Today’s House of Representatives is a far cry from the republican ideal of the founders. It does not provide Americans with the kind of representation the founders intended. Each representative in the House is limited by the committee system and by partisanship and seniority and their calendar and a dozen other considerations. There are just too many people in the House.
Read MoreThe founders’ ideal of 30,000-to-one has faded in the rear-view mirror. The number of constituents each member of the House represents now varies from a little over 500,000 in Rhode Island to more than a million in Montana. Montanans have half the representation that Rhode Islanders have, and that’s not fair. But nobody anywhere in America gets the level of representation the founding fathers intended, and that is not fair, either.
Read MoreWhat keeps police officers from shooting citizens more than they do is the overwhelming decency of the officers themselves. Their goodness is a far more powerful constraint than the Constitution.
Read More[T]here is little connection between a nation’s constitution and conditions in the country. Civil rights abuse are actually more common in countries with explicit constitutional protections.
Read MoreMost of the time, American citizens think of the US Constitution as a positive. Even when they are complaining about the way things are, few would heap any of the blame on Constitution itself. It is common for serious commentators to say that all America really needs is to “get back to the Constitution.” Many of the nation’s most prominent and respected law professors and constitutional experts don’t agree. Those scholars and experts see very serious flaws in the Constitution.
Read MoreIn the United States of America, replacing an existing constitution with a newer one happens fairly often, to good effect and with little turmoil. Citizens assembled, discussed what they wanted from government, designed a plan combining proven methods from other states and nations with new ideas they believed worth trying. They then submitted their plan to the voting public of the state. It’s a process that no one who believes in representative government could object to.
Read MoreMadison and Jefferson agree that public debt can be necessary and proper at times. Madison recollects that America incurred debt during the Revolution, which was certainly worth it and certainly would make future generations happy and free. In any similar case, where future generations would be richer and happier because of past spending, Madison expressed himself willing for the living to pass debt onto the next generation.
Read MoreCitizens who have been cheated have no reason to wait until 2024, knowing they’ll get cheated again.
Read MoreThe evidence of racial bias in our criminal justice system isn’t just convincing — it’s overwhelming.
Read MorePolice procedures are not the result of a democratic process.
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Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels
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