Growing the US Constitution
 from the Magna Carta to Trump's Impeachments

2. Maintaining A Republic Required Compromise

A new tax was the first of many major controversies. It came when Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton orchestrated the 1789 import  tax. Many believers in minimum state liberalism were unhappy. The tax revenue was needed to pay Revolutionary War debt of both state and federal governments. Relative to GDP, it was the largest federal debt to exist until 1933 when revenue collapsed causing D³ (deep-do-do). Thus Hamilton began the continuing practice of increasing taxes (though not enough) to pay for war. Repayment of resulting long-term debt was spread over many years allowing repayment in cheaper inflated dollars. This minimized, some would say postponed, the Nation's financial sacrifice.

The practice of lowering taxes during war began when Bush II cut taxes while starting two wars. He also expanded the social safety net by creating Medicare Part D. This added to our large future liability compared to Social Security because changing demographics will solve potential SS liabilities.

Hamilton to the dismay of Jefferson, also began the practices of the federal government paying state debt. Source      

Philosophical change, which would happen often, began with Jefferson when he purchased Louisiana even though he believed in minimal state liberalism. Others, Jackson being the most notable, followed minimal state liberalism. Then Lincoln used a strong federal government to preserve the Union. This lasted until the end of reconstruction when limited government helped by the Supreme Court fostered the Jim Crow Laws and the Gilded Age. The court did so by making owner property rights more important than worker personal liberties.

The new century brought Progressivism from Teddy Roosevelt and Windrow Wilson. Both believed in active state liberalist. The First Red Scare and unionism following WW I brought back minimal state liberalism. The Great recession allowed FDR to use active state liberalism to tame our Greatest Depression. Active state liberalism ended with the Second Red Scare. We need guns not butter. The Korean War and The Cold War contributed to the feeling  we needed security more than individual liberty. The 1962 Kennedy assassination gave LBJ the support needed to pass The Great Society anti-poverty programs. Active state liberalism was back. Stagflation of the 1970's allowed Ronald Regan to reverse course. He blamed active state liberalism for creating  excess government regulation which slowed the economy.

Protection Individual Rights From Arbitrary Governmental Actions
1810 Fletcher v. Peck affirmed inevitability of contracts between individual and between governments.
1819 Dartmouth College v. Woodward protected contractual property rights from arbitrary governmental seizure
1821 Cohens v. Virginia extends SC protection to every citizen in every court of the land
1876 U.S. v. Cruikshank ruled protection of rights were protected from state law infringement not from individuals.
1928 Olmstead v. United States allowed wiretapped without judicial approval reversed  12/18/67

Supreme Court as "Supreme Constitutional Authority"  
1803 Marbury v. Madison granted Judicial Review  power to the Supreme Court
1832 Worcester v. Georgia President uses federal troops to back S.C. decision of Georgia's Cherokee laws.
1962 Baker v. Carr  federal courts took control constitutionality of state redistricting plans.
Other 1960's Redistricting Decisions

Protecting Business
1877  Munn v. Illinois 1877 upheld the power of government to regulate private industries.
1895 Pollock v. Farmer's unapportioned income taxes on interest, dividends and rents were unconstitutional
1895 U.S. v. E.C. Knight,  the "Sugar Trust Case," limited government's control of monopolies.
1990 Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce states could ban corporate political contribution reversed 2010
2010 Citizens United v. FEC protected  corporate interests in election-spending regulations

Some Just Took Power
Presidential Power Grab
1789 Washington let Treasury Hamilton borrow without the required Congressional authority.
1991 Washington used Federal troops to fight Indians without Congressional declaration of war.
1791 Washington's unauthorized proclamation,  troops to stop Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion.
1803 Jefferson ignored Constitution when buying Louisiana.
1828- Jackson made massive use of the presidential veto, expanded executive power at the expense
 of Congress and refused to enforce a Supreme ruling. See Reforms rotation and a spoils system

Congressional Power Grab   
1798 Alien and Seditions Act attacked anti-federal government activist by eliminating their Bill of Rights.
1801 Judiciary Act ignored the Constitution and removed Federal judges. Reversed by 1802 Judiciary Act.

Post WW 2 Power Grab
Prelude: 1930's Four Horsemen  vs. Three Musketeer

5. Political Discussion Had
Five Recurring Themes

American Exceptionalism exists because the country was formed at a unique time and place. This allowed America to be special with a responsibility to provide an appropriate government example

The dynamic flexibility of America Liberalism has allowed concepts concerning individual rights to adjust as required by evolving circumstances.

The reconstitution of American government first with Jefferson, then after  the Civil War, and following the New Deal though other less significant though important reconstitutions have been beneficial though controversial. Think Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump.

An expansion of "we the people"  from white men of property, to white men, to all men, to all citizens, and recently continued with the addition sexuality. 

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo Black clearly proclaimed that the “First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. In hopes of bringing some clarity to its Establishment Clause jurisprudence, justices created an analytical test in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971).  The Lemon Test permits laws and policies that benefit religion if they have (1) a secular purpose; (2) do not have a “principal or primary effect” of advancing or inhibiting religion; and (3) do not foster “an excessive entanglement between government and religion.”  Supreme Court Justices have used it to strike down and uphold a variety of very similar practices,

Since the mid-1980s, largely at the urging of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, some jurists have held that the Establishment Clause is best understood as prohibiting governments from doing things that a reasonable observer might understand to be endorsing religion. This approach is sometimes merged with the Lemon Test, as it was by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association.  In spite of, or because of, all of these tests, many observers agree with Justice Clarence Thomas’s remark last year that “this Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence is in disarray.” 

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7. Continuing Questions Developed   

   1) Property vs. individual rights went to property until Gilded Age
         excesses caused much public reaction leading to worker protection.

   2) Which Rights? To what degree should government be involved
         with protection of individual natural rights.

   3) Individual economic and social equality should receive what
         amount of property taken through taxes?