Constitution

Uniting Constitutional Protection for Economic and Social Liberties, Part 3: Can the Ninth Amendment Save Us?

by Steven Horwitz January 1, 2015

In part 2 of this series (December), I argued that unenumerated noneconomic rights such as those of parents or the right to marry are generally considered “fundamental rights” under the approach libertarian legal scholar Randy Barnett labels “Footnote Four-Plus.” That is, the rights of parents are nowhere enumerated in the Constitution including the Bill of Rights, but are nonetheless ...

Uniting Constitutional Protection for Economic and Social Liberties, Part 2: The Great Depression and the Great Divide

by Steven Horwitz December 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In part 1, I traced the evolution of “substantive due process” jurisprudence under which the Supreme Court protected a variety of unenumerated rights, both economic and personal, through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Many of the unenumerated rights that had been protected ...

Uniting Constitutional Protection for Economic and Social Liberties, Part 1: Substantive Due Process and Unenumerated Rights

by Steven Horwitz November 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 We libertarians like to distinguish ourselves from our friends on the Right and Left by the fact that we care equally about both economic liberties and social/civil liberties. For libertarians the right to engage in contract and exchange with other consenting adults is just as important ...

Speaking on Liberty: Sheldon Richman Live! (video)

by Sheldon Richman October 24, 2013

Liberty Minded contributor Jason Lee Byas sits down with Sheldon Richman after his Constitution Day talk at The University of Oklahoma.  

From Articles of Confederation to Constitution (video)

by Sheldon Richman October 15, 2013

On September 17, 2013, FFF vice president and editor Sheldon Richman spoke at an event co-hosted by the University of Oklahoma Young Americans for Liberty and the Oklahoma University Students for a Stateless Society. Sheldon's talk was entitled "From Articles of Confederation to Constitution: Retreat for Liberty?"

TGIF: James Madison: Father of the Implied-Powers Doctrine

by Sheldon Richman July 26, 2013

James Madison famously wrote in Federalist 45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined.” Strict constructionists are fond of this quote, and often cite it in defense of their view that the Constitution established a government of strictly limited powers. But did it? One way to approach ...

The Constitutional Psychology of the American Empire (video)

by Bruce Fein February 27, 2013

On February 17, 2013, Bruce Fein spoke on behalf of Young Americans for Liberty at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C.

The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, and Civil Liberties (Video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 25, 2013

Time to Can the Constitution?

by Michael Tennant January 30, 2013

Near the end of 2012, while Congress and the president were hashing out a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff,” Georgetown University constitutional law professor Louis Michael Seidman had this to say in a New York Times op-ed: As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of ...

The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, & Civil Liberties: UC Boulder

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 19, 2012

From October 15-19, 2012 The Future of Freedom Foundation and the Young Americans for Liberty co-sponsored a College Civil Liberties Tour that brought a panel of three lawyers – a libertarian, a liberal, and a conservative – to five campuses on the West Coast. The three panelists, inluding Jacob G. Hornberger, Glenn Greenwald, Bruce Fein, and along with moderator ...

Supreme Court’s Word Game Saves Obamacare

by Sheldon Richman July 2, 2012

The Supreme Court decision upholding the health-insurance mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel to it. As Lewis Carroll wrote in Through the Looking Glass, “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Chief Justice ...

The Constitution versus the Executive-Branch Departments

by Laurence M. Vance June 12, 2012

The U.S. federal government contains a myriad of agencies, bureaus, corporations, commissions, administrations, authorities, and boards organized under 15 cabinet-level, executive-branch departments headed by a secretary (or, in the case of the Justice Department, an attorney general). Although Republicans created the latest, most bloated, and most hated department (Homeland Security), they sometimes talk about eliminating or consolidating various other ...