Constitution

The Constitution Is Not Neutral

by John W. Whitehead July 6, 2018

“The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of the people.”—Justice William O. Douglas For those still deluded enough to believe they’re living the American dream—where the government represents the people, where the people are equal in the eyes of the law, where the courts are arbiters of justice, where the police are ...

Is the Constitution Even Welcome Here Anymore?

by John W. Whitehead May 31, 2018

“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out ‘stop!’ When crimes begin to pile up they ...

The Libertarian Angle – The Purpose of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation May 22, 2018

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss the purpose of the United States' founding documents Go to the podcast.

What Americans Should Know about the Constitution

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2017

Having just finished reading a new biography of H.L. Mencken, I was intrigued when I discovered that the Washington Post had an online section about politics called “Monkey Cage.” It was Mencken who said, “Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.” “Monkey Cage’”s mission “is to connect political scientists and the political conversation by ...

Patriots and Protesters Should Take a Knee for the Constitution

by John W. Whitehead September 28, 2017

“Seems like in the past 15 years or so the idea of patriotism has changed some. More polarized, more tied to political or ideological views. I’ve never seen patriotism or the flag connected to either; I see the flag more as the symbol of a nation that allows the freedom to express those ideas. That alone ...

The Supreme Court’s Destruction of Liberty of Contract

by David S. D'Amato September 1, 2017

Found in Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution, the Contract Clause is a failed attempt to prevent the government from taking actions that would compromise the integrity of contractual obligations — failed, in large part, because of the 1934 Supreme Court case Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell. Blaisdell is arguably the centerpiece of the Supreme Court’s ...

The Supreme Court, Federalism, and Limited Government

by Laurence M. Vance November 2, 2016

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of whether a biological female who identifies as a male can use the boys’ restroom in a Virginia high school. Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a U.S. Court of Appeals (or a state supreme court if it is deemed a constitutional issue) can ...

‘We the Prisoners’: The Demise of the Fourth Amendment

by John W. Whitehead June 29, 2016

“Our carceral state banishes American citizens to a gray wasteland far beyond the promises and protections the government grants its other citizens… When the doors finally close and one finds oneself facing banishment to the carceral state—the years, the walls, the rules, the guards, the inmates—reactions vary. Some experience an intense sickening feeling. Others, a strong desire ...

Economic Liberty and The Slaughterhouse Cases

by David S. D'Amato June 1, 2016

Are economic rights and liberties among the “privileges or immunities” of citizenship protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment? That was the simple question before the Supreme Court in the Slaughterhouse Cases, the opinion which is today almost uniformly denounced in the legal academy. Scholars of all political and interpretive commitments have come to reject Slaughterhouse as among the Court’s ...

It’s Not Just the Unborn Being Denied Rights Under the Constitution

by John W. Whitehead April 8, 2016

“The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.”—Hillary Clinton, Meet the Press (April 3, 2016) When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declares that unborn babies do not have constitutional rights, she’s not just spouting partisan rhetoric in the heated national debate over abortion. She’s providing us with a glimpse into an increasingly troubling mindset among government officials who ...

The Battle for the Supreme Court

by George Leef April 1, 2016

Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court by Damon Root (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 274 pages. Every case that comes before the U.S. Supreme Court has its unique factual setting and contentious legal issues, but in a large percentage of them, the decision ultimately comes down to this: Should the Court defer to the legislative ...

The Landmark Case That Destroyed Economic Liberty

by David S. D'Amato March 1, 2016

If the Supreme Court’s 1905 holding in Lochner v. New York is the widely reviled embodiment of the constitutional right to freedom of contract, then West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish is its celebrated antithesis. The New Deal era case has been identified with the beginning of a “Constitutional Revolution” that freed progressive social policy to march triumphantly onward. ...