Bill of Rights of the US Constitution: Promise Made, Promise Kept
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. These amendments limit the power of the federal government. The Constitution was a grant of power to the...
View ArticleAmendment I to the US Constitution: An Overview
The US Constitution grants enumerated powers to the central government. The drafters believed enumerating the powers limited the government. During the ratification process, others expressed concern...
View ArticleFirst Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of Religion
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are referred to as the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment protects “freedom of expression” for Americans by restricting government authority to pass...
View ArticleGideon v. Wainwright, 50 Years Later, Did Clarence Gideon Write His Appeal?...
Thanks to television crime dramas and police shows, everyone is familiar with the following: “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.” The...
View ArticleGideon v. Wainwright, 50 Years Later, Did Clarence Gideon Write His Appeal?...
Clarence Earl Gideon had an eighth grade education and a long criminal history. He had been sentenced to prison for the fifth time. Upon his arrival he began to study law for long hours in the prison...
View ArticleThe Origin and Meaning of the Miranda Warnings
The Miranda warnings are part of American criminal justice and American popular culture. Where do they come from? What do they mean? Ernesto Miranda was the name of a 23 year old Mexican immigrant....
View ArticleThe First Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of Speech
The US Constitution’s first ten amendments are called The Bill of Rights. The First Amendment limits the authority of government to enact laws impinging upon the natural rights of the people to...
View ArticleFirst Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of the Press
Like Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, in the United States the concept of Freedom of the Press as it developed has been uniquely American. Along with free speech for the general population,...
View ArticleNatural Law and the Legitimate Authority of the United States
Government needs a basis to exercise authority over people. Citizens must accept government authority. A government lacking acceptance of the people over whom it exercises authority will not endure....
View ArticleAmerican Federalism: Source, Purpose and Establishment Part I
“The federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers, and designed for different purposes.” James Madison The Federalist,...
View ArticleAmerican Federalism: Source, Purpose and Establishment Part II
Beginning with The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639,[1] Americans grew increasingly accustomed to local self-government. They also learned the freedom and liberty that came along with a...
View ArticleBoston Marathon Bomber, Miranda Warnings and the Public Safety Exception
Law enforcement’s goal of taking Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect #2, [1] Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, alive was commendably achieved. A principle reason for this goal was to question Tsarnaev about further...
View ArticleUS Constitution’s First Amendment: Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses five rights. The limits on government interference with religion, speech and the press were the result of the uniquely American experience. The...
View ArticleTrayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the Founders’ Faith in Grand Juries
“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution…” Thomas Jefferson The death of Trayvon Martin during an...
View ArticleThe Second Amendment: A Personal Natural Right to Keep and Bear Arms
“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.” District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) With those...
View ArticleObamacare Contraception Mandate Reaches Supreme Court
On August 3, 2011 the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service jointly issued what has become known as the contraception mandate. This required all employer health...
View ArticleThe Third Amendment to the US Constitution
“Every word of the Constitution decides a question between power and liberty,” James Madison The Constitution’s Third Amendment has never been the controlling law in any case decided by the US Supreme...
View ArticleFourth Amendment Origins: Court Battles Lead to Revolution
“The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.” Sir Edward Coke,[1] 1604 “They who can give up essential liberty...
View ArticleAn Agency Theory of The Constitution as a Power of Attorney
“[W]e must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding.” Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Reviewing the 200 years of “expounding” the Constitution has undergone...
View ArticleCourageous NSA Ruling by Judge Leon Respects Privacy and Fourth Amendment
On December 16, 2013 US District Court Judge Richard Leon took on arguments[1] that over the years have been used to expand government intrusion into American life in ways that would have left James...
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