The Ocean State - ratified Constitution 29 May 1790
Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest state in area, the seventh least populous and is the second most densely populated. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and its most populous city.
Geographical type: Territory
Latitude: 41.7° N — Longitude: 71.5° W
Area: 3,144 km²
ISO 3166-2 code: US-RI
Birthplace of
John Bates Clark, in Providence, on 26 Jan 1847
Home To
Libertarian Party of Rhode Island, Carolina
Deathplace of
Albert Jay Nock, in Wakefield, on 19 Aug 1945
Measures of Freedom
Freedom in the 50 States
2023: Overall rank: 36, economic freedom: 37, fiscal policy: 22, regulatory policy: 42, personal freedom: 15
2023: Overall rank: 36, economic freedom: 37, fiscal policy: 22, regulatory policy: 42, personal freedom: 15
LP State-by-State Membership Numbers [PDF], Libertarian Party News, Apr 2006
31 Dec 2005: Number of Members: 32
31 Dec 2005: Number of Members: 32
Articles
Paper Money and the Constitution, by Rick Lynch, Freedom Daily, Jan 2009
Examines the historical period of the Articles of Confederation and how it led to controls on the issuance of paper money in the U.S. Constitution
Examines the historical period of the Articles of Confederation and how it led to controls on the issuance of paper money in the U.S. Constitution
[I]t was the example of Rhode Island that most horrified the Framers. The legislature, dominated by indebted farmers, circulated paper money that creditors naturally refused to accept. The legislature then made acceptance mandatory. Many creditors ... actually fled the state ... The government's answer was simply to pass more corrupt legislation, this time allowing debtors to legally discharge the debt by depositing money with courts ... When Rhode Island's supreme court declared the paper-money law unconstitutional, the legislature threw the court out of office and replaced the justices.
Related Topics: United States Bill of Rights, United States Constitution, Government, James Madison, Money
Testimony of Eugene Volokh on the Second Amendment, Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, by Eugene Volokh, Law.UCLA.edu, 23 Sep 1998
Reprinted (without appendix and footnotes) as "A Right of the People ...", California Political Review, November/December 1998, pp. 29-31
Reprinted (without appendix and footnotes) as "A Right of the People ...", California Political Review, November/December 1998, pp. 29-31
During the Framing Era, dozens of individual rights provisions in state constitutions were structured the same way, providing a justification clause explaining the right, and then an operative clause securing the right. The 1842 Rhode Island Constitution's Free Press Clause, for instance, reads
The liberty of the press being essential to the security of freedom in a state, any person may publish his sentiments of any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. ...Just as with the Second Amendment, the second clause secures a right, while the first justifies it to the public.
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rhode Island" as of 6 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.