Originalism and the Supreme Court

by

 

       M. Richard Maxson

 

      Originalism is not some competing theory of fairly recent origin, or even of 19^th century origin. It has been the dominant method of documentary interpretation in our legal system—and a central feature of the rule of law—for at least five centuries. Anglo-American courts had been applying originalist methodology for centuries. Specifically, the “intent of the makers” had been the lodestar of documentary construction since at least the 1500s. In 1782, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals decided Commonwealth v. Caton. It applied originalist methods to the Virginia constitution, with judges referring repeatedly to the “makers of the constitution” and what was “intended by the framers.” That is how it was

intended to be.

     In recent history we see something different, judges ruling, not what the Constitution says, but what “they believe” society wants. It has created precedents that are contrary to the wishes of the Founding Fathers. That's the doctrine that a court should "rule" the same way a previous court did, even if the judges in the 2nd court feel the first one violated the constitution. It created "stare decisis" which is the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent. It is precedent over the Constitution itself.

      “Legislating from the bench.” It's a common complaint today and a dangerously common practice. But it was never intended to be that way."The despotism of an oligarchy," that's how Thomas Jefferson described and warned about the federal court system we live under today. Sometimes the Constitution’s attempt to address an issue is phrased in a way that could allow multiple interpretations, leaving experts disagreeing about what it means and making it difficult or impossible to address a pressing problem which is why adherence to originalism is paramount. Founder after Founder hammered this home.

 

• Rufus King: "The judges must interpret the laws; they ought not to be legislators."

• Nathaniel Gorham saw no “advantage of employing the Judges in this way. As Judges they are not to be presumed to possess any peculiar knowledge of the mere policy of public measures.”

• Charles Pinckney also “opposed the interference of the Judges in the Legislative business.”

• Roger Sherman “disapproved of Judges meddling in politics and parties.”

       The question arises only because at some point in time, the Supreme Court abandoned originalism, and prior originalist precedents, and came up with new law altogether. When precisely this happened is beside the point; it surely happened at different times for different doctrines. The point is, once the Supreme Court decided to change the law, the Supreme Court began to reaffirm its changes. These new legal decisions were now “precedents,” but they were unlike the older precedents in that they were outside the bounds of permissible textual interpretation. This doctrine treats an opinion of the court like super statutes, their language to be parsed and applied  as though it was legislation.

 

       The root of the problem is that so many people have embraced this absurd system that empowers judges to run their lives. As a result, many will view this SCOTUS appointment as very nearly a matter of life and death.

        In the end, to most Americans, there is nothing more significant than who sits on the Supreme Court. Politics aside, the Supreme Court and ALL courts need to follow the Constitution as it was intended…..and they don’t…..and that reveals a big problem for the Republic.

The American Constitutionalist Attacked - AGAIN

 by

       Staff

      The American Constitutionalist was attacked - AGAIN. As this election nears we never thought THEY would try it again but THEY have. The backstory is this, we first began to publish on this site ten years ago. We were, before Edward Snowden and Wikileaks, reporting on the massive government surveillance that was taking place clandestinely. The Constitutionalist was about eighteen months old when suddenly, it disappeared!

      We contacted the server and heard …..crickets, no response, no explanation at all. At that same time the editors son lost his security clearance. He was told it was because of his blog.(they have the same name) When he told the Secret Service agent that it was not his but his fathers, the answer was guilt by association. He was told he was a security risk.

      That brings us to this past week. Our section, at our site, where we keep information and notes to use in our articles was disrupted. Certain topics were no longer available to us. In other words – the data is gone, no explanation - as of yet. It is prudent to note just WHAT WAS TAKEN.

 

• A file on Race

• A massive file on Secret Groups.

• A huge file on Media Misconduct.

• A large file on the legitimacy of the Obama administration. 

 

      We have been speaking out about the “men in the shadows” - the secret groups that along with the media are using race to “fundamentally change America,” so it is interesting to note what was taken. Out of eighty-eight topic files these missing file pertain to the upcoming election.

      This is just the latest in a long line of facts that affirm what we have been following over the past years. There are forces that are pushing to end of the United States as we have known it. Powerful forces are at work in the shadows in elite’s quest for a “new” Amerika. We had all the proof we needed eight years ago. This new attack compels us to continue the quest to inform and to bring back our beloved Constitution to the way the Founders intended.

The Attorney General Speaks Out on the U.S. Media: - A Collection Of Liars - Majority Don’t Have Integrity

by

       George Sontag

      We are living in a world where mainstream media literally beams their perception of events in the consciousness of people through television programming. The mainstream media is a tool of social engineering and propaganda, it almost always has been. This discussion is not about whether or not the western mainstream media ever gives us an accurate view of what’s happening in the world, it does not. It is a discussion of Americans being misled into a delusion of a world that simply is not accurate.

 

      Media manipulation and failure does not just come by

reporting things that aren't true, nor by failing to report things that are true, but by allowing false narratives to be created. The Attorney General, William Barr, was interviewed this past week and gives his opinion on what he sees transpiring in America today. When asked what he thought of the media is the U.S. - he stated..

       "They’re basically a collection of liars. Most of the mainstream media,” Barr said. “They’re a collection of liars and they know exactly what they’re doing. A perfect example of that were the riots. Right on the street it was clear as day what was going on, anyone observing it, reporters observing it, it could not have escaped their attention that this was orchestrated violence by a hardened group of street fighting radicals, and they kept on excluding from their coverage all the video of this and reporting otherwise, and they were doing that for partisan reasons, and they were lying to the American people. It wasn’t until they were caught red-handed after essentially weeks of this lie that they even started feeling less timid.”

      His thoughts on whether there are there any “real” journalistic integrity left in the country’s main stream media?

      "I think there are a handful of reporters in the mainstream media that still have journalistic integrity, and there are some, but the overwhelming majority don’t have it anymore,” Barr concluded. “The people who do cover the Department do understand some of the issues. But, on the other hand, some of them have essentially adopted the same methods and ploys as what I refer to more generally as the national media and that is they’re not because, probably somewhat because of their own orientation and but also what their editors say, they’re not really interested so much in what really happened but in pursuing a preformed narrative that suits some kind of ideological agenda. That’s what it’s all become.”

      "The press has dropped, in my view—and I’m talking about the national mainstream media—has dropped any pretense of professional objectivity and are political actors, highly partisan, who try to shape what they’re reporting to achieve a political purpose and support a political narrative that has nothing to do with the truth. They’re very mendacious about it,” Barr continued. “It’s very destructive to our Republic; it’s very destructive to the Democratic system to have that, especially being so monolithic. It’s contributing to a lot of the intensity and partisanship. What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory the leaders of one of our great two political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts,” Barr said."
 

       The polls show the Democrats leading. They are leading because of the powerful institutions that support them, namely, the media, Hollywood, academia, government bureaucracies and special interest groups. The liberal, corporate controlled media are using their power to get inside the heads of Americans and confuse them.

 

     They need us to believe everyone who is not radical Left and woke, is a bad thing and the way they are doing that is by telling the American people what it is that we should be thinking. They are deceiving the American people. They are disorienting those who trust this news source while trying to steer them as far from rational thought as they possibly can. 

 

     

Simultaneously, a massive ridicule campaign combined with censorship ensues when it comes to information that threatens that narrative, the narrative portrayed by the select few mainstream media outlets, who have been exposed as mouthpieces for powerful corporations, governments, and intelligence agencies. In addition, Democrats have significant backing from the wealthiest Americans. For example, there has been a tremendous outpouring of campaign cash flowing into the coffers of Democratic candidates and political action committees from billionaires such as George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.

      Most human beings are usually good, moral, ethical creatures but our daily environment, that shapes us and our consciousness, has been influenced by an extreme amount of manipulation. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, if you continue to take what the mainstream media says with any seriousness you will be nothing but a fool.

      As we have often stated, it doesn’t mean all media is bad, it means we must move away from corporate controlled media outlets with horrible track records, and start exploring new ones from around the world. Journalism's role in helping people to understand what is happening is critical. We MUST get it back or perish.

The Next President of the United States - Nancy Pelosi

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      In all my years as an American, I have never been so fearful for the future of my nation. We are in the midst of a class war that is being driven by Democrats’ demagoguery, and it is likely to end very badly. The roots of the Democratic part were and have been deeply and unquestionably racist. I know this is quite a statement to make but Democrats repeatedly lied to, broke treaties with, and slaughtered native Americans. They supported slavery, fractured the nation with secession of the South, and in large measure were responsible for thrusting America into the Civil War which cost over 600 thousand lives and they are on the verge of starting another one.

       Democrats can say whatever they want about the GOP today, but the fact remains that the Republican party was instituted to end slavery in a time when Democratic leaders refused to acknowledge black Americans as “persons” instead of “property,” forcibly removed Native Americans from their land, and even established the Ku Klux Klan to fight against constitutional rights gained by blacks after the Civil War.

      Now, in 2020, Democrats are threatening violence if Joe Biden does not defeat President Trump in November, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said Saturday. “If you think that they were sore losers in 2016, you ain't seen anything yet. ... Democrats have no intention of accepting defeat at the ballot box," Devine said They have stated that they will accept nothing less than a landslide victory in November. If it’s close, there will be continued fighting in the streets and legal challenges and if the president wins, there will be war! They WILL NOT ACCEPT a Republican victory for the White House. The party has retained over 400 lawyers across the country to dispute the election and tie it up in the courts until inauguration day when, according to law with a contested election, the speaker of the House will be sworn in – It May be President Nancy Pelosi!!!!

• "President Trump's term ends at precisely noon on Jan. 20, 2021. If the Electoral College has not yet named a successor, presumably either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, then whoever is the Speaker of the House would become the acting president of the United States." - Judge Andrew Napolitano

       The scenario is this, that if the Democrats retain their majority in the House, and it appears likely that they will, but if they do, and if they choose Mrs. Pelosi, knowing at that point that they're choosing the president of the United States, then it would be her. Democrats could choose someone else or the Republicans could have the majority if they flip the House in November. Simply stated, whoever is the sitting speaker of the United States, would become president at noon on Jan. 20, 2021, if the Electoral College has failed to elect someone.

      Under the Constitution, if the Electoral College is unable to choose a successor, the election would go to the House of Representatives, not for a majority vote, but a vote by state, in which each state delegation would vote on their own, independent of their state's election results, and whoever has a majority of 26 states would become president until Jan. 20, 2025. That hasn’t happened since 1800 when Thomas Jefferson was elected the first time.

      The Republican party, seeing what is about to happen, has also begun to retain a massive legal team in order to fight against the fraud they know is coming. The attempt to change the way the public votes is the Left’s next step in dismantling the nation’s institutions. They are tired of waiting for their Socialist utopia. They want it now!

      We are being set up for a disintegration of our nation from forces within AND from outside our nation. SHUT UP And OBEY or be fired, canceled, harassed by the mob, called a racist, demonetized, and deemed unemployable. The new normal is oppression and it will continue. Either the election goes the Left’s way or else. They have already shown how they can make the American dream rapidly become a nightmare. When Leftist politicians deliberately disregard their oaths of office to protect the people they serve; there is no longer any safety in communities. There is only civil war.