Definitions
Strict Construction: the United States Constitution, i.e., the law of the land, says what it means and means what it says...
Loose Construction: the law can take on as many variations as there are lawmakers and judges who view the document in this manner...
"For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?"
-- James Madison, in Federalist No. 41
Q and A
Q/A: What kind of judges would you nominate to the federal courts?
Those whose legal interpretation of the rule of law mirrors that
of the late associate justice
Thurgood Marshall
and the current chief justice
John Roberts...
Champions of true equal protection, and a strict interpretation of the US Constitution,
Thurgood Marshall argued
in Brown v. Board of Education, 1954, that in fact, equal protection was not being afforded all citizens...
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1535826
and
Chief Justice John Roberts, whose court recently ruled on
Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, was in complete compliance with the landmark ruling made in regards to Brown v. Board when his court made a similar decision in 2007:
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2006/2006_05_915/
Court Reviews Race as Factor in School Plans
In both circumstances students were being denied the right to equal protection because of the color of their skin; the actions taken by Thurgood Marshall and
Chief Justice Roberts resulted in the guarantee that the
14th amendment applies to all citizens...
EQUAL PROTECTION for EVERYONE
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
-- Chief Justice John Roberts
U.S. Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment - Rights Guaranteed Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection
Amendment Text and Annotations
Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
(emphasis mine)
Q/A: where do you stand on immigration?
I am 100% in favor of unlimited LEGAL immigration...
Q/A: Where do you stand on the war in Iraq?
I would act in a strict construction manner and call both houses of congress together and ask for a declaration of war; in keeping with Article I, Sec 8 of the US Constitution which requires such an action on the part of congress BEFORE the United States engages in any war.
Q/A: Where do you stand on trade issues?
I am 100% in favor of free trade as long as every other nation who is party to the WTO / NAFTA / APEC et al follows the rules as set down by the member nations.
Quotes and Further Reading
"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution."
-- James Madison, Federalist No. 39, January 1788
Citizens Against Government Waste
Congressional contempt by Walter Williams
Constitution Day by Walter Williams
Unvarnished Views of a "Radical" Economist: Walter E. Williams on More Innovation, Less Regulation, and the Entrepreneur as an American Hero by Ali, Abdiweli
Bush's Budget: The Welfare State Lives by Larry Elder
The 'Do-Nothing Congress' - Big Salary, Little Work, Free Trips by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
On YOUR Dime: Congressmen Lease Luxury Cars by Pablo Guzman
Was Lincoln a Tyrant? by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
