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 wasnβt 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 βnecessary.β In its majority opinion, SCOTUS...
Did the Constitution Fail the People? Or Did the People Fail the Constitution?
Did the Constitution fail? A lot of people think it did. This popular quote by Lysander Spooner sums up the thoughts of many. βBut whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain β that it has either authorized such a government as we...