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Disaster for the Constitution: Flawed Assertions of State Sovereignty
No doctrine has posed a greater threat to the U.S. Constitution than the flawed assertion of state sovereignty. It represented the...
Dr. David Gray Adler
May 6, 20213 min read
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Probing Federalism: The Supremacy Clause
“Federalism,” which refers to the allocation of powers between the federal and state governments, has been a source of contention since...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Apr 29, 20213 min read
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A Cell Phone Recording, First Amendment Rights and a Guilty Verdict
When 17-year old Darnella Frazier used her cell phone on May 25, 2020, to record the murder of George Floyd, a horrifying episode which,...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Apr 22, 20213 min read
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The Biden Commission and the Concept of Court-Packing
President Biden recently signed an executive order creating a bi-partisan commission that will study U.S. Supreme Court reform and, among...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Apr 15, 20213 min read
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The Personal Constitution: Embodied in the First Amendment
The concept of the “Personal Constitution,” which we introduced in this column last week, is personified in the First Amendment freedoms,...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Apr 8, 20213 min read
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Personalizing the Constitution
Together, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution form what Gunnar Myrdal called, the “American Creed.” The...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Mar 31, 20213 min read
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Fundamental Fairness: Statehood for Washington DC
The introduction of H.R. 51, a bill to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state—the “Washington, Douglas Commonwealth”--would grant its...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Mar 25, 20214 min read
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Protecting Freedom of Speech
As we have seen in our recent discussion of tests employed by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the parameters of speech afforded...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Mar 19, 20213 min read
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Holmes’s Defense of Freedom of Speech
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s invention in 1919, in Schenck v. United States, of the Clear and Present Danger Test, provided little...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Mar 12, 20213 min read
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Dissenting Speech v. National Security Claims
The question of governmental authority to punish speech in the name of national security came before the Supreme Court for the first time...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Mar 3, 20214 min read
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May Government Curtail Free Speech?
Does the government have authority to curtail speech that might cause injury to our national security?
Dr. David Gray Adler
Feb 26, 20214 min read
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Free Speech Clause: Origins and Purposes
The guarantee of freedom of speech, central to Americans’ participation in self-governance and the life of the nation...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Feb 19, 20213 min read
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Free Constitutional Seminars
The U.S. Constitution is all-Broadway, all the time. Americans may not realize its center stage presence in the life of the nation, but
Dr. David Gray Adler
Feb 12, 20213 min read
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The Constitution and the Trump Impeachment Trial
The forthcoming Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump raises a host of constitutional questions...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Feb 5, 20214 min read
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Trial for a Former President?
Does the U.S. Senate have the authority to hold an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump?
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 29, 20213 min read
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Impeachment Trial of Senate
Sometime soon, private citizen Donald Trump will become the first former president to face a Senate impeachment trial...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 22, 20214 min read
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Removing A President
Memories of the footage of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, on January 6, 2021, will be forever etched in the minds of the citizenry.
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 19, 20215 min read
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Impeachment Thwarts Trump Pardon
President Donald Trump’s assertion of constitutional authority to grant himself a pardon was effectively blocked on January 13...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 15, 20214 min read
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What Does a Coup Look Like?
To its horror, America witnessed on January 6, 2021, an insurrection. Millions watched, in real time...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 8, 20213 min read
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Reversing Electoral College Vote?
Efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional republicans to subvert the ceremonial counting of electoral votes is a witches' brew...
Dr. David Gray Adler
Jan 1, 20214 min read
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