Restoring the Lost Constitution
The Presumption of Liberty
Introduction
WHY CARE WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS?
The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those
limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written. To
what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation
committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those
intended to be restrained? The distinction, between a government with
limited and unlimited powers, is abolished, if those limits do not confine
the persons on whom they are imposed. -JOHN MARSHALL (1803)
HAD JUDGES done their job, this book would not need to be written. Since the
adoption of the Constitution, courts have eliminated clause after clause that
interfered with the exercise of government power. This started early with the
Necessary and Proper Clause, continued through Reconstruction with the
destruction of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, and culminated in the
post-New Deal Court that gutted the Commerce Clause and ... read full excerpt from Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty ebook
