The Ninth Amendment: Partner to the Tenth in Limiting Federal Power
The Ninth Amendment. Most people don’t know what it says or means. Others just ignore it. Those who don’t, usually get it completely wrong. The Ninth isn’t a grant of additional federal power. It’s a partner to the Tenth Amendment and a firewall for...
Taxing Power: Luther Martin’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
Luther Martin believed the Constitution’s sweeping taxation power was one of its most dangerous features, a direct threat to both state sovereignty and individual liberty. Long before the Sixteenth Amendment and the rise of federal income taxes, Martin warned that the...
Luther Martin vs. Landholder: Anti-Federalist Warnings on Consolidation and Tyranny
In a heated war of words, Luther Martin responded to a series of essays penned by Oliver Ellsworth under the pseudonym Landholder, defending his colleague Elbridge Gerry against Federalist attacks and reinforcing key Anti-Federalist warnings about consolidation and...