Constitution
How to Interpret the Constitution, and How Not to
How does one properly interpret the U.S. Constitution? Is originalism just a codeword used by “conservatives” to interpret it in the same manner as “liberals” view it as a “living, breathing document?” Michael Stokes Paulsen sets out to answer those questions in his...
Setting a Foundation: The Virginia Declaration of Rights
On June 12, 1776, the Fifth Virginia Convention passed the Virginia Declaration of Rights. It is arguably the most important founding document that most people have never heard of. The Virginia Declaration of Rights laid the groundwork for both the Declaration of...
Bloody Gina and Her Team of Torturers
Last week, at a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi who is charged with being the mastermind of an attack on the USS Cole in 2000 at which 17 American sailors were killed, the psychologist in charge of...
The First Salvo in the Ratification Debates: James Wilson’s State House Speech
While most people today think of the Federalist Papers as the leading defense of the Constitution’s original meaning, it was actually a speech by James Wilson that had a far greater impact on ratification. On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention,...