Archive | Founding Principles

Treaties not only do not “trump” the Constitution, they don’t trump State Constitution’s either.

The Constitutional Convention Did Not Exceed Its Power and the Constitution is not “Unconstitutional”

Our own experiment with self-government and federalism continues and ironically, the government established by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 too often envelops itself in a similar shroud of secrecy, worn to mask its efforts to dismantle the very freedoms protected by the product of that historic convention.

Self-determination means the right of the people to decide upon its own political status or form of government without outside influence. Consent of the governed is a phrase based upon the principle of self-determination. Any political society – government—that prohibits self-determination explicitly rejects popular sovereignty, whether the form and style of government is a republic or a democracy is, therefore, completely irrelevant and inconsequential.

An overview of Rob Natelson’s “The Origins and Meaning of ‘Vacancies that May Happen During the Recess’ in the Constitution’s Recess Appointments Clause.”

the resolution as penned by Jefferson was meant to be more than a protest; Jefferson envisioned the states defying the unconstitutional acts of the national government

William J. Watkins explains why the common belief that the Supreme Court has the last say about the constitutionality of our laws is wrong–and why people have the last say.

Under the Constitution as originally understood, jurisdiction over domestic relations outside federal enclaves and federal territories was reserved to the states.

The Federal Government cannot Amend Clause 16 by Statute

Rob Natelson sheds light on the original meaning of the Second.