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Guest: Bill Norton is a constitutional scholar, author, and founding-principles educator. He has taught the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence for more than thirty years, and his book Behind the Constitution is in draft and expected later this year. This is the bonus conversation following Lesson 3 of his founding-principles training with Jenny Beth Martin, and the final lesson in the series will cover the Bill of Rights.
Key topics:
- Why the founders never intended the three branches to be equal, and why the legislative branch was built to be the most powerful
- The mixed form of government traced from Polybius to Montesquieu to John Adams
- What the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments did to federalism, and the two federalist structures still standing
- The Seventeenth Amendment in 1913: what changed, who pushed it, and the bought Senate seat that gave it momentum
- Norton's Article Five argument that the amendment required unanimous ratification rather than three quarters
- Bring our senators home: the answer to the claim that repeal would cost you your vote
- The filibuster, supermajorities, and rule by the minority
- The supremacy clause, and why an unconstitutional law is not the supreme law of the land
- Nullification in practice: Real ID, marijuana, and sanctuary states
- Judicial review, Article Three, and the power Congress has to limit the courts
Timestamped breakdown:
00:00:00 — Welcome, and where this conversation sits in the founding-principles series
00:01:15 — Why the three branches were never designed to be equal
00:04:22 — John Adams, Polybius, and Montesquieu on the mixed form of government
00:07:27 — Why the Electoral College stops looking like a unicorn
00:10:31 — The founders' logic behind the seven articles
00:14:41 — Federalism versus a national government, and the amendments that damaged it
00:16:30 — The push to replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote
00:24:56 — The Seventeenth Amendment: what changed in 1913
00:27:40 — The bought Senate seat that gave the amendment its momentum
00:32:34 — Why the Senate is poorly designed to function as a democracy
00:35:46 — The irony: more corruption after 1913, not less
00:38:28 — Article Five and how amendments actually pass
00:44:57 — The case that the Seventeenth Amendment was never validly ratified
00:50:28 — Answering the objection: would repeal cost you your vote?
00:55:15 — Bring our senators home
00:56:14 — Who has their United States senator's cell phone number?
01:04:04 — The filibuster, supermajorities, and minority rule
01:13:23 — The supremacy clause and what "in pursuance thereof" requires
01:18:24 — Nullification: Real ID, marijuana, and sanctuary states
01:23:33 — When the Supreme Court gets it wrong: judicial review and Article Three
01:35:48 — No kings: what the founders meant by an executive monarchy
01:41:14 — Closing, and the Bill of Rights conversation ahead
Links mentioned:
- Free founding-principles training: teapartypatriots.org/1776
- Tea Party Patriots Action: teapartypatriots.org
- The Jenny Beth Show: jennybethshow.com
