#u.s. constitution

[saywhat-politics]

If as President you answer “I don’t know” when asked if you’ll follow the Constitution, you have violated your oath of office and should be removed.

[thedaddycomplex]

Kinda wondering why all of those anti-authoritarian MAGA Trump supporters are so fucking quiet while the thing they said Democrats would do is literally being done by Trump’s administration… Oh, right! It’s because it was always about shitting on the Constitution to grab power. Because MAGA is a cult.

Oh, and for those of you, like me, fighting for your Constitutional rights…

“When everyone was warning about a slippery slope to authoritarianism under Trump, this is it.”

—John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

[citizenscreen]

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1870, was officially certified and adopted into the Constitution on March 30, 1870, prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. #OnThisDay

[juicetrump2]

US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions

Ron DeSantis’s Stop Woke Act suffers another legal setback, with the state accused of ‘puppeteering’

[deadpresidents]

"In the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, the Executive is not only separated from the legislative power, but made dependent upon, and responsible to it. Until a very recent period of our history, all reference, in either House of Congress, to the opinions or wishes of the President, relating to any subject in deliberation before them, was regarded as an outrage upon the rights of the deliberative body, among the first of whose duties it is to spurn the influence of the dispenser of patronage and power. Until very recently, it was sufficient greatly to impair the influence of any member to be suspected of personal subserviency to the Executive; and any allusion to his wishes, in debate, was deemed a departure not less from decency than from order."

-- Congressman (and former President) John Quincy Adams, on the vital importance of the co-equal branches of government maintaining their independence and the balance of power, Congressional Globe, August 16, 1842.

[ssfoc]

Know your rights!

Saul Goodman reminds us the greatness of the U. S. Constitution and its Amendments, for America’s 250th birthday.

[us-cj]

RE Colorado SB25-003

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. — U.S. Constitution Second Amendment

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10 U.S. Code § 246: The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age...

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Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) which yet stands to this day: "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism..."

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Volume 16, American Jurisprudence 2d, § 52: “It is sometimes argued that the existence of an emergency allows the existence and operation of powers, national or state, which violate the inhibitions of the Federal Constitution. The rule is quite otherwise.

No emergency justifies the violation of any of the provisions of the United States Constitution. An emergency, however, while it cannot create power, increase granted power, or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved, may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power already in existence, but not exercised except during an emergency... The Constitution of the United States is the law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances”

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Volume 16, American Jurisprudence 2d, § 177: "The general misconception is that any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statue, to be valid, must be in agreement.

It is impossible for both the Constitution and a law violating it to be valid; one must prevail. This is succinctly stated as follows: The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment, and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it.

An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.

Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principals follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it... A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid one. An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede any existing valid law. Indeed, insofar as a statute runs counter to the fundamental law of the land, it superseded thereby. No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it."

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Marbury v. Madison, 5th U.S. 2 Cranch 137, 180.: “All laws, rules and practices which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void ...if any statement within any law which is passed is unconstitutional, the whole law is unconstitutional.”

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Houston County v Martin, 232 Ala 511, 169 So. 13.: "Even a state of war and the declaration of secession by the people cannot suspend the Constitution or remove its protection."

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Patrick Henry

* “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”

George Mason

* “To disarm the people...[i]s the most eUectual way to enslave them.”

James Madison

* “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”

* “The ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone.”

Noah Webster

* “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.”

Samuel Adams

* “The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

Richard Henry Lee

* “A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms... “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”

Thomas Jefferson

* “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

* “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”

* “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

* “The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

[missives-and-misgivings]

Confederacy of Dunces

When the draft dodging Commander in Chief Donald Trump took office, he fired over half a dozen of the military’s top generals. His Secretary of War Crimes, Pete Hegseth - who was previously flagged as an extremist by his own former unit - then followed that up with a directive for the armed forces to cut 20% of its active duty four star generals.

The pretense was to end ”wokeness” or some such nonsense. But anyone that was even half paying attention knew this was straight from the Project 2025 playbook. Replace government employees from top to bottom with Trump loyalists. Because to this administration, ideology is far more important than proficiency.

And what happens when you replace competence with fealty?

You get dead kids.

Over 165 little girls that will never get to grow up.

Expertise and sober decision making are being replaced with bravado and jingoism. And that gets people killed.

We are being dragged into a poorly planned, recklessly executed conflict by the least amongst us. They’ve started a war with no congressional approval, no coherent objective and no exit strategy. More American troops and Iranian civilians are likely to die needlessly, because the people in charge are in way, way over their heads. They are equal parts woefully unqualified, laughably inept and shockingly corrupt.  The United States military is being hollowed out by a white Christian nationalist on a pseudo religious crusade. The rules of engagement and the Geneva Conventions are minor inconveniences to egotistical, psychopathic dullards like Trump and Hegseth. So much so that they’ve gutted the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program. They’ve even fired the top Judge Advocate Generals (JAGs) to try and dodge accountability for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Speaking of which, Article 92 of the UCMJ requires personnel to obey lawful orders. If the order violates the Constitution, U.S. federal law, or applicable international law it is not a lawful order.

Remember, “I was just following orders” was not accepted defense at the Nuremberg trials. Nor should it have been.

If you are active duty military, you have an oath to follow and that oath is to the United States Constitution. It is not to an individual and it is certainly not to Donald Trump or Pete Hegseth. If you need assistance, call the GI Rights Hotline at 1-877-447-4487 or visit their website.

If you are a veteran that’s rightfully outraged by this administration’s politicization of the military, you are not alone. There are many great organizations out there that would love to have you involved. One of which is Common Defense, who have been fighting the good fight for 10 years now.

Whether by design or by gross negligence, bombing Venezuelan fishing boats and Iranian schools, is unconscionable. It’s tragic.

It’s also totally unnecessary.

What is necessary is to stand up for democracy. For the U.S. constitution. For the rule of law. For human rights. For basic human dignity. That is a battle worth fighting for.