briefly why the Constitution is ineffective at restraining federal officials today, and illustrates how members of the present generation must come to view their relationship to the Constitution if it is to be of service in effectively responding to federal overreach. The series will conclude by highlighting two largely […]

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Untried Weapons – Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 4) – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

This essay continues a series exploring briefly why the Constitution is ineffective at restraining federal officials today, and illustrates how members of the present generation must come to view their relationship to the Constitution if it is to be of service in effectively responding to federal overreach. The series will conclude by highlighting two largely […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

REWRITING THE CLEAN AIR ACT OF 1970: A BACK DOOR TO SOARING ENERGY PRICES Just to show you how unfazed  the Obama administration was by the political defeat of cap-and-trade, consider what’s on page 146 of Obama’s 2012 budget: ‘The administration continues to support greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the United States in the range […]

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Small Businesses Threatened With $36,500 IRS Fines For Helping Employees With Health Costs – Guest Essayist: Grace-Marie Turner

Small businesses that reimburse employees for the cost of premiums for individual health insurance policies or pay their health costs directly will be fined up to $36,500 a year per employee under a new Internal Revenue Service regulation that takes effect July 1, 2015 (article originally published June 30, 2015).

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Untried Weapons – Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 3) – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

This essay continues a series exploring briefly why the Constitution is ineffective at restraining federal officials today, and illustrates how members of the present generation must come to view their relationship to the Constitution if it is to be of service in effectively responding to federal overreach. The series will conclude by highlighting two largely […]

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The Heat Is On: Global Warming And The EPA (Part 1) – Guest Essayist: Phil Kerpen

For decades, environmental extremists have been stymied when their doomsaying predictions collide with the reality of an ever-improving environment, driven by the enormous wealth created by our market economy. The “problem” they describe is always something different, but the “solution” is always the same: draconian restrictions on economic activity, vastly expanded government power (usually internationally), and […]

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Untried Weapons – Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

This essay continues a series exploring briefly why the Constitution is ineffective at constraining federal officials today, and highlighting two largely untried and fundamentally different approaches to restoring constitutional constraints, both of which claim support from the Constitution and America’s Founding Fathers. The Constitution in Tatters As a document setting effective limits on the power […]

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Untried Weapons – Repairing The Tattered Remains Of A Constitution That Has Not Been Tried And Found Wanting, But That Has Been Found Difficult; And Left Untried (Part 1)* – Guest Essayist: David Eastman

This essay is the first in a series inspired by federal overreach in Alaska. The series explores briefly why the Constitution is ineffective at constraining federal officials today, and evaluates two largely untried and fundamentally different approaches to restoring constitutional constraints; issue– based legislative accountability and a convention of states to amend the United States […]

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Saxton v. FHFA – Have FHFA And The Treasury Exceeded Their Limited Authority Under HERA? – Guest Essayist: Logan Beirne

Earlier this month, a new front was opened in the legal campaign by investors against the federal government’s (mis)management of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the latest salvo, Saxton v. Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA), individual investors from Iowa filed suit to stop the government from syphoning private property into the U.S. Treasury’s […]

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Immigration Reform And Executive Orders: Imperfect Together – Guest Essayist: Will Morrisey

Properly used, executive orders form an indispensable part of any government, including our own. If Congress passes a law and the president signs it, the president undertakes a Constitutional obligation to execute the law.  In so doing, he is likely to need to tell his administrators what to do and, at least to some extent, […]

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What’s In a Name? The Controversy over the Washington Redskins – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the progressives created numerous agencies in the executive branch of government that were supposed to bring more rationality, efficiency, and order to American society.  They were to be run by scientific experts who would oversee a civil service bureaucracy that would govern objectivity as they made decisions […]

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Another ACA Treasury Regulation That Lacks Statutory Authority – Guest Essayist: Grace-Marie Turner

New research about implementation of the Affordable Care Act finds that Obama administration regulations are allowing taxpayer subsidized health insurance for some people earning less than the statutory income floor and also for unlawful immigrants.

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‘Forced Sale’ Of Drugs Could Endanger Patient Safety – Guest Essayist: Grace-Marie Turner

Any “forced sale” of products would also be constitutionally questionable as an unprecedented intrusion into the marketplace because the government would be compelling a commercial transaction that does not involve a willing seller and a willing buyer.  The innovator company could even face liability if patients were harmed by a drug provided to them by […]

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Examining The Use Of Administrative Actions In The Implementation Of The Affordable Care Act – Guest Essayist: Grace-Marie Turner

Companies inside and outside the health sector have spent countless billions of dollars trying to comply with the ACA. When the administration makes what some call “minor temporary course corrections,” it causes a new cascade of disruption and expenses for companies and makes it even harder for them to comply not only with the law […]

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The Supreme Court: Paving The Way For Executive Branch Overreach – Guest Essayist: Elliot Engstrom

Last week, the United States Supreme Court once again opted not to rule a key provision of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The case at issue, King v. Burwell, was technically not a challenge to the Affordable Care Act itself but rather the IRS’s implementation of the Act.

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Judicial Activism Rescues Obamacare

The Supreme Court has been in the news this week and Justice John Roberts has been thrust into the spotlight because he authored the majority opinion in King v. Burwell.  In it, Roberts and the Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e. Obamacare. This is no ordinary decision, though.  The court’s ruling […]

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What Would George Washington Say About The U.S. Now? – Guest Essayist: Logan Beirne

The below was originally published in FoxNews.com Opinion July 4, 2013 We have strayed from the path our Founders forged 237 years ago. Under the Constitutional Republic they created after the Revolutionary War, the United States has prospered over the centuries beyond the founding generation’s wildest dreams; however, we are wandering further from those very […]

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Real Possibility Of A Federal Takeover Of Elections: The Role Of The U.S. Department Of Justice Aiding And Abetting Progressive Organizations To Weaken States’ Voting Laws – Guest Essayist: Catherine Engelbrecht

Executive Overreach in American Elections Perhaps one of my favorite cultural artifacts from the 1990s was those Magic Eye prints you could find in gift shops just about anywhere. They might look like a random assortment of colorful dots – but with a trained eye, images would practically spring forth from the frame. Sometimes executive […]

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Dear Mr. President – Guest Essayist: Logan Beirne

This Constituting America study focuses on executive overreach and presidents’ potential violation of our Constitution’s separation of powers. On the other end of the spectrum, executive inaction can likewise threaten American principles. This essay focuses on President Obama’s failure to stand up for one particularly cherished American principle: freedom of speech.   The threats posed both by […]

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Who’s To Blame For Presidential Overreach? We Are – Guest Essayist: Byron Schlomach

Much has been made in recent years about the abuse of presidential power. There is no shortage of recent examples to show that this is a legitimate concern. However, this is not entirely the fault of the current administration. Instead, the fault lies with the American people and the other branches of government that have […]

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Common Core: All Too Common Overreach – Guest Essayist: Cynthia Dunbar

The three branches of the United States government are the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The U. S. Constitution lays out the power and authority of each of these separate branches. It is important to note that the powers given to each branch are unique and separate and do not overlap or invade the authority of […]

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Fear Of An Overly Powerful Executive? As American As Apple Pie – Guest Essayist: James D. Best

Americans abhor politicians who gather up inordinate powers. At least, that used to be the case. From our Revolution forward, Americans remained wary of any officeholder who tried to maneuver around constitutional limits. This was especially true if the trespasser happened to be a president.

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 6) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

During the Watergate scandal, the press went into a veritable feeding frenzy when the Nixon White House reported that slightly more than eighteen minutes of tape recordings of a key conversation between President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, were erased. The Nixon White House claimed it was an accident. This […]

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 5) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

Imagine you approach a Hollywood executive with the following script idea: A powerful federal agency goes rogue. It targets political opponents with extraordinary investigations, targets opponents for audits, tries to throw opponents in jail, targets politicians who try to investigate its wrongdoing, and even attempts to monitor the prayers of the faithful. Then, just when […]

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Why Are TPA And TPP Being Referred To As Obamatrade? – Guest Essayist: Nancy Salvato

In an article by Connor Wolf called This Is The Difference Between TPP And TPA (Hint: They Are Not The Same Thing), he explains that these two bills are linked together because Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a means to fast track passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  I am confused by this line of […]

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Stopping The Usurpation Of Advice And Consent – Guest Essayist: Scot Faulkner

June 28, 2014 is an historic day in thwarting Presidential over-reach. On that day the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled President Obama’s recess appointments unconstitutional. NLRB versus Noel Canning, ET AL was a rare instance when the Judicial Branch acted as referee and reset the balance of power between the Executive and Legislative Branches.

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When Waters Aren’t Waters At All: Executive Branch Over-Reaching And Federal Land Use Controls (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer

Waters, Regulation, And Political “Sleight Of Hand” At its most-basic level, sleight-of-hand is the art of performed misdirection.  A magician gets an audience to focus their attention on something shiny he is holding in one hand, distracting you from the trick he is attempting behind his back.  If successful, the audience is fooled into thinking […]

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When Waters Aren’t Waters At All: Executive Branch Over-Reaching And Federal Land Use Controls (Part 1) – Guest Essayist: Andrew Langer

How We Got Here There is a truism when it comes to the power of the federal executive branch: over time, the power of that branch grows.

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How the Federalists Viewed Human Nature And Its Impact on the Resulting Government System In the United States of America (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: Amy Zewe

The balance to solve the problems inherent in past democracies are addressed in the Federalist Papers. One topic that takes precedent is the idea of popular sovereignty and its dangers that can result in the tyranny of the majority. Whereas most Founders would agree that man is rational and capable of solving problems through reason, […]

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How the Federalists Viewed Human Nature And Its Impact on the Resulting Government System In the United States of America (Part 1) – Guest Essayist: Amy Zewe

The founding fathers, particularly the writers of the Federalist Papers, were well versed in the classics, Greek literature, historical records of successes and failures of governments, and the political theorists of their era. The Founders’ views of human nature are the basis upon which they created a democratic republic such as they did in America. […]

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 4) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

The IRS seems to be replacing “tax collection” with “oppression and censorship” as a key part of its agency mission statement.

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Immigration Reform By Pen? – Guest Essayist: Tony Williams

The cliché that America is a “nation of immigrants” is true as successive waves of immigrants throughout its history came to this country for its freedoms and opportunity.  The Statue of Liberty symbolically welcomes immigrants to America.  Over the past 150 years, American immigration policy has alternated between restriction and liberalization.  But, whatever vacillating nature […]

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 3) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

In late May 2013, we’d seen enough. We filed a lawsuit, the largest in ACLJ history.21 Ultimately including forty-one conservative and pro-life organizations in twenty-two states, it represented a comprehensive attack on the IRS targeting scheme and laid out in detail the consequences of the IRS’s misconduct. The ACLJ filed its case with the following understanding:

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An Underhanded Usurpation Of Popular Sovereignty – Guest Essayist: Nancy Salvato

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence

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Department Of Education Power Grab: The “Opt Out” Debate – Guest Essayist: Elliot Engstrom

In communities across America, parents and students are increasingly opting out of onerous standardized tests being pushed by the Department of Education. These assessments, which are directly related to both Common Core and No Child Left Behind, often put young children in high-pressure testing situations for hours on end. In fact, the length of some […]

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 2) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

“Let’s translate: when evaluating progressive organizations, the IRS singled out only seven groups for additional scrutiny, asked an average of only 4.7 additional questions, and approved every single group. By contrast, the IRS singled out 104 conservative groups, asked an average of 14.9 additional questions (some with multiple subparts), and ultimately approved fewer than half,” […]

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Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom (Part 1) – Guest Essayist: Jay Sekulow

By early 2010, two developments were shaking American liberals to their core. The first was the rise of the Tea Party; the second was a Supreme Court case that protected the right of free political speech.

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Executive Overreach And Its Effect On The Constitution’s Structural Safeguards Of Liberty – Guest Essayist: Professor Joerg Knipprath

A t-shirt I saw recently embodies the ultimate justification for parental authority, “I’m the Dad, That’s Why.” Of course, substituting “Mom” works, as well. President Obama’s claims of executive authority to act when Congress fails to enact his vision about immigration matters, Obamacare, or the environment, similarly appears to be, “I’m the President, that’s why.” […]

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Implementing The Affordable Care Act: The Executive Branch’s Liberties With Statutory Language – Guest Essayist: Grace-Marie Turner

The Obama administration has spent billions of taxpayer dollars implementing the Affordable Care Act, often taking vast liberties with statutory language.  The administration’s actions were the subject of a House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, chaired by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL).

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The Constitutional Tools Of Foreign Relations – Guest Essayist: Professor Joerg Knipprath

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, much was made in the press of the perception that this event reflected voters’ fatigue with foreign entanglements and a turning inward to domestic issues. While there is truth to that, events are not controlled by voters’ sentiments and have a way of upsetting comfortable delusions. It might […]

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Presidential Power And The “Nuclear Deal” With Iran – Guest Essayist: Joerg Knipprath

One of the most controversial recent presidential actions is the Obama administration’s desire to enter a “nuclear deal” with Iran. To prod Iran into an agreement that he appears desperately to want, President Obama intends to waive sanctions imposed under earlier legislation and executive action. As shown by an open letter to the Iranian government […]

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Common Core: Federal Overreach Into A State Issue – Guest Essayist: Hadley Heath Manning

The words “education,” “schools,” and “curriculum” do not appear in the U.S. Constitution or any Amendments.  This is not to say the Founders were not supportive of public education. Many of them, most notably Thomas Jefferson, wrote in support of the concept because they believed that, “an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our […]

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What Government By “The Consent Of The Governed” Looks Like – Guest Essayist: Brion McClanahan

The only way for the United States to wrestle the reins of power from the general government is a renaissance of State powers as codified by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.  Only then will we have true government by the “consent of the governed.” 

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The Executive Branch’s Growing Disrespect For Administrative Due Process – Guest Essayist: Lawrence J. Spiwak

Given the pervasiveness of regulation over the American economy, ensuring procedural due process for all Americans wishing to participate in both adjudications and rulemakings before administrative agencies is no easy task.  Indeed, unlike Congress—which is a political institution specifically designed by the Founding Fathers to promulgate laws based on the will of the people—an administrative […]

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Stop Using The IRS As A Bludgeon – Guest Essayist: James D. Best

American citizens should never fear their own government. It’s Un-American. The Declaration of Independence directed our Founders to organize government powers “in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” We should be able to go to bed at night feeling safe from hostile pounding on the door. […]

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The Regulatory State: Beyond The Founder’s Vision – Guest Essayist: Peter Roff

Among the things we have to thank the French for is the invention of the bureaucracy, which more than one dictionary defines as a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

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Guess How Many Changes President Obama Has Unilaterally Made To The Affordable Care Act? A Running List! – Guest Essayists: Tyler Hartsfield And Grace-Marie Turner

By our count at the Galen Institute, more than 49 significant changes already have been made to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: at least 30 that President Obama has made unilaterally, 17 that Congress has passed and the president has signed, and 2 by the Supreme Court.