Category Archives: Legal Eagle Columns

Where is Justice?

Justice is the quality of being righteous, impartial, or fair.  It involves the exercise of sound reason to reward or penalize people as they deserve.  But where is justice to be found today? Constantly we see examples of the opposite.  Whether we be at home, school, church, work, or play we find injustice.  Those that lie,...
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Trial by Jury?

Recently I received some thought provoking information from a group called the Fully Informed Jury Association or FIJA.  According to their literature, "FIJA is a national jury-education organization which both educates juries and promotes laws to require that judges resume telling trial jurors 'the whole truth' about their rights, or at least to allow lawyers...
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What is the militia?

It would seem from the rash of condemnatory press reports relating to the Militia that the press, if not Americans generally, have an unwarranted fear of the Militia.  This fear contrasts starkly with the near universal esteem that our Founding Fathers had for the Militia.  Have we changed so much in two hundred years that...
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Expressing One’s Sovereignty Under the Constitution

The equal sovereignty of all men, under God, is the cornerstone upon which our nation was built  This fact is clearly established by the Declaration of Independence, which says:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that...

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The Middle Road to Freedom

The other day I was having a conversation with a person about the fundamental principles upon which our nation was founded.  What surprised me was just how alien the vision of popular self-government, set forth in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, was to this obviously highly educated person.  She was appalled at the idea...
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Conversion of a Pacifist

Four years ago, I came to Vermont a fire breathing, "left" out, revolutionary pacifist and anarchist. (Sounds more like a witches brew than a person.) Today I am a committed Christian, american patriot and staunch second amendment supporter.  Why the change, you might ask.  Simple, I got hit with the truth and decided to embrace...
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The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION for the United States of America." Many people are familiar...
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The Tenth Amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. The Tenth Amendment has enjoyed a certain renaissance over the past ten to fifteen years.  People in and out of government have extolled the virtues of State and...
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The Ninth Amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution does not specifically identify any individual rights like the eight amendments that precede it, rather the Ninth Amendment sets forth a rule of construction that is to guide one...
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The Eighth Amendment

Excessive bail shall not be required. nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. In a just society where the individual, under God, is esteemed as supreme the Eighth Amendment's protections follow naturally. They rightly delineate the line between the accused criminal, who is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the...
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The Sixth Amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be...
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The Fifth Amendment

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject...
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The Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The rights...
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The Third Amendment

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. The third amendment1 is unique among our Bill of Rights in many respects.  First, it is the only passage in the Constitution that is...
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The Second Amendment

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. It is indicative of the state of our nation that it is the second amendment which generates such division in our country today because it contrasts strikingly with the...
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The First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The first rule of construction of any writing is to interpret...
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Portrait of a Patriot: George Washinton

Recently, I had the good pleasure of reading a biography of George Washington, by the historian James Thomas Flexner.  It was aptly entitled "Washington The Indispensable Man."  Before reading it, George Washington had been just a distant historical figure whose portrait, in my mind, was a mosaic composed of equal parts myth, misguided hearsay, and...
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