18 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2023
  2. Jun 2022
    1. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/patrick-henry-virginia-ratifying-convention-va/

      While gerrymandering isn't brought up explicitly here, the underlying principles are railed against heavily.

      Some interesting things applicable to the rise of Donald J. Trump hiding in here.

      Interesting to read this in its historical context versus our present context. So much can be read into his words from our current context, while others can extract dramatically different views--particularly by Constitutional originalists.

    1. The lower courts consistently point to one paragraph in particular from the Heller decision. Nothing in the opinion, Scalia wrote, shouldbe taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.This paragraph from the pen of Justice Scalia, the foremost proponent of constitutional originalism, was astounding. True, the Founders imposed gun control, but they had no laws resembling Scalia’s list of Second Amendment exceptions. They had no laws banning guns in sensitive places, or laws prohibiting the mentally ill from possessing guns, or laws requiring commercial gun dealers to be licensed. Such restrictions are products of the 20th century. Justice Scalia, in other words, embraced a living Constitution.
  3. Mar 2022
    1. Others, including law enforcement groups, warn that the bill could make things more dangerous for Ohioans and first responders.

      It should be noted that these people have said the same time every time reform of firearms laws have been proposed.

      They have been tremendously wrong every single time.

      So why listen to others when they have only been wrong every time?

  4. Jan 2022
  5. Nov 2021
  6. Jan 2021
  7. trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov
    1. Instead of securing fundamental rights grounded in nature, government—operating under a new theory of the “living” Constitution—should constantly evolve to secure evolving rights.

      Again, natural law is a specific, historically rooted branch of philosophy, and so is this. But what's happening here is not a debate between two schools of philosophy, but an argument against certain schools of legal thought. Conservative constitutional legal thought (embodied most famously by Scalia but also by much of the right wing of the current SCOTUS) is originalist. Originalism opposes the idea of "novel rights" and the "living Constitution," and insists on interpreting the Constitution as people theoretically would have done at the time of its writing.

      The takeaway here is the foregoing screed on Progressivism and philosophy is actually a warm-up to an subtextual argument about Constitutional interpretation that is the bedrock of how conservatives view the Judicial Branch.

  8. Oct 2020
    1. e Constitutional Convention. I t had begun i n Philadelphia on May 25, 1 787, months after Samuel S tan-hope Smith had addressed some of t he delegates on race.
  9. Feb 2019
    1. Is the freedom of the individual served by neoliberalism? Centrality of the state for this freedom, which NL denies. “neoliberal thinkers deliberately sustain the fiction that ‘the market economy’ is a natural and spontaneous order that must be placed beyond politics … The question of how authority can be something other than domination and private power shaped the ideas and action of those who built the tradition of constitutional democracy in western societies from the 16th to the 20th centuries … basic needs were those that had to be met before the individual could practically enact the status of a free subject or person. It was such needs provision that made it possible for individuals to be both personally secure and to enjoy an equality of opportunity to develop as individuals free to discover their talents and gifts … the representation of market society as a spontaneous order is pitched to the punters while, within the tent of the doctrine’s initiates, it is fully understood that the state has to be both a strong state, and to be re-engineered in order to impose neoliberal institutional design.” YeatmanFreedom.pdf
    1. “Constitutional patriotism” means cultural pluralism: “a constitutional integration-policy is incompatible with the legal obligation upon immigrants of a different origin to subject their life-style to an all-inclusive majority culture. Rather, it demands the differentiation between a majority culture rooted in the country and a political culture embracing all citizens equally.” (reference)

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    1. “Constitutional patriotism”—as understood by those who originally put forward the idea and as understood in this essay—designates the idea that political attachment ought to center on the norms, the values and, more indirectly, the procedures of a liberal democratic constitution. Put differently, political allegiance is owed primarily neither to a national culture, as proponents of liberal nationalism have claimed, nor to “the worldwide community of human beings,” as, for instance, Martha Nussbaum’s conception of cosmopolitanism has it. Constitutional patriotism offers a vision distinct from both nationalism and cosmopolitanism, but also from republican patriotism as traditionally understood in, broadly speaking, the history of Euro-American political thought.” (Müller)

      KCD2M33B

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  10. Sep 2017
    1. convenient & proper part of the State for the University of Virginia.

      While I'm not exactly surprised by the general modern assininity of historic perspectives, it is rather striking to me how parallel this particular phrase is to one in the Constitution, i.e., the necessary and proper clause, or the elastic clause. It makes me wonder whether or not they used this as an excuse to establish whatever they pleased on site. Although eminent domain did not exist in the US officially at the time, and Virginia had a tendency to be ever so slightly anarchistic towards the wealthy, this does pose the question of how the poorer folk in the area got off with the changes, as well as how the university's establishment served as a political tool.

  11. Jul 2016
    1. This is a bit heartbreaking. Their facebook page is heavily monitored as well. I know folks that have been blocked from commenting there at Yes on 1. Thank goodness for hypothes.is.

    1. I am seeking opinions as to the nature of this amendment. Is this good for homeowners or good for only big business? Is this Yes on 1? Or is this the REAL amendment?

  12. Feb 2014
    1. I n T h e T r a d e - M a r k C a s e s , t h e C o u r t a d d r e s s e d t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n a l s c o p e o f " w r i t i n g s . " F o r a p a r t i c u l a r w o r k t o b e c l a s s i f i e d " u n d e r t h e h e a d o f w r i t i n g s o f a u t h o r s , " t h e C o u r t d e t e r m i n e d , " o r i g i n a l i t y i s r e q u i r e d . " 1 0 0 U . S . , a t 9 4 . T h e C o u r t e x p l a i n e d t h a t o r i g i n a l i t y r e q u i r e s i n d e p e n d e n t c r e a t i o n p l u s a m o d i c u m o f c r e a t i v i t y : " [ W ] h i l e t h e w o r d w r i t i n g s m a y b e l i b e r a l l y c o n s t r u e d , a s i t h a s b e e n , t o i n c l u d e o r i g i n a l d e s i g n s f o r e n g r a v i n g , p r i n t s , & c . , i t i s o n l y s u c h a s a r e o r i g i n a l , a n d a r e f o u n d e d i n t h e c r e a t i v e p o w e r s o f t h e m i n d . T h e w r i t i n g s w h i c h a r e t o b e p r o t e c t e d a r e t h e f r u i t s o f i n t e l l e c t u a l l a b o r , e m b o d i e d i n t h e f o r m o f b o o k s , p r i n t s , e n g r a v i n g s , a n d t h e l i k e . " I b i d . ( e m p h a s i s i n o r i g i n a l ) .

      In The Trade-Mark Cases the Court addressed the constitutional scope of writings saying for a particular work to be classified "under the head of writings of authors," the Court determined, "originality is required"; independent creation plus a modicum of creativity.

    2. O r i g i n a l i t y i s a c o n s t i t u t i o n a l r e q u i r e m e n t . T h e s o u r c e o f C o n g r e s s ' p o w e r t o e n a c t c o p y r i g h t l a w s i s A r t i c l e I , § 8 , c l . 8 , o f t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n , w h i c h a u t h o r i z e s C o n g r e s s t o " s e c u r [ e ] f o r l i m i t e d T i m e s t o A u t h o r s . . . t h e e x c l u s i v e R i g h t t o t h e i r r e s p e c t i v e W r i t i n g s . " I n t w o d e c i s i o n s f r o m t h e l a t e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y — T h e T r a d e - M a r k C a s e s , 1 0 0 U . S . 8 2 ( 1 8 7 9 ) ; a n d B u r r o w - G i l e s L i t h o g r a p h i c C o . v . S a r o n y , 1 1 1 U . S . 5 3 ( 1 8 8 4 ) — t h i s C o u r t d e f i n e d t h e c r u c i a l t e r m s " a u t h o r s " a n d " w r i t i n g s . " I n s o d o i n g , t h e C o u r t m a d e i t u n m i s t a k a b l y c l e a r t h a t t h e s e t e r m s p r e s u p p o s e a d e g r e e o f o r i g i n a l i t y .

      This Court defined the crucial terms authors and writings.