About Rob Natelson

In private life, Rob Natelson is a long-time conservative/free market activist, but professionally he is a constitutional scholar whose meticulous studies of the Constitution's original meaning have been published or cited by many top law journals. (See: www.constitution.i2i.org/about/.) Most recently, he co-authored The Origins of the Necessary and Proper Clause (Cambridge University Press) and The Original Constitution (Tenth Amendment Center). After a quarter of a century as Professor of Law at the University of Montana, he recently retired to work full time at Colorado's Independence Institute.

Author Archive | Rob Natelson

How Congress Took Control of Indians’ Lives

Congress micro-manages the lives of American Indians and of their tribes. It’s not supposed to be this way.

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Yet another “progressive” argument for an unlimited Commerce Power doesn’t add up

the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act is simply irrelevant to the scope of the Commerce Power.

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Provision in Obama jobs bill Unconstitutional

The proposed law would violate not only the Constitution’s actual meaning, but even the watered-down version of the Constitution now applied by the U.S. Supreme Court

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Obama Jobs Bill Defies Both the Constitution and the Supreme Court

11th Amendment. Obliterated. Rob Natelson explains

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The Original Constitution

It’s Here!

This is the first book EVER to explain the legal force of the entire U.S. Constitution as it stood in December, 1791, right after adoption of the Bill of Rights.

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Is it a “tax” or not a “tax”? The Original Understanding

To say that a levy is a “tax” under the Anti-Injunction Act is not to say that it is also a “tax” as the Constitution uses the word.

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The Courts Should Strike Down Medicare Mandates

Even under the Supreme Court’s ultra-liberal “Spending Clause” rules, Congress went too far this time.

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Judiciary Failure: Upholding Medicaid Expansion

Rob Natelson explains why the recent court ruling on Obamacare is yet another double-edged sword

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Yet Another Court Voids Obamacare’s Insurance Mandates

Rob Natelson tells us about the good, bad, and ugly of the recent 11th Circuit ruling

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Can the President Raise the Debt Limit Unilaterally? Hell no!

Some people are claiming that if Congress fails to raise the debt limit, the President can raise it himself unilaterally.  The claim is not only wrong, but far scarier for America’s future than a default would be

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The Unintended Constitutional Mistakes of “Cut, Cap, and Balance”

Details for a new balanced budgets amendment were poorly thought-out, and might have given America a devil of a problem.

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