Free Republic

Geraldine Ferraro’s impolitic commentary regarding Barack Obama has been widely covered and discussed. But in the rush to examine the really juicy part of her monologue, you know – the stuff about race – something else the 72 year old former congresswoman said is being lost. Toward the end of her recent, now infamous, interview, one that has apparently cost her that highly coveted role of “Honorary New York Leadership Council Chair�, the woman who broke political ice twenty-four years ago as the Democratic nominee for Vice President, talked about the big bad wolf of PARTISANSHIP. I’m referring to the...

To the Citizens of the State of New-York. I flatter myself that my last address established this position, that to reduce the Thirteen States into one government, would prove the destruction of your liberties. But lest this truth should be doubted by some, I will now proceed to consider its merits. Though it should be admitted, that the argument[s] against reducing all the states into one consolidated government, are not sufficient fully to establish this point; yet they will, at least, justify this conclusion, that in forming a constitution for such a country, great care should be taken to limit ...

"To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity would be to calculate on the weaker springs of human character." -- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 34, 4 January 1788) “I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty.” -- Thomas Jefferson

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain, quoted in A.B. Paine's Mark Twain: A Biography (Harper, 1912, Vol. 2, page 724). The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop. --...

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. made it clear as he began taking questions at yesterday's National Italian American Foundation luncheon that he couldn't reveal any of the Supreme Court's forthcoming opinions. But did he at least give a hint? Two of the court's biggest remaining cases focus on the First Amendment, and while Alito didn't mention either, he did make it clear that any restrictions on speech face a high hurdle with him. "I'm a very strong believer in the First Amendment and the right of people to speak and to write," Alito said in response to a question of...

It will readily be comprehended, that a man who had himself the sole disposition of offices, would be governed much more by his private inclinations and interests, than when he was bound to submit the propriety of his choice to the discussion and determination of a different and independent body, and that body an entire branch of the legislature. The possibility of rejection would be a strong motive to care in proposing. The danger to his own reputation, and, in the case of an elective magistrate, to his political existence, from betraying a spirit of favoritism, or an unbecoming pursuit...

Journalists, pundits, and colleagues consider Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) an expert on the Constitution. They note that he carries a copy of the supreme law of the land in his pocket at all times. He cares about it so much, in fact, that he slipped an amendment into a 2005 appropriations bill requiring all institutions that receive federal funds, including thousands of schools, to teach about the Constitution every September 17, the anniversary of its signing. In doing so, over the last few days (September 17 fell on a Saturday, so Friday and Monday events met the law's requirements), Byrd...

The Senate's most self-satisfied senator, Joseph Biden, has established a website asking citizens to join him in pressuring President Bush to pick a liberal Supreme Court nominee so that a contentious confirmation battle can be averted. Well, yes, I'll admit he didn't quite put it that way, but if the Left's currently favorite sycophant, Joe Wilson, is entitled to spurts of "literary flair," why shouldn't the rest of us be as well? Let's look at what Biden actually said because it is revealing of the liberal Democrat mindset toward the judiciary, the Constitution and the will of the people. Biden...

Appointment is the responsibility of the president ... there would always be great probability of having the place [the presidency] supplied by a man of abilities, at least respectable. Premising this, I proceed to lay it down as a rule, that one man of discernment is better fitted to analyze and estimate the peculiar qualities adapted to particular offices, than a body of men of equal or perhaps even of superior discernment.

Our nation's founders were firmly convinced that an independent judiciary was essential to the free society they were hoping to create. In Federalist 78, for instance, Alexander Hamilton elaborated at length on Montesquieu's dictum, "There is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers," explaining (among other things) why the Constitution's provision of life tenure for judges was particularly appropriate. Hamilton maintained that, while in individual cases judges might act oppressively, the overall tendency of an independent judiciary would be to protect rather than subvert our freedoms, "The general liberty of the...

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union" . . . are getting restless and feel we are fighting an "insurgency" here in our own United States. The "power to the people" crowd, of this great country, are about to mount a full fledged war here at home if Congress doesn't get its act together. Oh, there won't be bloodshed likened to Valley Forge or Gettysburg, but there's a battle brewing nonetheless. We just might need to start over . . . perhaps another revolution. I feel one coming on. Where's George W . . . Washington...

To the People of the State of New York: THE President is ``to NOMINATE, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution. But the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper, in the President alone, or in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. The President shall have power to fill up ALL VACANCIES which...

"The very thing!" exclaimed Professor Wogglebug, bounding into the air and upsetting his gold inkwell. "The very next idea!" Devotees of L. Frank Baum's classic children's books would quickly recognize the above excerpt as the opening of the 15th book in the Oz series, The Royal Book of Oz. They might be harder pressed to say whether these lines were actually written by Baum. The book appeared with Baum's name on the cover in 1921, which was 2 years after Baum's death, and it was billed as the final work of the Royal Historian of Oz. For decades, however, fans...

The simmering controversy over Democratic filibusters of President George W. Bush's nominees to the federal appellate courts continues to push the constitutional envelope. Even among conservatives themselves, there is profound disagreement about whether the filibusters violate separation-of-powers principles. Leaving that weighty issue aside (for today, anyway), now a new question arises: What is meant by the advice part of "advice and consent"? The impetus for asking is clear enough. The Senate appears to be careening toward High Noon at the OK Corral — a decisive, bloody battle over the filibusters. Parliamentary maneuvering by Democrats has blocked full-Senate consideration of about...

  "A Republic, If You Can Keep It" by John F. McManus November 6, 2000   Knowing that a democracy is a government of men in which the tyranny of the majority rules, America's Founding Fathers wisely created a republic - a government ruled by law.On Constitution Day, September 17, 2000, President Bill Clinton spoke at the ground-breaking ceremony for a National Constitution Center at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. On that occasion the president remarked that the men who signed the Constitution "understood the enormity of what they were attempting to do: to create a representative democracy." He heaped praise...

Under the “collective right” view, the Second Amendment is a federalism provision that provides to States a prerogative to establish and maintain armed and organized militia units akin to the National Guard, and only States may assert this prerogative. (1) There is Always a Kernel of Truth in Any Good Propaganda Today’s “progressive” interpretation of the Second Amendment contends that the militia was intended by the Founders to mean organized state armies. For clarification, let us examine the writings of Alexander Hamilton, one of the leaders of the Federalist movement during the debates that created our Constitution. In his writings,...

Excerpt From "Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence For the Independent Journal" "It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded apprehensions of imminent danger induced the people of America to form the memorable Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of consequences, or the undue influence...

BERKELEY, Calif. - At the birthplace of the free speech movement, campus radicals have a new target: the faculty that came of age in the 60's. They say their professors have been preaching multiculturalism and diversity while creating a political monoculture on campus. Conservatism is becoming more visible at the University of California here, where students put out a feisty magazine called The California Patriot and have made the Berkeley Republicans one of the largest groups on campus. But here, as at schools nationwide, the professors seem to be moving in the other direction, as evidenced by their campaign contributions...

Brown Reconsidered January 13, 2004 Judicial review was originally proposed (most notably in Federalist No. 78) as a method of making sure legislatures didn’t pass unconstitutional laws. Today it has become a method of changing the very meaning of constitutions under the guise of interpreting them. The problem was highlighted this past November, when the supreme court of Massachusetts handed down the sensational ruling that the state’s constitution required that same-sex “marriage” be recognized in law. The court didn’t even bother citing any specific passage of the constitution that might be construed to mean this; obviously it couldn’t find one....

FEDERALIST PAPERS Federalist No. 78 The Judiciary Department From McLEAN'S Edition, New York. Author: Alexander Hamilton To the People of the State of New York: WE PROCEED now to an examination of the judiciary department of the proposed government. In unfolding the defects of the existing Confederation, the utility and necessity of a federal judicature have been clearly pointed out. It is the less necessary to recapitulate the considerations there urged, as the propriety of the institution in the abstract is not disputed; the only questions which have been raised being relative to the manner of constituting it, and to...

I'd like to enlist the services of my fellow Americans with a bit of detective work. Let's start off with hard evidence. The Federalist Papers were a set of documents written by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to persuade the 13 states to ratify the Constitution. In one of those papers, Federalist Paper 45, James Madison wrote: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation...

Phyllis Schlafly Aug. 27, 2003 Federal court decisions about the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments, and the specter raised in Lawrence v. Texas that marriage may no longer be defined as the union of a man and a woman, show that the time has come to curb the Imperial Judiciary. Not only did one federal judge overturn a nearly 60 percent majority of California voters who passed Proposition 187 in 1994, but another single federal judge in Sacramento is at this moment threatening to cancel the California recall election! Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers 78, 81...

CBN.com – Conservatives say the Supreme Court's sodomy ruling is just one more example of judicial activism in the courts, that the Court has gotten too powerful and is creating new laws instead of ruling on the existing ones. David Barton is an expert on U.S. history, and he says the High Court is exercising powers that the Founding Fathers never intended. CBN’s Pat Robertson recently spoke with David Barton on "The 700 Club." PAT ROBERTSON: The Supreme Court, ladies and gentlemen. The eyes have been focused on the Supreme Court. Recent rulings by the court have shown how easily...

From time to time, parents write to ask how they can counter all the steady diet of slanted political correctness their children are getting in the schools and colleges. The summer vacation is probably as good a time as any to get them something to read to let them know that there is another side of the story, other than the one that classroom propagandists keep forcing down their throats. There is probably no subject on which the facts are so twisted by the schools, the media and academia as racial issues. If you want to find something rational that...

Early this month, Bill Moyers, the zillionaire PBS contractor, implored a gathering of Democratic faithful to Take Back America. His speech generated applause far greater than those of any of the presidential hopefuls on the program. Mr. Moyers's version of US history is cockeyed, his diagnosis of social ills is absurd, and his prescription for their cure is preposterous. Moyers claims to be a populist, but he has contempt for the people. We have been duped, see, and are captives of the "ruling class" who exploit and immiserate us. We are unaware of the depredations of the oligarchy, have been...

The The Bill of Rights Preamble Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the...

March 3, 2003 Dear Mr. and Mrs. xxx: Thank you for writing to express your concerns about the nomination of Miguel Estrada. I appreciate receiving your letter on this nomination. For your information, I have attached a copy of the statements that I gave on the Senate floor on February 10, and February 14, 2003. Again, thank you for writing. If you should have anymore questions or comments, please feel free to visit my website at http://feinstein.senate.gov, or contact my office in Washington, D.C. at (202)224-3841. Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein On the Nomination of Miguel Estrada for the D.C....

Of all the Founding Fathers, no other filled as many high offices as John Jay. He served as President of the Continental Congress, Minister to Spain during the Revolution, Chief Justice of New York, Governor of New York, member of the New York provincial Congress, special envoy to Great Britain, Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation and was appointed first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President George Washington. Background John Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745 and attended an exclusive boarding school in New Rochelle, New York at...

Most of us can still remember when the Republicans won Congress. The "Republican Revolution" they called it. They had great ideas and big plans. From the very first day, that revolution started off with a bang. Whatever happened to that? Anyone remember? No? Well, we do. Generally speaking, the left made fun of them and instead of standing up and fighting for what they said they believed in, they ran for cover. Which means, many of those good ideas, most of the promises to the American people, were lost. Below is an article published here on April 11, 1997 concerning...

The importance of the words that bind Americans together was seen in the uproar following a court judgment that the phrase"under God" was unconstitutional and should be struck from the Pledge of Allegiance. America was not founded by atheists for atheists. The words of the Constitution recognize the right of all religions to exist and to be freely exercised, but not the right of the state to require religion as a requirement of citizenship. You can be an atheist in America, but you do not have the right to insist that everyone else ignore God. Some sage once noted...

In June, 2002, Forest Glen Durland sent Notices of Evidence to two 9th Circuit Court judges and to numerous agencies involved in unconstitutional actions in the Klamath Basin. The purpose was to put these people on notice. Another reason was to comply with the Misprision of Felony law that mandates that citizens report known crimes. That Forest has done, and to the people committing the crimes. These documents are printed below. The list of the addressees is linked below. The letters to the judges and Departments of Agriculture and Interior were sent via Registered Mail, Return Receipt. All others were...