by Matthew Bransgrove | Sep 15, 2015 | Constitutional Law
Amendment by the legislature is inappropriate A … government … cannot have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary. It might make itself what it pleased and wherever such a right is set up, it shows there is no constitution. —Thomas Paine. The...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Sep 15, 2015 | Constitutional Law
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment … But I know also,...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Sep 15, 2015 | Constitutional Law
A constitution should protect individual rights against government. Since socialist prescriptions have the opposite effect, they are inappropriate inclusions in a constitution. An example of what not to do is provided by Article 14 of the German Basic Law, which...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Sep 15, 2015 | Constitutional Law
A constitution is a body of general rules that limit the powers of government, not a repository of laws binding on the people. If the people wish to entrench legislation—out of the reach of the legislature—they should do so through legislative initiative. Ranking...
by Matthew Bransgrove | Sep 15, 2015 | Constitutional Law
The problem of excessive government Claims made for government as a force for general improvement always turn out to be bogus. Yet it is amazing what claims have been made in the past. For instance after the war, the nationalization of our industries was justified as...
