Without The Constitution You Might Be Someone’s Slave Today—And Other Crucial Facts About The Founding
Author Archive | Rob Natelson
The Breakdown of America
Today we look less and less like the kind of country that rose to world leadership, and more and more like a third-world kleptocracy.
Relax. The Constitution is Constitutional
The Constitutional Convention Did Not Exceed Its Power and the Constitution is not “Unconstitutional”
The Constitutional Issues In Same-Sex Marriage
Under the Constitution as originally understood, jurisdiction over domestic relations outside federal enclaves and federal territories was reserved to the states.
The Founders and the 2nd Amendment
Rob Natelson sheds light on the original meaning of the Second.
The Virginia Plan and the General Welfare Clause
Rob Natelson’s groundbreaking research concludes that the General Welfare Clause is a limitation on the taxing power.
Freedom, Not Government, Made America Great
To rescue a drowning man, you don’t lecture him on why we need water. His immediate problem is too much water. You have to get him out of it.
Why the Framers Could Suggest Ratification by Only Nine States
In prior postings such as the one here, I have explained why it is wrong to claim that the commissioners (delegates) to the 1787 Constitutional Convention exceeded their power in recommending that the Articles of Confederation be replaced by a new instrument. Another aspect of the same charge is that the Framers exceed their power by [...]
The Real Original Understanding of Original Intent
This Article re-examines the controversial question of whether the American Founders believed their own subjective understandings should guide future interpretation of the United States Constitution, or whether they thought constitutional construction should be guided only by objective public meaning or some other hermeneutic standard. This is a historical question, and in this Article, I treat [...]
The Myth of the “Conservative Supreme Court”
Is the current U.S. Supreme Court conservative? No, it is not. And certainly not if you define “conservative” as interpreting the Constitution according to the understanding of the makers. The claim that the Court has a conservative majority is certainly widespread. Googling the phrase “conservative supreme court” turned up over 38 million hits. The more [...]
American Tories: Attacking the Founders and the Constitution
Rob Natelson responds to Seidman’s article in the NY Times
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