Second Amendment: Revisiting the Original Congressional Debates
Second Amendment scholars and historians have almost completely skipped over a detailed analysis of the debates in the First Congress. What wasn’t discussed might be as important as what was. In his dissenting view in the Second Amendment case Heller v. District of...
Necessary Does not Mean Useful or Convenient
One of the most famous and important Supreme Court opinions is from the 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland case. It set the stage for massive expansion of federal power by incorrectly defining the Constitutional meaning of the word “necessary.” In its majority opinion, SCOTUS...
The Indian Commerce Clause and the ICWA
The federal government has stretched virtually every clause of the Constitution far beyond its meaning, creating more and more power for itself. This is true of the constitutional provisions relating to Native American affairs as well. People often overlook federal...