Joseph Story, in 1833, published his book “Commentaries on the Constitution..” 1833 marks the decline of the USA
Story encourages a broad reading of the Constitution with the freedom of the judiciary to rule based on the times of the present day
2 ORIGINALISM is the counter to Story - reviewing how the ratifying conventions convinced the PEOPLE what the Constitution meant back then... Fortunately these records of the conventions and debates exist so we KNOW how the Constitution should be interpreted
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Unfortunately what is taught in Law School is JOSEPH STORY
Even if you do take Constitutional Law in law school, this doesn’t mean you’ll actually learn the Constitution. You will learn PRECEDENT.
Joseph Story contends that the Constitution was established by ONE PEOPLE..
Here’s how he defends this:
“Although the colonies were independent of each other in respect to their domestic concerns, they were not wholly alien to each other...
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“...On the contrary, they were fellow-subjects, and for many purposes one people. Every colonist had a right to inhabit, if he pleased, in any other colony; and as a British subject, he was capable of inheriting lands by descent in every other colony....
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“...The commercial intercourse of the colonies, too, was regulated by the general laws of the British Empire, and could not be restrained or obstructed by colonial legislation.”
This was not intended to mean individual equality. Rather, that American colonists, as a people, had the same rights to SELF-GOVERNMENT as other nations.
“All men are created equal” did not mean an equality of individuals, but a “collective right of revolution and self-government that the Declaration was written to justify”
Some say that via Article VII WE THE PEOPLE in conventions created the *sovereign* govt. The states therefore CEDED their Sovereignty when they joined.
A sovereign (central government) CANNOT be divided against its will (they say)
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When one gives up all his/ her Sovereignty, then that person / entity becomes a slave
Do you REALLY think that the CREATORS of the central government would agree to a COMPACT that would PREVENT them from leaving their own creation?