Constitutional History of Our Democratic Federalist Capitalistic Republic

Presidents Don't Always Win

Trump has lost in lower courts:
�...arguing that subpoenas to banks and an accounting firm for years of financial records from him, his company and his family are unprecedented attacks on the presidency itself.� The Supreme Court is up next.

Previous presidents have lost on similar grounds:
Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton have made similar arguments about the deference owed the President and lost and the presidents� own nominees joined in the unanimity.�

The American Legion v. American Humanist Association involves a forty foot Latin cross erected by private citizens on private land to commemorate the 49 men from Prince George�s County, Maryland, who died in the First World War. Due to safety concerns, Maryland took over the memorial, known as the Bladensburg cross, in 1961. Michael Carvin, representing the American Legion stated because the purpose of the cross in question is to memorialize soldiers and not to coerce or covert, it is constitutional. The American Humanist Association, stressed that a cross is a uniquely religious symbol... amounts to endorsing Christianity." Pending until this Final Decision allowed the monument.

From the Editor

Supreme Court Continues to Rule

Business Dominated Gilden Age	Liberal Dominated	Conservative Dominated?
	1954 *Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka* a landmark decision ruled that U.S. state laws of racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional States react pro and con. Animosity begins. See Brown v. Board of Education - Wikipedia	1997 Washington v. Glucksberg state law prohibiting assisted suicide is constitutional 1923 Supreme Court Act Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina Upheld that Race-based affirmative action programs in civilian college admissions processes violate the Equal Protection Clause.
	1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 US congress prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin States react pro and con. Animosity continues.
	1973 Roe v. Wade a landmark decession of the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some laws criminalizing abortions States react pro and con. Animosity continues to continue.	2007 Gonzales v. Carhart a landmark decession of the U.S. Supreme Court Upheld Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 constitutional because it is less ambiguous than the law that was struck down in Stenberg. Not vague or overbroad, does not impose an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion. 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health a landmark decession of the U.S. Supreme Court held abortion right not conferred by Constitution of the United States
	2001 White parents in Charlotte, N.C., schools successfully seek an end to the desegregation process and a bar to the use of race in making student assignments. 2003 The Supreme Court upholds diversity as a rationale for affirmative action programs higher education admissions, but concludes that point systems are not appropriate. (Grutter v. Bollinger; Gratz v. Bollinger) A federal district court case affirms the value of racial diversity and race-conscious student assignment plans in K-12 education. (Lynn v. Comfort)	2007 In Parents Involved, the Supreme Court finds voluntary school integration plans unconstitutional, paving the way for contemporary school segregation to escalate. Epilogue - The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom \| Exhibitions

4. Recent Managing Efforts A. Conservatives are Winning the Battle B. The Liberal Response
A. Conservatives are Winning the Battle The right has demonstrated that winning this kind of institutional fight takes years, even decades, and requires a ruthless disposition." Conservatives invested heavily in organizations that would nurture and support lawyers and justices who stuck to an �originalist� interpretation of the Constitution. This means their understanding is theoretically derived from the original meaning of the Constitution at the time it was written. 1945 Foundation for Economic Education began the push for Laissez Fair Capitalism. Business Interest decided to unite after Conservative L. Johnson accomplished J. Kennedy Liberal Agenda. 1971 Powell Manifesto, a memo from soon to be Supreme Court Justice in which Louis Powell advised the Chamber of Commerce that it had to organize businesses into a political force because, he claimed, corporations and the free market system were �under broad attack, ..." 1972 Business Round Table created to encourages business political activity. The Chicago Boys represented another consortium fostering neoliberal/conservative economics.
1982 "A consortium of students and professors based at Yale Law School founded the Federalist Society in 1982" to helped recruit and provide career support for bright legal minds. It provided social-professional networks to connect law students with influential senior mentors. Reagan's Attorney General Edwin Meese helped with the administration�s selection of 400 federal judges using ideological profiling that made a conservative criteria	important. Meese succeeded in the selection process and convinced many they were fulfilling founding father intentions. The Institute for Justice, the Center for Individual Rights and rightward philanthropists/organizations Joseph Coors, Charles, David Koch, and the Olin Foundation contributed much money to law schools like George Mason University. Schools with supportive of conservative professor whose research and ideas would educate students.
See How the Republican Party Took Over the Supreme Court The 50-year effort to advance a conservative legal agenda How Supreme Court Confirmation Fights Got Ugly? 1/29/22 A brief history of the Judiciary under Republics; the radical departure of the US Constitution, and how to reform it now
B. The Liberal Response Democrats answered with the 1969 McGovern Commission which reformed the rules that would govern the 1972 Democratic convention. It attempted to give greater influence to those in the past that had a marginal voice, mainly women, blacks and young people (defined as those under 30). The choice of McGovern indicated a new direction for the party's primary constituency, affluent, very well educated suburban liberals. The history of this new direction is explored by Thomas Frank Listen Liberals. Success is earned with merit, the ability to win in a globalized world. These highly educated technocrats were also described by George Friedman in his 2020 book, The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and then Triumph. Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 source

1. Our Founding Fathers Feared Direct Democracy 17th-century Liberalism came from John Lock and other Age of Enlightenment philosophers. He argued that each man had natural rights of equality, liberty, property, the necessity of consent, and limited government. These beliefs began a U.S. political discussion which centered on minimal state liberalism (today's conservatism) vs. active state liberalism (today's liberalism).

Controls included Separation of Powers in that authority was divided among three branches of government, the legislature, the President, and the courts. Within the legislature, power was again separated such that the Senate could stop a bill passed by the House of Representatives which initiated all revenue legislation. The President could veto a Congressional bill, Congress could override said veto with a 2/3 vote, and the Supreme Court soon found it could stop the President and Congress by declaring a law unconstitutional. 1) Marshals 1803 Power Grab which created a third separate power. These checks and balances among government branches were to protect minority rights from majority factions. 2) Framers� arguments as to how the US Supreme Court would function:	The Electoral College was another control over concentration of power. Some founder/delegates to the Constitutional Convention feared Direct Democracy. What became known as the electoral College was a compromise between a true Republican election bythe people and an electorate consisting of citizens that are more qualified. However, there were other reasons. Slave states with large populations but far fewer eligible voters wanted a compromise like the one used to determine state House of Reprehensive representation. This 3/5 comprise counted some slaves as population for representation purposes. High population states such as Virginia which had many House of Representative members would also have a large number of Presidential electors. House members were not used as electors because maintaining presidential independence would be difficult if a small continuingly elected group like Congress electing the President. See Americans Are Poorly Informed About Basic Constitutional Provisions

		2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, held race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions processes violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Historically, sovereign could both appoint and remove judges at pleasure, Executive branch enforced the law. Sometimes the senior legislative body, like the Senate in Rome or the House of Lords in England, were the court of final appeal. Judges changed with each change of government.