Tag: Constitution

Commentary: How to Restore Faith in the Constitution

Minnesota Sun Staff

In one of the most extraordinary passages of his most extraordinary book, C.S. Lewis, the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist, wrote of Jesus Christ, that he was either the son of God, as he claimed, or a madman. In the Christmas season, believers take comfort in their faith and joyfully embrace the first alternative. 

The United States has a tradition of separating church and state, but there is a competing tradition, equally venerable, that our government is only fit for a religious people, one that understands there is a divine order to which humankind ought to conform, and that, as Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett once explained, it is our task to contribute to the building of the Kingdom of God.  

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Commentary: Reflections on the Bill of Rights

Minnesota Sun Staff

The deep divisions plaguing our country may find a remedy in the most unlikely of places: the Bill of Rights. Ratified 229 years ago on December 15, 1791, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. There is little public commemoration of December 15, in contrast to the tradition of celebrating two famous dates in the history of the United States—the Fourth of July, the day that the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, and September 17, the day that the members of the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787. Yet, of the three documents, the Bill of Rights is perhaps the one most invoked by citizens and advocates in everyday life.

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106 GOP Members File Amicus Brief in Texas SCOTUS Election Lawsuit

Minnesota Sun Staff

A total of 106 House Republicans on Thursday filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs in Texas v. Pennsylvania, et al, including Tennessee’s U.S. Representatives Mark Green, Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, David Kustoff, John Rose, with U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) taking the lead.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) tweeted, “100+ House Republicans and I have filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the Texas case. The election for the presidency of the United States is too important to not get right.”

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December 8 Deadline for Selection of Electors Does Not Apply to Disputed States, Amistad Project Says

Jason M. Reynolds

In a white paper released Friday, The Amistad Project of the non-partisan Thomas More Society is arguing that the current Electoral College deadlines are both arbitrary and a direct impediment to states’ obligations to investigate disputed elections.

The research paper breaks down the history of Electoral College deadlines and makes clear that this election’s Dec. 8 and Dec. 14 deadlines for the selection of Electors, the assembly of the Electoral College, and the tallying of its votes, respectively, are not only elements of a 72-year old federal statute with no Constitutional basis, but are also actively preventing the states from fulfilling their constitutional — and ethical — obligation to hold free and fair elections. Experts believe that the primary basis for these dates was to provide enough time to affect the presidential transition of power, a concern which is obsolete in the age of internet and air travel.

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Minnesota, Virginia Congressmen Propose Constitutional Amendment to Limit Supreme Court Size at Nine Justices

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Reps. Collin C. Peterson (D-MN-07) and Denver Riggleman (R-VA-05) said they want to make sure that neither political party can ever pack the Supreme Court.

In a bipartisan joint press release issued Thursday, the representatives said they introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to permanently set the number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices at nine.

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Minnesota, Virginia Congressmen Propose Constitutional Amendment to Limit Supreme Court Size at Nine Justices

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Reps. Collin C. Peterson (D-MN-07) and Denver Riggleman (R-VA-05) said they want to make sure that neither political party can ever pack the Supreme Court.

In a bipartisan joint press release issued Thursday, the representatives said they introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to permanently set the number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices at nine.

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Commentary: For the Sake of the Constitution, and the Country, Fill Ginsburg’s Seat Quickly

Minnesota Sun Staff

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87. Her passing was not unexpected. On the contrary, her steadily worsening condition over the past several years left her increasingly incapacitated. After Donald Trump’s election in 2016, many on the Left expressed dismay that she chose to stay on the court rather than resign and let President Obama nominate her replacement. 

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Harvard Poll Shows Voters Overwhelmingly United on Many Issues, But View Many Rights as Under Threat

Minnesota Sun Staff

Americans largely agree on rights and values that they deem fundamental to the United States, a Harvard University Carr Center poll shows, despite all-time high political polarization.

The survey shows that over 70% of Americans “have more in common with each other than people think” and that they favor an expansive view of rights beyond those in the Constitution. The poll also shows that most Americans believe those rights are under threat.

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Oregon Coronavirus Fund May Violate Constitution by Excluding Non-Black Applicants, Experts Say

Minnesota Sun Staff

A COVID-19 relief fund for African-Americans operated out of Portland, Ore., with federal tax dollars may run afoul of both the Constitution and 1964 Civil Rights Act if it excludes non-black applicants, legal experts warn.

The Oregon Cares Fund for Black Relief + Resiliency said it seeks to offer “economic relief for the Black community, who are among Oregon’s most vulnerable groups due to systemic divestment and disparities widened and exacerbated by COVID-19.” The program is administered by two local nonprofits, the Contingent and the Black United Fund of Oregon.

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Commentary: Where Did ‘Cancel Culture’ Begin?

Minnesota Sun Staff

Bari Weiss was not the first victim of “cancel culture,” and certainly she will not be the last, but her exit from the opinion pages of the New York Times has finally focused national attention on the steadily increasing toll of intellectual intolerance among the soi-disant progressive elite. Ms. Weiss’s public resignation letter, which described “constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views,” with her superiors at the newspaper evidently condoning this harassment, exposed a cult-like climate of ideological conformity at the Times. Because she is rather young — she was born in 1984, the year Ronald Reagan was reelected — Ms. Weiss is not old enough to remember when liberals posed as champions of free speech and open debate. Some of us are old enough to remember, however, and have a duty to teach young people how it was that liberalism slowly succumbed to totalitarianism.

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Commentary: The Unelected Parts of Government, Including the Military, Are Revolting Against the Electoral Control by the People

Minnesota Sun Staff

During the Iraq War, the insurgency spent a lot of its resources attacking infrastructure, particularly the electrical grid. This made life miserable for ordinary Iraqis.

That outcome seems to go against the logic of insurgency, where the center of gravity is the people’s allegiance. But making life uncertain and unbearable means that even if the insurgents cannot win, they ensure the regime cannot win either. The cultivation of chaos exposes the government as ineffective and ultimately removes its legitimacy.

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Commentary: Rep. Thomas Massie Defends the Constitution Again

Minnesota Sun Staff

As the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives finally came back into session to appropriate another tranche of $484 billion in coronavirus economic relief, one principled limited government constitutional conservative stood up to ensure their was a quorum of the House present to conduct business and to ask for a roll call vote – Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4).

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Commentary: Constitution-Respecting Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce Lockdowns

Minnesota Sun Staff

Across the country governors, county commissioners and executives, and city and town officials have announced “lockdowns” or stay-at-home orders of dubious constitutional validity. The result of these orders is the bizarre situation in which jails are being emptied of criminals while individuals engaged in their ordinary business at appropriate social distance have been arrested for the crime of being outside their home.

One of the most high-profile examples of this inverted constitutional order happened in California, where a paddle boarder was arrested near the Malibu Pier for ignoring orders from lifeguards to get out of the water. CBS News Los Angeles reports the unidentified man spent 30 to 40 minutes paddling in the ocean waters off Malibu Beach after refusing to heed orders from L.A. County lifeguards to go ashore. LASD Harbor Patrol brought in a boat, at which point the paddleboarder voluntarily swam in and was taken into custody.

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Commentary: Attorney General Barr is Right, the Left is Deconstructing the Constitution and the Presidency

Minnesota Sun Staff

Apparently now saying that Article II of the Federal Constitution’s vesting of executive power to the President was an unambiguous, broad grant of unitary executive authority to the President of the United States by the Framers of the Constitution, and arguing for preserving such separation of powers from encroachment, is an impeachable offense.

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Battleground State Report: Nancy Pelosi Continues to Divide the Country with Her Unconstitutional Impeachment Inquiry

Julie Carr

On Friday’s Battleground State Report with Michael Patrick Leahy and Doug Kellett – a one-hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of national weekend syndication roll out – with Kellett out of the studio, Leahy broke down the constitutional mechanics of a ‘legal’ impeachment process as they have played out historically.

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Commentary: The One-Two Punch to Knock Out Electoral Democracy

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Michael S. Kochin   If you thought, or hoped, that the brave (or nobly self-interested) Democratic Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak had thwarted the push for a National Popular Vote by vetoing the bill, think again. On June 12, 2019, Oregon Democratic Governor Kate Brown signed it into law for her state.…

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Commentary: The American Founding’s High-Minded Purposes

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Edward J. Erler   James Madison is justly celebrated for his frequently stated opinion that “all power in just and free Government is derived from compact.” But Madison’s view is not endorsed by all purported champions of the founders. A recent article, “Our Unwritten Constitution: Orestes Brownson and the Foundation…

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Commentary: The Rise of Administrative Law Over Legislative Law

Minnesota Sun Staff

by William Haupt III   “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” – Abraham Lincoln Administrative law is the procedure of creating laws by bureaucratic bodies in our municipal, state and…

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Commentary: Does the Constitution Mandate Universal Birthright Citizenship?

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Amy Swearer   Who is a United States citizen by birth? This question has increasingly received national attention, in large part because of President Donald Trump’s promise to “end birthright citizenship.” As I explain, however, in my recent Heritage Foundation legal memo titled “The Citizenship Clause’s Original Meaning and…

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Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Extraordinary Session Challenge

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Benjamin Yount   Who controls when the Wisconsin State Assembly meets? The Assembly itself, or the state’s constitution written in 1848? The Wisconsin Supreme Court hear arguments on that question Wednesday. The Wisconsin League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit earlier this year that challenges a number of laws passed…

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Commentary: No Constitution for Divided Men

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Helen Lamm   Whether we like it or not, the defining political disagreements of our time are no longer based on differences of constitutional interpretation. “Limited government” is probably the most broadly accepted unifying principle of the conservative movement. You can find the phrase in the mission statements of…

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Minnesota’s Betty McCollum Introduces Constitutional Amendment to Make Health Care a Right

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) recently introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would make health care a right for all American citizens. The Health Care for All Amendment, H.J. Res. 17, is currently co-sponsored by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI-02) and states “health care, including care to prevent and treat…

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President Trump’s Ingenious Plan to Get the Supreme Court to Rule on the Constitutionality of Birthright Citizenship

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by Dr. Carol M. Swain   On October 30, President Donald Trump announced plans to issue an executive order ending the practice of giving U.S. citizenship to children of illegal aliens. By taking this bold action, the President is poised to make history by forcing the U.S. Supreme Court to…

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Michigan Activists Prowling the State for Anything Even Remotely Religious

Anthony Gockowski

A Michigan “civil rights” organization has spent the past few years removing any hint of religion from public spaces, most recently forcing a group of public-school football players to stop praying before games. In October, the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists (MACRA) sent a complaint to Muskegon Community College…

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Commentary: The Democratic Party’s Reckless Disregard for the Nation’s Institutions

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by Jarrett Stepman   Sometimes progressives do a great job of becoming caricatures of themselves. The progressive worldview is marked by a tendency to embrace utopian dreams, and a general disregard for tried and true traditions and institutions. Ted Kennedy captured this instinct in 1968 when he said, quoting George…

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Despite the Media-Driven Rhetoric, the Constitution’s 14th Amendment Does Not Grant ‘Birthright Citizenship’

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young children

by James D. Agresti   Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration, recently argued in a Washington Post op-ed that the current federal practice of granting citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants “is an absurdity—historically, constitutionally, philosophically and practically.” A number of media outlets have published fiery rebuttals declaring that…

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Victor David Hanson Commentary: Who and What Threaten the Constitution?

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by Victor Davis Hanson   Donald Trump on occasion can talk recklessly. He is certainly trying to “fundamentally transform” the United States in exactly the opposite direction from which Barack Obama promised to do the same sort of massive recalibration. According to polls (such as they are), half the country…

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Commentary: Decisive Political Victory is the Only Way to End This Cold Civil War

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Tennessee Star

by Ryan Williams   As even NeverTrump Republicans are coming around – grudgingly, and with caveats, of course – to recognizing the stakes in our ongoing domestic political fights, it is perhaps impolite to note: Some of us drew these conclusions quite a long time ago. The last two weeks of psychodrama in the…

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Commentary: Democrat Lynch Mob Shows We Have a Government of Fools, Not Laws

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by Jeffery Rendall   After you’ve finished snickering at the notion consider the reason Trump’s so-called loyal opposition (a.k.a. Democrats and #NeverTrumpers) hate the outsider president so much – isn’t it because he’s so different from most other Republicans? From the beginning you could tell Trump not only didn’t want to…

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Walter Williams Commentary: Brett Kavanaugh’s Opponents Aren’t Really Against Him, They’re Against the Constitution

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Brett Kavanaugh

by Walter E. Williams   One of the best statements of how the Framers saw the role of the federal government is found in Federalist Paper 45, written by James Madison, who is known as the “Father of the Constitution”: The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal…

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Registration is Open for the 2019 Ohio Star Constitution Bee, Which Will Be Held on April 13

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Constitution Bee April, 2018

  The 2019 Ohio Star Constitution Bee is open for registration!   If you have a secondary school-level student enrolled in a public or private school, or an accredited homeschool program, they are eligible to participate in this original, one-day event to be held Saturday, April 13, 2019. This will…

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The Double Standard of Justice in the U.S. Is Risking the Collapse of the Entire System

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Lady Justice

by Printus LeBlanc   The political world is waiting with bated breath for the outcome of Paul Manafort’s trial. The former one-time Trump campaign chairman is being prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for various tax and bank fraud crimes, most of which occurred over a decade ago. Manafort is also…

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Commentary: When Did It Become Okay to Disrespect the Culture, Traditions, and Values of America?

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homes

by Jeffery Rendall   Wake up any particular morning and glance out the window. Do you notice anything different from the day before? Changes in weather or the seasons don’t count. Chances are you’ll see things appear pretty much the same – and if you’ve lived in one place long…

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Commentary: It’s Time For President Trump To Go Full Andrew Jackson On Overreaching Judges

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John D Gates

by CHQ Staff   The news that a Bush-appointed federal district judge, John D. Bates (pictured), has ruled that Obama’s executive amnesty, not actual immigration law, is the law and that Trump must fully restore and renew the program is such a radical exhibition of judicial overreach that it should…

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EXCLUSIVE: The 202 Year Ratification Saga of the 27th Amendment

Gregory Watson
Gregory Watson

Gregory Watson has been recognized by historians, academics, and elected officials as the only individual in American history whose singular efforts are responsible for the ratification of an amendment to the United States Constitution. Mr. Watson has provided this first hand account of his successful efforts to persuade state legislatures…

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Despite the Media-Driven Rhetoric, the Constitution’s 14th Amendment Does Not Grant ‘Birthright Citizenship’

Admin
young children

by James D. Agresti   Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration, recently argued in a Washington Post op-ed that the current federal practice of granting citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants “is an absurdity—historically, constitutionally, philosophically and practically.” A number of media outlets have published fiery rebuttals declaring that…

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Soros-Linked Group Will Spend Millions To Stop Kavanaugh

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Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, George Soros

by Kevin Daley and Andrew Kerr    – Progressives have formed a new political outfit to mobilize left-wing energy on judicial confirmations, including Judge Kavanaugh  – The group, Demand Justice, is financed and administratively supported by the Sixteen Thirty Fund  – George Soros’ advocacy network has given millions to the Sixteen…

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Commentary: It’s Time For President Trump To Go Full Andrew Jackson On Overreaching Judges

Admin
John D Gates

by CHQ Staff   The news that a Bush-appointed federal district judge, John D. Bates (pictured), has ruled that Obama’s executive amnesty, not actual immigration law, is the law and that Trump must fully restore and renew the program is such a radical exhibition of judicial overreach that it should…

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Commentary: Congress Must Exercise Its Article I Power, Or It Will Be Deemed Irrelevant

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Capitol building

by Printus LeBlanc   When the framers created the government, it was split into three coequal branches; the Congressional, Executive, and Judicial branches. Articles I through III describe the duties, responsibilities, and powers assigned to each branch of the government. However, one of those branches seems to be the redheaded…

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