by Rob Natelson | Nov 15, 2018 | Founding Principles
As noted in three prior posts—here, here, and here—there were very many documentary antecedents to the Constitution. This series is designed to correct the claim that the Constitution’s framers had little available guidance and/or that they “just made things up.” This... 
by Rob Natelson | Nov 12, 2018 | Founding Principles
The framers of our Constitution met during the summer of 1787. (Commentators unfamiliar with the Founding sometimes describe it as a “hot summer”—and it certainly had some hot days—but in fact it was cooler than average for Philadelphia.) The framers did not, as some... 
by Rob Natelson | Nov 8, 2018 | Court Cases, Judiciary
The first decision of the Supreme Court’s new term tends to confirm my view that the Court does not have, as the media claim, conservative majority. It also tends to confirm my conclusion that Republican-nominated justices are unlikely to alter much. In Mount Lemmon... 
by Rob Natelson | Oct 31, 2018 | 14th Amendment, Citizenship
It has hit the news cycle once again: The perennial question of whether the children born in America of parents illegally in this country are natural born (“birthright”) citizens. The constitutional question revolves around whether such children are “subject to the...