A friendly Reminder

Understanding the separation of powers can sometimes feel like you're tackling a puzzle. This concept, a foundational element of American government, plays a crucial role in how our country operates. It's all about dividing responsibilities among different branches to ensure that no single group has all the power. For students in American Government Classes, getting a grip on this idea is key to understanding how democracy works here. Knowing how and why separation of powers

What is a tort and why is it important? What is the federal law regarding tort claims against the federal government. Is this law constitutional? One of the reasons I like answering questions is they prompt me to look at things I hadn’t thought about before. Take for example the recent request I had to review the Federal Tort Claims Procedure. While I review lawsuits regularly here, I’d never taken the time to look at this particular legislation. What is a tort? Let’s start w

A gun, by any other name, is still protected by the Second Amendment. Who decides what the definition of a firearm is, Congress, the ATF, or the courts. Should a person be able to build their own firearm without government permission? I cannot count how many times I’ve said it, but words mean things. It’s one of the reasons I keep referring back to documents to see the actual words used so I can find their definitions. In the case Garland v. VanDerStok, the issue seems to com

Do you lose your rights when you cross state lines?  Does a state have the power to ignore licenses from another state? Can Massachusetts require visitors from out of state to get their permission before carrying a firearm in their state? Can Massachusetts prosecute out-of-staters who can legally carry in their home state? That was the question before Massachusetts courts in two cases. Needless to say, when these courts agreed with the plaintiffs, the Commonwealth disagreed,

The Supreme Court once said the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply to the states. Then again, the Supreme Court also said that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights against the states. Are either of those statements true? There are certain lies told about the Constitution that repeatedly grind into me like salt in an open wound. One of those is the repeated statement that “The Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, to

Is a bump stock a machine gun? Do executive agencies have the authority to rewrite laws passed by Congress? Should the court make decisions based on the law or their emotions? When does a rifle become a machine gun? That is the question asked in the Supreme Court case Garland v. Cargill. When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives suddenly decided to redefine bump stocks as machine guns, many Americans simply complied. However, when Michael Cargill surrender

Do you permanently lose your rights when convicted of a crime? Can the federal government take away your rights protected by the Second Amendment for a crime punishable by a year in jail? What are the potential violations of the Constitution this law presents? According to federal law, if someone is convicted of a crime and punished with more than one year in jail, they lose their rights protected under the Second Amendment. A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court not on

The WHO Pandemic Agreement includes a lot of powers for this U.N. agency. Many claims about what would happen should President Biden sign this agreement. Except all of the claims that this “treaty” would be legally binding in the United States are not true. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Pandemic Agreement has been in the news again lately. Not only does this United Nation organization want the power to take over the world in a “health emergency”, but numerous politici

In a constitutional republic, is anyone immune from prosecution? When government actors are immune for their actions, how can they be held accountable? If, as the Supreme Court has said, the President is immune for his official actions, how does that not make him a king? When the delegates to the Constitutional Convention debated the role of the chief executive, many expected George Washington to become our first king. Between Mr. Washington’s humility, and the delegates rece

Authored By: Mike Sonneveldt A few days ago, Congress passed a bill that shocked lots of Americans. On the other hand, plenty of Americans did not realize anything was happening. They were too glued to all of the other dramas going on in our world. Not long after, President Biden signed the bill into law.    Extension of FISA Section 702   FISA  is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides the government with the ability to conduct surveillance on foreign acto

In the United States, who is sovereign? Did we replace a sovereign monarch with a sovereign oligarchy? Do you need government’s permission to sue it?   When can you sue the government? What started out as an erroneous credit report filing has turned into the heart of the question brought before the Supreme Court in the case Department Of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service V. Kirtz (USDA v. Kirtz). What the court found, and how it got there, points to a seriou

How a U.S. President gets elected is both simpler and more complicated than most people think it is. What is this Electoral College and why does it exist? How can you participate in an election if you don’t know how it works? Every four years, the United States goes through the ritual of electing a President. I use the term ritual for two reasons. First, most Americans’ understanding of the election process is based on custom or rites rather than the law. Second, most of the

We are in the middle of another primary season. But have you considered what the purpose behind these primaries? Why do we have an election season before the election? Why does the American taxpayer fund elections for private organizations? I propose that all elections for the board members of non-profit corporations should be run by the state at taxpayer expense. After all, we already have taxpayer funded elections for private organizations. We call them “Primaries”. While t

When Congress is ambiguous, who decides what they mean? Who decided that when Congress is silent, the executive agency decides for them? Is this Chevron Deference constitutional? For decades, Congress has been turning over more and more lawmaking power to the Executive Branch. Frequently this is done by legislation giving the head of some agency or department the power to establish rules which have the force of law. What happens when the legislation doesn’t explicitly say tha

Is social media the new public square? Can government actors block access to government information by putting it on a private account? Should government officials be allow to post official business on their private social media accounts? Social media has become so much a part of our everyday lives that we often don’t think about how we use it. This has led to what appears to be a large percentage of Americans developing what can at best be described as some “interesting idea

If you thought that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case had put the question of abortion to bed, you were wrong. Activists are attempting to amend the constitution of several states to protect abortion. Would such amendments to state constitutions violate the Constitution of the United States? Since last year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the court’s precedent in Roe v. Wade, there has been a flurry of work on both si

What powers does the Constitution delegate to the legislative branch of government? Most of the powers delegated to Congress are found in Article I, Section 8, but not all of them. How can we complain about our representatives in Congress not staying within the limits of the Constitution if we keep electing them to do so? I encourage people to ask questions. I believe there are only two “stupid” questions in the world: The one you don’t ask and the one you ask three times. Qu

What powers are vested in the federal courts? Why did Alexander Hamilton refer to the judiciary as the least able to harm our rights? What does the Constitution say about the supremacy of Supreme Court opinions? In this third installment of the three-part series on the branches of government, we look at the role of the third and weakest branch. At least that’s what our Founding Fathers thought. What is the role of the federal judiciary? What is the extent of their powers, how

All of the executive power of the United States is vested in one person, the President of the United States. Contrary to popular opinion, most of the powers of the United States are not vested in the President, but in Congress. Ever wonder why we have such a unique way of electing the President? This is the second in a three-part series on the branches of the federal government. The first article covered the Legislative branch, but this time we’ll look at the role of the exe

Of the three branches of the federal government, most of the powers are delegated to the legislative. As the representative branch of government, Congress is also where the representatives of both the people and the states are supposed to enact their will. With Congress exercising most of the powers delegated to the United States, it’s important that we hold our representatives accountable to their oaths to support the Constitution. When I started studying the Constitution, I