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Deep Ignorance
This column was first published in The Hill on February 20, 2018. The web has been ablaze over the ignorance displayed by Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who showed himself unaware of the Anglo-American legal heritage. Schatz revealed his lack of knowledge by mistaking Attorney General Jeff Session’s reference to that heritage for a racist dog whistle. For those who have been living on Pluto — or serving in Congress — the phrases “Anglo-American heritage” and “Anglo-American legal system” are standard ways of referring to the…
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New Article: The President is Not Violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause
After a year of delays,* an article on how the Constitution uses the word “emoluments” has finally appeared. The study indirectly absolves President Trump of claims that he is violating the Constitution by receiving profits from enterprises whose customers include foreign governments. The article is called The Original Meaning of “Emoluments” in the Constitution, and it was published by Georgia Law Review. It was the result of impartial research: Unlike most articles of the type, it was not designed to serve as…
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Correcting Hillary Clinton’s Misconceptions About the Movement for Constitutional Amendments
In recent months, Hillary Clinton has made numerous inaccurate statements about those Americans working for what the Constitution calls a “convention for proposing amendments.” Because of Clinton’s national standing, her claims merit a response. Under Article V of the Constitution, when two-thirds of the state legislatures (34) pass matching resolutions called “applications,” Congress must call a convention to propose, not enact, constitutional reforms. The idea is to allow Americans, working through their state legislatures, to propose amendments the Washington, DC…
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Government Shutdown? Maybe for the Best
An earlier version of his column appeared in The Hill on February 6, 2018. Once again, this year we were threatened with a federal government “shutdown.” Well, for the future this citizen out in the hinterland says, “Bring it on!” Most of the interrupted functions aren’t really constitutional anyway, and we could do well without them. In fact, we should defund some of them permanently to help close the federal deficit. Most of the affected workers wouldn’t be out of…
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