Tag Archives: constitution

The Pillars of Democracy

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  NOV 6, 2023

The Lincoln Memorial along the shores of the Potomac River was designed by architect Henry Bacon as a likeness to the Parthenon, the ancient Greek temple. The Parthenon had 25 beautiful columns forming its rectangular sides. Some of them are still standing today above Athens as a monument to the enduring legacy of what became the cradle of democracy. The Parthenon was constantly being restored after centuries of storms, wars, and revolutions.

The Lincoln Memorial, a contemporary replica of the Greek temple, has 36 columns, the number of states in the Union Lincoln preserved. They symbolize the pillars of our democratic Republic, the enduring civic and governmental institutions that have girded our system of governance. Those 36 pillars literally hold up the Lincoln Memorial just as those institutions figuratively support our system of governance.

The Lincoln is more than its legacy. The Memorial should be a constant reminder that our democratic Republic has faced serious and corrosive challenges before and the nation has counted on those institutions to preserve the very structure of the Union. Continue reading →

One Day to Celebrate the Constitution…Or Not

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  SEP 20

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Preamble to the Constitution, adopted  September 17, 1787

Last Saturday the nation celebrated the signing of the US Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia 229 years ago.

There were parades and fireworks, great speeches and events all across the country.

Actually, there weren’t. The anniversary went by mostly unnoticed, unlike that for the Declaration of Independence, last July 4.

In fairness what is Constitution and Citizenship Day is a relatively new observance, dating back to 2004 and legislation sponsored by the late West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, although there have been observances of citizenship dating back nearly 100 years. Continue reading →

Miranda

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Suddenly, every cable news anchor, every pundit, every Sunday show guest, and every waiter in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia has become an expert on whether or not Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be informed of his Miranda rights.

Let’s assume, for the moment, that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has never watched a single episode of “Law & Order” in any of its manifestations and, thus, does not know he can ask for a lawyer – or refuse to answer any questions with a lawyer or without. Continue reading →

State of the State of the Union

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

From Paris, France

I am in Paris for one afternoon and overnight because the non-stop service from Oujda, Morocco to Dulles International Airport just outside Washington, DC hasn’t yet begun. We flew into Orly Airport which is the Newark Airport of Europe. If you can arrange a trip that doesn’t include Orly, I recommend you do that. But, any story that ends with, “and then we had dinner in Paris” is a pretty good story.

Washington, DC is awash in activity surrounding the President’s State of the Union address tomorrow night at nine Eastern time. Continue reading →

The Most Important Amendment

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

We all know the term “The Bill of Rights” which are the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution although few of us (including me) could name them.

Hint: None of them start “Thou shalt not …” Rather they tend to start “The Government (or Congress) shalt not …” Keep that in mind.

The First Amendment is a catch-all of rights upon which the Congress may not trample: It protects an individual’s freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press, as well as the right to assemble and to petition the government. The American press corps is very, very focused on the First Amendment and will go to great lengths to make sure that right is not diminished. Continue reading →

President Obama on the Fiscal Cliff

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

For a ‘constitutional scholar’, President Obama sure doesn’t act like he knows who holds the cards in any negotiations on budget matters in Washington, DC.

Who does hold the cards?

The House of Representatives. Period. ‘All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House’ from Article 1 of the Constitution. There are multiple Committees on Authorization and Appropriations in the House and the Senate. None in the White House. Continue reading →

Electoral Collage

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The United States Constitution provides for an indirect election of the President. That is, you didn’t vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney last week; you voted for electors pledged to vote for one or the other.

The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which superseded a large section of Article II, Section 1) suggests says that the ballots of the electors in the several states having marked their ballots for President and Vice President shall “transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United

Continue reading →

What Would Jefferson Think?

BY FRANK HILL

Reprinted from telemachus.com

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York was recently caught on tape talking about how to describe all Republican efforts to reduce federal spending as ‘extreme’ and ‘dangerous’.

Continue reading →

Congress Convenes, History Reborn

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

When the House opens for business at noon on Wednesday, Republicans will hold a tag-team reading of the U.S. Constitution which is an excellent idea. Most of the incoming Freshmen will not have read any major part of the Constitution since 11th grade social studies, but it is the rule book and incoming Speaker John Boehner wants to make sure everyone understands that.

Continue reading →

308,745,538 of Us

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

The U.S. Census Bureau announced yesterday that as of April 1, 2010 there were 308,745,538 people living in the United States – the result of the 2010 census which is required by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2:

Continue reading →

Earmarks and The Power of The Purse

BY JOHN FEEHERY

Reprinted from the feeherytheory.com

Mitch McConnell bowed to reality with his statement on earmarks yesterday.  It couldn’t have been easy and it shouldn’t have been.

Earmarks are essential part of our Constitutional process.  For any member of Congress (House or Senate) to willingly give power away to the executive branch in such a haphazard way is troubling.

Continue reading →

An Anniversary Worth Noting Now

BY MICKEY EDWARDS

 (this article was first published on Atlantic.com)

          On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry rose in St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia and, aware of the risks inherent in undertaking a rebellion against the British crown, chose the principle upon which he would stand.  “Give me liberty,” he said, “or give me death.” 

          It was not a rhetorical flourish.  Rebellion was treason and the penalty for treason was precisely that: death.  Patrick Henry and his fellow rebels, Washington and Jefferson, the Adamses, Madison and Franklin, in declaring their independence from the British monarch, put everything — their reputations, their possessions, their very lives — on the line for the right to live as free men, governing themselves, no longer bound by distant and arbitrary rule.  Patrick Henry may have been a bit more of a firebrand than some, his speeches a counterpart to Thomas Paine’s writing, but he was merely putting into words the thoughts that ran through Nathan Hale’s head, and George Mason’s, and Benjamin Rush’s.

          Americans today are caught up in conflicts great and small — how much authority to give to government, how to square guaranteed rights with the imperatives of security, how much taxation is too much (even when imposed by one’s own representatives) — but in each case, these are decisions we make, collectively, as we see the need.

Continue reading →