Episode 121: How Well Does the Constitution Protect Liberty? (with Sheldon Richman)

Sheldon Richman joins us for a discussion on the origins of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Why are these documents venerated by many libertarians?

Is the Constitution a document that originally meant to limit government? Did the Articles of Confederation do a better job? Sheldon Richman joins us this week to talk about the origins of the American government.

Is it possible to write a constitution that’ll keep government in check forever?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Richman’s original blog posts on the subject, “The Constitution Revisited” and “The Bill of Rights Revisited.”

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel’s work is referenced often in this episode. Here’s an article he wrote with William Marina in the April 1987 issue of Reason entitled “Did the Constitution Betray the Revolution?”

Gordon Wood’s book on the American Revolution, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, is also mentioned, as is Merrill Jensen’s book The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781.

[chrispatirot]

Samuel Huntington (July 16, 1731 - January 5, 1796)
The First President of the United States

[magister]

May Anti-Federalists were for from Libertarian too. Some arguments against Federal power was that it could prevent state governments from enacting Mercantilist policies to benefit local industries, or that the Federal government might deem it necessary and proper to forbid the states from taxing any goods also Federally taxed lest the state taxes reduce Federal revenue.

[wadna]

Considering myself a neophyte in my understanding the foundation laws which our nation in to be governed, I am amazed and frustrated by my view that there are a precious few individuals that know or care about the rules that govern our nation. That along with the reinterpretation and bastardization of the founding documents has led to a country that the founding fathers would hardly recognise. Shame on us.