Free Republic

At the center of this debate was Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule, whose latest book served as the ostensible subject of the symposium. In conservative legal circles, Vermeule has become the most prominent proponent of “common good constitutionalism,” a controversial new theory that challenges many of the fundamental premises and principles of the conservative legal movement. The cornerstone of Vermeule’s theory is the claim that “the central aim of the constitutional order is to promote good rule, not to ‘protect liberty’ as an end in itself” — or, in layman’s terms, that the Constitution empowers the government to pursue conservative...

Last week I had a post titled “A Chink In The Armor Of The Progressive Administrative State.” The post discussed a recent case out of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Jarkesy v. SEC, where the Fifth Circuit ruled that an SEC prosecution of Mr. Jarkesy before its own Administrative Law Judge violated the Constitution for, among other things, denying Mr. Jarkesy his right to a jury trial, and giving the SEC unfettered discretion to decide which of its prosecutions can avoid federal District Court jurisdiction. In the Jarkesy case, a relatively new organization called the New Civil Liberties Alliance...

Former Vice President Mike Pence was heckled with calls of “traitor” at a conservative conference Friday as he continues to draw criticism from members of the Republican base for his role in Congress’s certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory. “It is great to be back with so many patriots dedicated to faith and freedom and the road to the majority,” Pence said to applause at the Faith & Freedom Coalition summit before the heckling began. “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” Pence continued, as the hecklers in the audience began to grow louder, yelling...

Subtitle: Restore Constitutionalism. In another age not that long ago there were Congresses of the United States. These Congresses of representatives of the people and the states knew their first purpose was defense of the United States. All those rights and privileges put to paper are worthless without physical and cultural defense. If the United States are worth keeping, the United States could really use another Congress of the United States. In recent generations Congress largely resigned its responsibilities to the executive and judicial branches. The grand objectives of our governing form expressed in the lofty Preamble to our Constitution,...

Edward Fish For Senate I have recently decided to run for one of New Mexico’s seats in the US Congress. Why should I be interested in supporting you? My platform is very simple, consisting of only two or three* points: Constitutionalism: The Constitution for the United States should be treated as the supreme law of the land. Justice: Having a Just government is imperative not only to the peace and stability of the country, but to the legitimacy of the government itself. Anti-Corruption: It seems to me that a great many of our laws are optimized to foster and facilitate...

“Civilization has been aptly called a ‘thin crust over a volcano.’ (Liberals) are constantly picking at that crust.” -- Thomas Sowell After Hollywood jackass Jimmy Kimmel was criticized for exploiting his son’s illness to push his political agenda and incorrectly insinuating that surgeries for newborns weren’t covered before Obamacare, he did a follow-up on the subject where he said, “I would like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care. It was insensitive, it was offensive, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.” Drop dead, Jimmy Kimmel, you colossal ass....

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t merely mark a tragedy for Constitutional philosophy – it may mark the death of American Constitutionalism as a whole.

The failure is one of the will. It is high time for the good and decent people of this nation to regain their nerve and find the will to defend their freedom Throughout this series of essays, I have emphasized that there are a number of key concepts that lay the foundation for a successful republican and constitutional government that serves to preserve liberty. These include concepts such as natural law, natural rights, the rule of law, the division of governing power, and the reasonableness of laws that are made. Now, as I close this series, it is time to...

Natural and negative rights provide for a free, voluntary society, while legal positivism and positive rights provide for a coercive, totalitarian society It has previously been shown that constitutionalism, by which is meant the general proposition that government should be restrained by well-defined principles and structures under which it operates (whether written or unwritten), depends up a recognition of the rule of law as reflecting natural law. From this natural law arises the recognition, in turn, of the natural rights of individual citizens, which ought to be acknowledged and protected by just government, but which are not granted by any...

The United States of America are in a bad way. All around us we are seeing the fruits of a people who have forgotten the first principles that gave our nation that it had originally. We were founded as a constitutional republic. What this means is that our entire political system, in which we participate indirectly, is supposed to be governed by the Constitution. Yet, we have strayed from this, and many, many people in this nation do not even really understand either the purpose or the workings of that document, because they have never learned them, nor even thought...

Larry P. Arnn, the twelfth president of Hillsdale College, received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. From 1977 to 1980, he also studied at the London School of Economics and at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he served as director of research for Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill. From 1985 until his appointment as president of Hillsdale College in 2000, he was president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. He is the author of Liberty and Learning: The Evolution...

With the political winds now blowing favorably for liberals, or “progressives” as they have more recently labeled themselves, another label (conservative) seems to have gained a negative connotation among some. Actually, there’s really nothing negative about conservatism, at least compared to all other alternatives. First, we should think about what conservatism actually is. The first definition in Webster’s Online Dictionary, by Wordnet, defines conservatism as “A political or theological orientation advocating the preservation of the best in society and opposing radical changes.” The second definition, by Webster, defines the term as “The disposition and tendency to preserve what is established;...

I have had enough. The progression that has driven the original, relatively constrained welfare system of the United States to its present, cradle-to-grave assurances of absolute support for whatever form of Taking or Faking one chooses to pursue has taken quite a lot of Americans, including this one, to a completely different destination. Here's a sample of the fuel that's propelled us: “I believe that in a society as wealthy as ours, we should have a commitment to our seniors and to the disabled,” Obama said. “That’s not a sign of weakness. That’s not socialism.” Obama called “the basic American...

Soon after Texas governor Rick Perry announced his presidential campaign, a few websites, mostly liberal, compiled a list of the constitutional amendments he has at various times touted. He has spoken favorably about amendments to end the lifetime tenure of federal judges, to allow supermajorities of Congress to overturn Supreme Court decisions, to repeal the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments (which established, respectively, the income tax and the direct election of senators), to limit federal spending, to define marriage in American law as the union of a man and a woman, and to prohibit abortion. Liberals responded, either explicitly or implicitly,...

Is constitutionalism akin to blind faith? Some statists certainly think so, as they have called the position “constitution-worship.” In light of this, what should we call those who lack that “faith”? Given that they don’t believe in the Constitution, and that the document is the supreme law of the land, can it be said that they don’t believe in law? Are these people, who are often atheists, also “alegalists”? Whatever you call them, they’re more visible and brazen than ever. Writing in Time magazine recently, Richard Stengel insisted that our Constitution “must accommodate each new generation and circumstance.” Georgetown professor...

For decades, Democrats and Republicans fought over who owns the American flag. Now, they’re fighting over who owns the Constitution. The flag debates began during the Vietnam era when leftist radicals made the fatal error of burning it. For decades since, non-suicidal liberals have tried to undo the damage. Demeaningly, and somewhat unfairly, they are forever having to prove their fealty to the flag. Amazingly, though, some still couldn’t get it quite right. During the last presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama, when asked why he was not wearing a flag pin, answered that it represented “a substitute” for “true patriotism.”...

Just how important was last week’s election? Well, a list of the damage includes Republicans picking up at least 63 seats in the House of Representatives, more than in any election since 1938, leaving Democrats with the smallest number in the House since 1946. Fifty incumbent Democratic congressmen lost their races, including 22 freshmen, nine senior Democrats with 18 years or more in office, and three committee chairs. Republicans also gained six seats in the US Senate, narrowing the Democrat majority. The North Carolina General Assembly went Republican for the first time since 1870, and the Alabama Legislature turned Republican...

Our former NR colleague, Joe Sobran, passed away today after a long battle with a variety of ailments. He was relatively young, just 64, and while physically beaten at the end, he also departed spiritually triumphant.   Surely, in short order, there will be ample reflection — much of it critical — on the hyper-talented, hyper-controversial writer. There will be a recounting of his history at NR, the break, the following years, and Joe’s soured relationship with WFB (happily, they rekindled their friendship before Bill passed away). Good, let’s discuss all that, and more. But later. Right now, let us,...

If one wants a nearly thorough education about the U.S. Constitution, it would be wise to examine the following: the notes from the Constitutional Convention, the public editorials written both for and against the proposed Constitution that followed, the state ratification debates, and the actual document itself. These all give one an almost comprehensive knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, although, as any law student will explain, modern constitutional law consists solely of Supreme Court cases mostly from the last 50-100 years. So why should someone bother wasting time on the above-mentioned items when they’re no longer relevant to our federal...

In case it wasn't already apparent, Justice Kennedy has completely gone over to the dark side, as evinced by his voting with the majority in the "global warming" case (released today). As usual, Justice Scalia nails it in his dissent:* The Court’s alarm over global warming may or may not be justified, but it ought not distort the outcome of this litigation. This is a straightforward administrative-law case, in which Congress has passed a malleable statute giving broad discretion, not to us but to an executive agency. No matter how important the underlying policy issues at stake, this Court has...