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Professor: Take our country back, from the Constitution
cbsnews.com ^

Posted on 01/27/2013 8:36:51 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Professor: Take our country back, from the Constitution

The U.S. Constitution - a document perhaps too revered, says Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman. (Library of Congress)

(CBS News) Is the U.S. Constitution truly worthy of the reverence in which most Americans hold it? A view on that from Louis Michael Seidman, Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University:

I've got a simple idea: Let's give up on the Constitution.

I know, it sounds radical, but it's really not. Constitutional disobedience is as American as apple pie.

For example, most of our greatest Presidents -- Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, and both Roosevelts -- had doubts about the Constitution, and many of them disobeyed it when it got in their way.

To be clear, I don't think we should give up on everything in the Constitution. The Constitution has many important and inspiring provisions, but we should obey these because they are important and inspiring, not because a bunch of people who are now long-dead favored them two centuries ago.

Unfortunately, the Constitution also contains some provisions that are not so inspiring. For example, one allows a presidential candidate who is rejected by a majority of the American people to assume office. Suppose that Barack Obama really wasn't a natural-born citizen. So what?

Constitutional obedience has a pernicious impact on our political culture. Take the recent debate about gun control. None of my friends can believe it, but I happen to be skeptical of most forms of gun control.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: academicbias; antiamericanism; anticonstitution; constitution; constitutionalcrisis; littleredschoolhouse; naughtyteacherslist; sedition; seebsnews; wddim
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1 posted on 01/27/2013 8:36:54 AM PST by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver

I’d like to personally explain to this Constitutional Law professor that I’d gladly ‘give up the Constitution’ if it mean we could unshackle ourselves from a bloated, tyrannical government that seeks to destroy itself. I’d gladly do it. When separated, we could then remake our own Constitution, largely like the original, but giving virtually no power to a Federated Government.


2 posted on 01/27/2013 8:40:46 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Sub-Driver

I just saw his commentary on the TV. He must realize that the Constitution is what gives him the freedom to float such tripe.


3 posted on 01/27/2013 8:41:53 AM PST by Francis McClobber
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To: Sub-Driver
...and many of them disobeyed it when it got in their way.

Add Hussein to the list.

4 posted on 01/27/2013 8:42:10 AM PST by Libloather (The epitome of civility.)
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To: Sub-Driver

Unfortunately I watched this POC this morning (the wife likes the human interest stories lied by osgood).
He was openly calling to do away with the constitution.
Here it comes, new rule by man, not by law. The criminals have taken over.
Re: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57566014/professor-take-our-country-back-from-the-constitution/


5 posted on 01/27/2013 8:43:19 AM PST by 9422WMR
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To: Sub-Driver

Can’t warp it any more without breaking it, apparently.


6 posted on 01/27/2013 8:44:46 AM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Sub-Driver

Fair enough.

Get to work on convening a Con-Con and revise or scrap the whole thing.

I personally would love to see these people survivie in a world without our Constitution.


7 posted on 01/27/2013 8:45:26 AM PST by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: Sub-Driver

The Constitution did not set up a perfect government. It did, however, establish a republic that worked right up until politicians began interfering with the laws of economics and bribing voters with money from the public treasury. No council of fools such as this so-called professor could come up with anything better themselves, and in fact, would come up with something far worse than absolute monarchy. Communism, for example, created far more death and misery than the pretensions of Louis XIV or Napoleon; Fascism, the same results under different management. Both the projects of pseudophilosophers and a lame secular intellectualism that denies natural law.


8 posted on 01/27/2013 8:46:07 AM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: Sub-Driver

I just saw his commentary on the TV. He must realize that the Constitution is what gives him the freedom to float such tripe.


9 posted on 01/27/2013 8:46:31 AM PST by Francis McClobber
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To: Sub-Driver

Yeah, yeah, rule of law and limited government are so overrated. We need leaders who can get things done. Like Benito and Adolf and Uncle Joe.


10 posted on 01/27/2013 8:47:41 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: Sub-Driver

Yeah, yeah, rule of law and limited government are so overrated. We need leaders who can get things done. Like Benito and Adolf and Uncle Joe.


11 posted on 01/27/2013 8:47:41 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: Sub-Driver

Hey I got a good idea Professor: How about we get rid of part of the constitution? Like the 16th amendment? Which come Feb. 3rd will be its 100th anniversary. So what better time to get rid of it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution


12 posted on 01/27/2013 8:47:55 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (Someday our schools we will teach the difference between "lose" and "loose")
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To: Sub-Driver
Wow. Just wow.

I remember when a diploma from Georgetown Law was worth more than the equivalent square footage of Charmin.

Now, I'm not so sure.

13 posted on 01/27/2013 8:48:53 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Sub-Driver; holdonnow

Nitwit professor ping.


14 posted on 01/27/2013 8:49:55 AM PST by Darnright ("I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
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To: Sub-Driver
Sad thing is, people like this don’t know that they would be the first to be led to the gallows if it were not for the rule of (Constitutional) law. It’s the only thing standing between them (or anyone) and the knives and clubs of mob rule.
15 posted on 01/27/2013 8:50:23 AM PST by chimera
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To: Gaffer
President Jefferson Davis said it best:

"I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it."

16 posted on 01/27/2013 8:53:08 AM PST by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Truer, more appropriate words were never spoken.


17 posted on 01/27/2013 8:55:14 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Francis McClobber
I just saw his commentary on the TV. He must realize that the Constitution is what gives him the freedom to float such tripe.

My wife and I were watching it, too. It was one of those rare times that my wife will vocally respond to a TV report of any kind and we were both in total agreement that the guy was a flippin' moron. On that basis, I'd say he is blissfully unaware of how the Consitution works or its relationship on his ability to spew such tripe.

Given his comments on the founders and writers of the Constitution and not being tied to what these men wrote, I'd say he's cemented his moron status for all time. I don't see anybody of equivalent wisdom on the scene today that would compare to the Founders.

18 posted on 01/27/2013 8:58:09 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: Gaffer

There are more tears over answered prayers than unanswered ones, professor.


19 posted on 01/27/2013 8:59:45 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: Sub-Driver

“Article V: The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution...”

Seidman, if you don’t like it, amend it. Let the people decide if your proposed changes are worthy.

Every single one of the hundreds of contracts I’ve worked on in my career have had a similar clause stating precisely the rules for amending the contract and that both parties must agree in writing to all amendments.

We all know the real reason behind his proposal. The leftists and statists simply want a government of made-up ad hoc “rules” that can be bent and twisted at their every whim to create a dictatorship and resulting in totalitarian control over us.


20 posted on 01/27/2013 9:00:37 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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