The Founding Record

The Founding Record

• The Preamble

  Three words that decide where authority comes from.

• All Legislative Powers Herein Granted

  Two words carry the whole limit: herein granted.

• Necessary And Proper

  Called the sweeping clause by its opponents. The argument never ended.

• The Privilege Of The Writ Of Habeas Corpus

  The jailer must state a lawful reason. Suspension requires rebellion or invasion.

• No Bill Of Attainder Or Ex Post Facto Law

  Congress cannot convict you by statute, and cannot criminalize the past.

• A Regular Statement Of All Public Money

  No spending without a law, and a published account of every dollar.

• The Executive Power Shall Be Vested

  One officer, one fixed term, one person answerable.

• Impeachment And Removal

  A fixed term is not immunity for the length of it.

• The Judicial Power Shall Be Vested

  Tenure and salary protection so judgment cannot be bought or starved.

• Treason Against The United States

  The only crime the Constitution defines, and it defines it narrowly on purpose.

• The Supremacy Clause

  Supreme, but only the laws made in pursuance of the Constitution.

• No Religious Test Shall Ever Be Required

  An oath to the Constitution. Never a creed.

• The Fifth Amendment

  Grand jury, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, due process, and just compensation.

• The Sixth Amendment

  Speedy, public, local, and with a lawyer. The trial rights in one clause.

• The Seventh Amendment

  The civil jury, and the rule that a court cannot simply re-decide what a jury found.

• The Eighth Amendment

  Bail, fines, and punishment, each bounded by proportion.

• The Eleventh Amendment

  The first time an amendment was used to overturn a Supreme Court ruling.

• The Twelfth Amendment

  A structural repair written by a deadlock.

• The Fourteenth Amendment, Section One

  Citizenship, due process, and equal protection applied against the states.

• The Seventeenth Amendment

  The states lost their seat at the federal table.

• The Eighteenth Amendment

  The only amendment aimed at citizens rather than government, and the only one repealed.

• The Nineteenth Amendment

  Forty-two years between introduction and ratification.

• The Twentieth Amendment

  Closing the four-month gap between rejection and departure.

• The Twenty-First Amendment

  The proof that the process runs both ways.