U.S. Constitution
Reinvestigating the Origins of the Civil War
Tensions in American society today have analysts hurriedly investigating the origins of America’s Civil War. Can they glean lessons from that tragic history? Numerous volumes have been written on the...
The Imperial Presidency, with the Supreme Court’s Blessing, Has Gone Rogue
Donald Trump, as president, after losing the free and fair 2020 election, incited a mob to thwart usually pro forma congressional procedures to ratify the results in order to further...
Podcast: Antonin Scalia and Today’s Supreme Court (w/ James Rosen)
In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with James Rosen, chief White House correspondent for Newsmax. Rosen is the recent author of Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936 to 1986, the first installment...
Overturning the Chevron Doctrine
The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This case could dilute or reverse the famous and essential regulatory precedent of the 1984 case Chevron...
What’s the Biggest Threat to U.S. Security?
Lately, the news is filled with foreign wars, crises, and political tensions deemed dangerous to the United States. Which is the most threatening to U.S. security? Which should we be...
Global Posture Review Makes Only Minor Changes to American Hegemony
The Global Posture Review, the Pentagon’s analysis of worldwide deployments of U.S. forces, has made only incremental changes from the global positioning of troops by the Trump administration. In certain...
Has the U.S. Presidency Gone Rogue?
During World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the War on Terror, presidential power grew immensely from being the first-among-equals branch of government, the...
The Constitutional Problems With Biden’s Current Cabinet
By the time Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president yesterday, every member of President Trump’s cabinet had resigned. That’s customary when a new president takes office. Because none of...
Biden Must Not Abuse Power To Appoint “Acting” Officers Like His Predecessors
From a recent Washington Post report by Matt Viser, Seung Min Kim, and Annie Linskey, it looks as if President‐Elect Joe Biden is being urged to end‐run the Senate’s advise and consent...
A Federal Judge Told The IRS That The Constitution Protects Everyone—Even Prisoners
In previous posts (here and here), I discussed the IRS’s lawless decision to deny rebate payments to certain groups that the agency loosely refers to as “incarcerated” — convicts serving their sentences,...
Nancy Pelosi’s Proposal for Presidential Disability Is Flat Out Wrong
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, together with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), held a press conference on Friday to introduce a bill to create a new body with an unwieldy name: the Commission...
What Are the Rules of the Game for Trump’s Supreme Court Nomination?
The United States Constitution’s Article 2, Sec. 2, cl. 2, provides that the president of the United States “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the...