Second Founding

Can Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republicans refuse to seat validly elected Democrats to the House in 2025?
Current Events and History

Can Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republicans refuse to seat validly elected Democrats to the House in 2025?

04/03/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Had the law surrounding this issue had not continued to evolve, this indeed would be a troubling precedent. But the issue did evolve, and in 1969 the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren decided that Congress could not deny any duly elected Representative their seat in Congress unless they did not meet the qualifications for office listed in the Constitution, that they be at least twenty-years-old, have been a citizen for seven years, and live in the district they represent. The House of Representatives had attempted to refuse to seat Adam Clayton Powell, a controversial black congressman who was embroiled in credible financial scandals. There was only one justice who dissented on technical grounds. […]

14th Amendment National Debt Insurrection SMALL
Civil War and Reconstruction

Unenforced Sections of the 14th Reconstruction Amendment: Public Debt and Insurrection

05/26/2023 Bruce Strom 1

Is this Republican blackmail constitutional? Most scholars and the Justice Department do not think so, although there are some conservative scholars who disagree. And there is no Supreme Court precedent for this question. President Biden has publicly stated that the Fourteenth Amendment question is on the table. […]

Abortion

Supreme Court Dobbs Case Overruling Roe v Wade: Should Christians be Pro-Compassion? Pro-Doctors?

08/24/2022 Bruce Strom 2

There are some really heart-breaking situations involving abortion. Should abortion be allowed if the mother’s and/or the baby’s life is in danger? Should abortion be allowed in case of rape or incest? Should abortion be permitted if it is likely the mother would otherwise commit suicide? Should abortion be permitted to reduce the number of deaths caused by botched abortions by coat hangers or Lysol? […]

Civil Rights

Second Founding: The Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution

06/03/2021 Bruce Strom 6

Did the Civil War lead to a Second Founding of the United States? Eric Foner in his book with that title on the Reconstruction amendments and his other books on the Reconstruction era argues forcefully that the Civil War was a political turning point for this country. Before the Civil War, each state determined its own racial policies, but the politics of slavery, then white supremacy, proved so repugnant to the North that it passed these three amendments. […]