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| Reference |
Constitution of the United States, 17 Sep 1787
U.S. National Archives, includes transcript and downloadable high-resolution image |
| Articles |
A Very Inconvenient Document, by Vin Suprynowicz, 18 Sep 2006
"Delineating and thereby limiting the powers of the central government is, in fact, the main function of the founding document. ... It would be wonderful to see the U.S. Constitution taught in the public schools. I will believe such a course of education is underway when someone can show me a list of study questions being presented to today's students, including ..." |
Does John Ashcroft Understand the Constitution?, by Jacob G. Hornberger, 22 Oct 2004
"By according suspected terrorists the rights of habeas corpus, right to counsel, and due process of law, the [Supreme] Court ... was ... enforcing centuries-old procedural guarantees in the administration of justice that our ancestors had the wisdom and foresight to enumerate in the Constitution." |
History Lesson Lost, by Sheldon Richman, 6 Oct 2006
"The Articles of Confederation, Jensen writes, were the radicals' triumph over the conservatives in the Continental Congress ... But the conservatives did not give up their nationalist aspirations. After years of denigrating the confederation and attempting to amend the Articles, they finally got their way in 1787 and used the Constitutional Convention to scrap them in favor of a strong central government." |
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No U-Turns, by Jack Dennon, 29 May 2006
Related Topics: Benjamin Franklin, Albert Jay Nock, Lysander Spooner
"The fundamental nature of America's government has indeed remained unaltered in its ability to offer sagacious actors access to the 'political means' for harnessing government coercion in the service of private economic advantage. Today the Constitution ... provides the facade of legitimacy behind which government actors are enabled to do as they please." |
None Dare Call It Hypothetical, by Joseph Sobran, The Reactionary Utopian, 20 Dec 2005
"In a word, the Constitution is anti-monarchical. ... it provides for things like elections ... and impeachments, which, though essential protections, are all too rare. Elections without the real threat of impeachment invite the abuse of power. Monarchism ... is a perennial temptation, even under the forms of a republic ..." |
Take the Constitution Seriously in the Second Term, by Sheldon Richman, 8 Nov 2004
"According to the Constitution the presidency is a modest office. The powers are rather few. ... he executes the laws passed by Congress, which is also bound by a small number of powers. The president can spend money only as appropriated by Congress. ... He is not our commander in chief, as people seem to believe ..." |
The Antifederalists Were Right, by Gary Galles, Mises.org Daily Article, 27 Sep 2006
"The Antifederalists warned us that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply. That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights, to limit that tendency (though with far too little success that has survived to the present)." |
The Constitutional Crisis No One Seems To Understand, by Harvey Silverglate, The Phoenix, 2 Jun 2006
"What the White House didn't count on was that a red-hot Congress would invoke an obscure constitutional provision called the 'speech or debate clause,' found in Article 1, Section 6, that protects the legislature from intrusion by other branches of government under certain circumstances. ... The provision is nothing less than a bulwark of the separation-of-powers doctrine ..." |
The Ignorant Can't Be Free, by C.T. Rossi, 28 Mar 2007
"A handful of modern thinkers, such as Murray Rothbard, have sought to address how the study of freedom is essential to understanding what our Constitution is and is not. ... Certainly the essential purpose of any constitution is to create a government. But the American constitution endeavors to create a specific government, a form which was believed to help maximize the liberty of those who live under it – a federal government." |
The Lawless State, by Joseph Sobran, The Reactionary Utopian, 11 Jul 2006
"The big decisions, under the U.S. Constitution, were supposed to be made by the Congress, and 'faithfully executed' by the president. Thus Congress declared war after Pearl Harbor and Franklin D. Roosevelt then (and only then) assumed the powers of commander in chief of the armed forces." |
The Progressive Era, Part 1: The Myth and the Reality, by William L. Anderson, Freedom Daily, Feb 2006
Related Topics: American War Between the States, Compulsory Education, Prohibition, Woodrow Wilson
"... their greatest 'triumph' being passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, which ushered in the era of Prohibition. ... From the creation of the Federal Reserve System to the Sixteenth Amendment ..., Progressives were able to do away with the impediments created by the U.S. Constitution, which according to them stood in the way of progress." |
U.S. Supreme Court, MARBURY v. MADISON, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), by John Marshall, Feb 1803
"The Constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. ... the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void." |
Was the Constitution Really Meant to Constrain the Government?, by Sheldon Richman, 8 Aug 2008
Explains how attempting to revert to the "original meaning" of the Constitution or appealing to the writings of the framers will not lead to a free society
"A shortcut favored by most advocates of limited government is 'restoration' of the Constitution. 'If only we could get back to the Constitution as it was written,' people say. It's a sincere wish, but as a path to a free society, it's riddled with potholes." |
Where Is the Constitution?, by Sheldon Richman, 28 Jul 2006
"Thus words faithfully recited, or inscribed on parchment and hung in the National Archives, will never be enough to assure liberty. ... If liberty and free markets are to be established, government power must be rolled back. And if government power is to be rolled back, the real constitution -- people's hearts and minds -- must be pro-liberty. The other Constitution will follow." |
A Collapsing Presidency, by Paul Craig Roberts, 20 Mar 2006
Related Topics: George W. Bush
"Neocons do not believe in the US Constitution, civil liberties, the separation of powers ... According to published reports, President Bush described the Constitution as 'a scrap of paper.' Bush's attorney general, vice president, and secretary of defense ..., in violation of their oath of office, have openly declared that Bush, as commander-in-chief, is above the law." |
Beware Income-Tax Casuistry, Part 3, by Sheldon Richman, Freedom Daily, Oct 2006
Related Topics: Taxation
"Reading one's libertarian values into the Constitution in defiance of the text and court holdings is futile. Moreover, the Constitution's words are often vague, purposely so; it is a political document. For better or worse the Constitution means what the occupants of the relevant constitutional offices say it means." |
Do Elections Guarantee Freedom?, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Nov 2007
Related Topics: Voting, George W. Bush, Government, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald W. Reagan
Discusses whether democratic elections achieve the purported objective of "will of the people" controlling the government
"The average American voter had no recourse on November 2, 2004, to make the federal government obey the Constitution or keep the peace. But this was the same situation the voters faced on November 7, 2000, November 5, 1996, and November 3, 1992. Instead, each voter was merely asked to personally consecrate the continued violations of the highest law of the land by whoever won." |
Do You Consider Yourself a Libertarian?, by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 25 May 2007
Related Topics: Libertarianism, Anarcho-Capitalism, Murray N. Rothbard, Taxation
Interview by Kenny Johnsson for "The Liberal Post" blog
"The Constitution would be a major improvement over what we have today. But we need to realize that the Constitution itself represented a major increase in government power over the Articles of Confederation, which would have served us quite well had it not been overthrown. I'm not impressed by the bunch that foisted the Constitution on us. ... We've all but forgotten that most everyone opposed it at the time." |
Finding the Flaws, by Joseph Sobran, 25 Mar 1997
Related Topics: Government, Democracy
"The federal government has used a few clauses in the Constitution — notably the Commerce Clause and a few phrases in the Fourteenth Amendment — to virtually nullify the rest of the Constitution, turning a limited confederation of sovereign states into an all-powerful centralized government, always at the service of the greedy. " |
Penumbras, Emanations, and Stuff, by Joseph Sobran, The Reactionary Utopian, 6 Feb 2006
Related Topics: Reserved Powers
"... Congress's power 'to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes' ... is now interpreted to mean that the Federal Government can 'regulate' just about everything we do, from sea to shining sea. This makes the rest of the Constitution pretty much superfluous." |
Protesting the Tax Protesters, by James Ostrowski, 1 Jan 2007
Related Topics: Taxation, Henry David Thoreau
"Constitutions don't limit government power because the government has claimed the exclusive right to say what they mean. More importantly, the Constitution is a legal document. Law is a reflection of pre-legal values. The values that gave rise to the Constitution are in large part dead. The vast majority of the public no longer holds them. You might as well be speaking Chinese to them." |
Shall Liberty or Empire be Sought?, by Patrick Henry, 5 Jun 1788
Related Topics: Imperialism, Liberty, Standing Armies
Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention
"This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. ... Your president may easily become king. Your Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed to what may be a small minority ..." |
Stop Them!, by Sheldon Richman
Related Topics: Writ of Habeas Corpus
"Nothing indicts Bush-Cheney as profoundly as their displayed contempt for habeas corpus. I have no doubt that if they thought they could get away with it, they'd suspend it for citizens too. Note well: the Constitution does not distinguish citizens from noncitizens. If the gang-run-amok in the White House can suspend habeas corpus for aliens, it can do so for the rest of us." |
The Constitution and the Rule of Law, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Aug 1992
Related Topics: Rule of Law |
The Supreme Court Repeals the Constitution, by Sheldon Richman, 8 Jul 2005
Related Topics: Eminent Domain Protections
"If the Court can liberate itself from any 'literal requirement' when reading the Takings Clause, ... it can liberate itself ... when reading any other part of the Constitution. But that means we can never know how the Court will claim to understand the Framers' limits on government power. Which means: there are no limits on government power." |
What Is the Constitution?, by Sheldon Richman, Freedom Daily, Jun 2002
Related Topics: Reserved Powers
"When someone proposes that the federal government do something, the first question ... is whether that power would violate any provision of the Bill of Rights ... One side urges a strict construction ... The other major side urges a looser interpretation ... The list of powers is a secondary consideration ... that is not how the Constitution was supposed to work." |
| Cartoons |
| Looky! I've decided to ignore everything but ..., by Ben Sargent, The Austin-American Statesman, 25 Jul 2006 |
| We Had to Destroy It ..., by Paul Szep, 11 Dec 2007 |
Trusting Bush, by Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 18 May 2006
Related Topics: George W. Bush |
| Books |
Good To Be King: The Foundations Of Freedom
by Michael Badnarik, 2004 |
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Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty
by Randy E. Barnett, 2003 |
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