Tag: Constitution

Compromises at the Constitutional Convention: Principled?

  

When is compromise right? When is it wrong? When I look at historical compromises, I try to apply this rule: A compromised principle leads to unrighteousness, but a principled compromise is a step closer to the principle’s ideal. Let’s take the Constitutional Convention as an example. The delegates who comprised the convention that led to our current Constitution had to grapple with a number of controversial issues. The two most prominent were how to carry out proper representation and how… Read more »

Rule of Law & the Constitutional Convention

  

In our era, when the rule of law seems to be weakening, it’s instructive to look back at how our cornerstone document, the Constitution, came into being. The 1780s, under the Articles of Confederation, saw a loose-knit assemblage of states that were in danger of splitting apart permanently. Those with concern for the rule of law and who had a vision for a better system urged a meeting of all the states to address the governmental crisis. Twelve of the… Read more »

Bombs Away? A Reagan-Trump Comparison

  

President Trump has stirred the criticism pot with his military actions: striking an air base in Syria and using the largest bomb in the US arsenal to destroy terrorists’ caves in Afghanistan. It has led some to question exactly what authority a president has to use the military without first consulting Congress. That’s an important question because the Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, not any president unilaterally. Of course, Congress hasn’t passed an actual war declaration since… Read more »

Going Nuclear in the Senate

  

Neil Gorsuch’s nomination for the Supreme Court is coming to a vote in the Senate shortly. Democrats on the Senate Committee who grilled Judge Gorsuch came our uniformly against him. Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate, says his party will filibuster the nomination despite Gorsuch receiving the American Bar Association’s highest rating. That organization is not exactly ruled by conservatives. So why the filibuster tactic? What is Gorsuch’s crime? Could it be that he simply believes judges should… Read more »

The Gorsuch Hope

  

The Senate vote for Neil Gorsuch to take his place on the Supreme Court will be coming up soon. As with all Court nominees that Republicans promote, I am both hopeful and cautious about how that nominee will actually perform. So many have had what appeared to be conservative credentials upon first glance, then somehow find a way to look askance at the Constitution once they take their place on the Bench. Gorsuch has an unblemished record on religious liberty… Read more »

A Convention of States?

  

Last Saturday was the official Constitution Day, celebrating September 17th as the 229th anniversary of the day when the Constitutional Convention signed off on the document that was then sent to the states for ratification. Has it stood the test of time? Well, we still have the same basic structure of government that it established. Yet there have been so many departures from the text that the whole concept of rule of law is now at risk. This has led… Read more »

Friends, Colleagues, Former Students–Lend Me Your Ears

  

I am going to make a concerted effort next week to turn to other subjects in this blog, but for today, I feel compelled to make a heartfelt appeal to those I count as friends or colleagues, and to a multitude of former students of mine who appear to be supporting Donald Trump. Please lend me your ears. I come not to praise Trump, but to expose him. But I’m sure you already know that. When Trump first announced his… Read more »