We, the People State of the U.S

We, The People State of the U.S. Constitution, Sept. 17, 2020

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest living constitution in the world to date; it was drafted in 1787 and ratified with the Bill of Rights four years later. The U.S. Constitution was designed by the founders to prevent monarchy and authoritarianism and to safeguard rights of we, the people.

The U.S. Constitution is extended and supported by legislation, laws and statues (U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations), and court decisions ruling on their consitutionality. When the issues can not be resolved with the Constitution through the courts (Judicial branch) and other parts of government, there is a constiutitonal crisis.

Included are many recent news stories and events. Which provisions of the U.S. Consitution are upheld or violated? What is the prognosis, and what are the solutions?

Preamble:

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.

Copies of the U.S. Constitution:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/index.html

Larger type size, shows original text, but with links to updates to deleted sections

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/

Has clause nos., links to annotations, original text, current provisions for deleted clauses not clearly shown Current Events and News

1. The president of the United States stated that the Executive branch (Article II of the U.S. Constitution) gives him the right to do anything he wants to do with the U.S. government (BriceSaddler, 2019). Violated or not? https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/23/trump-falsely-tells-auditorium-full-teens- constitution-gives-him-right-do-whatever-i-want/

(If there is a paywall in the link, CiAM students and faculty may find the Washington Post article in the online Lirn Library, in “Publicaton” tab of ProQuest Central datbase. Search for newspaper title in Washington Post Online edition only, then find the e-newspaper year and date, then search for title of article.) Art. II, Sec. 1

2. Corasaniti and Haberman (2016) note the undertones of violence, when then candidate Donald Trump declared that the 2nd amendment can be used to take care of the appointment of U.S. Supreme Court judges. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html

(If there is a paywall, you may find New York Times (Online dition only) in the online Lirn Library, in “Publicaton” tab of ProQuest Central datbase. Search for the e-newspaper title, then search for the newspaper year and date, then finally search for part of article title. )

Art. 4. Sec. 4 2nd Amendment

3. The majority leader of the U.S. Senate refused to hold hearings on a candidate from the opposing political party for consideration on the U.S. Supreme court (Rupar, 2019). https://www.vox.com/2019/5/29/18644061/mitch-mcconnell-supreme-court-hearings-2020-merrick-garland

Art. II, Sec. 2, clause 2 (Advise and consent by the Senate))

4. The executive administration of the United States expounded (spent) money from the Pentagon (military) budget, in order to have funds to build part of a wall on the southern border of the Unted States, without appropriations (approval) from the U.S. House of Representatives (Brookton, 2020). https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805796618/trump-administration-diverts-3-8-billion-in-pentagon-funding- to-border-wall

Art. I, Sec. 7

5. President Trump knew about the severity of Covid-19 in February, 2020. He admitted then that he wanted to keep downplaying it, to keep the people from panicking (Behrmann, 2020). The people panicked in March, 2020. Trump discounted the severity of the flu, refused to step up testing and protective supplies effectively, leaving it to the states. He encouraged people to violate advice of health experts, and promoted quack cures (Lopez, 2020). Six months later, nearly 190,000 Americans have died of Covid, due to the president’s deception, failure to faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and ensure the public health and safety. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/09/heres-what-trump-told- public-versus-bob-woodward-covid-19/5764729002/

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/9/9/21429166/trump-woodward-rage-coronavirus-covid-19- pandemic

Preamble (…”promote the general welfare…) Art. 2, Sec. 1, Clause 8 (faithfully excecute, oath)

6. The current administration has failed to faithfully execute the duties of the presidency and ensure the welfare and security of the people of the United States. Regulations to protect the environment have been rolled back, unprecedented in modern times, and the needs to address climate change and the Covid pandemic have been ignored.

Preamble (…”promote the general welfare…) Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 (make legislation necessary and proper)

7. Many police departments in many states have Police Bill of Rights, which are really labor agreements that give police officers wide discretion when faced with the extreme dangers encountered on their jobs. However, the police are most generally not held accountable (Tan, R. 2020) for killings of unarmed suspects on their beat, nor brought to trial, on account of these widely adopted Police Bill of Rights (Bernstein, 2020). https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/08/29/police-bill-of-rights-officers-discipline-maryland/

(CiAM students and faculty may find the Washington Post article in the online edition only in the online Lirn Library, in “Publicaton” tab of ProQuest Central datbase. Search for newspaper title, then find year and date of e-newspaper, then search for title of article.) https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/law-enforcement-officers-bill-of-rights

Amendment 6 Amendment 14, Sec. 1

8. The president’s incendiary comments, and his statemnts expressing racism and encouraging rough behavior by police, violance, and tacit support of white nationalists and militia (Higgins, 2020) have threatened national secuirty. Hate crimes have increased markedly duirng the president’s watch (Koski; Bantley, 2020), , and killings and injuries to black and brown people by police have increased.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/01/echoing-praise-charlottesville-neo-nazis-trump-calls- armed-anti-lockdown-fanatics

https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1157&context=shlj

Preamble (…insure domestic Tranquility… promote the general Welfare) Art. II, Sec. 4 (high crimes and misdemeaors)

9. The U.S Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Borders and Protection, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agenices, took parts in one or more of the following activities: Arrest of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, denial of counsel or trial in many instances, separation of children from their parent(s), processing of chilren in cages, and indefinate detention (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2020) in camps in sub-standard, unsafe conditions. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/18/family-separation-policy-continues-two-years-after-trump- administration-claims-it-ended Amendments 5, 6, 8, and 14

10. The president received gifts (money from his hotel in Washington, D.C.) from foreign dignatories visiting his hotel property for diplomatic business. Gifts from foreign government officials can have undue influence on the president’s policies and actions in violation of the U.S. Constitution (Constitutional Accountability Center, 2020). The president refused to divest ownership in his Washington, D.C. hotel for approximately three years. https://www.theusconstitution.org/litigation/trump-and-foreign-emoluments-clause/

Art. I, Sec. 9, Clause 8 (emoluments, foreign influence)

11. The president attempted to coerce a president of a foreign country, Ukraine, to provide or make up damaging information on his apponent in the upcoing presidential election, in return for releasing funding for it’s military already appropriated (approved) by the U.S. Congress (Britsh Broadcasting Company, 2020). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181

Art. II, Sec. 4

12. President Trump blocked congressional subpoenas before (Courthouse News Service, 2019) and during the impeachment investigation (Cohen; Polantz, 2020), and directed his White House staff not to testify. A minority of staff testified anway, but congressional oversight and the investigation has been largely obstructed. https://www.courthousenews.com/%EF%BB%BFtrump-tells-aides-to-defy-subpoenas-from- congress/ https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/politics/trump-impeachment-subpoena-hearing/index.html

Art. 2, Sec. 4

13. Articles of impeachment were brought by the U.S. House of Representatives against the sitting president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, citing alleged misconduct. The U.S. Senate, under majority leader Mitch McConnel cleared the president without reviewing the evidence or holding a real trial in the Senate (Duehren, A. 2020).

Search “ Duehren, A. 2020, Feb 01 Senate rejects witnesses in trial “ in Lirn, ProQuest Central database.

Art. I, Sec. 3, Causes. 6 & 7 Art. II, Sec. 4

14. In 2003, the president at that time. George W. Bush, convinced Congress (the House of Representatives) to allowa unilateral attack Iraq, based on secretly fabricated evidence through intelligence agencies that Iraq and Sadam Hussein, their leader, had weapons of mass destruction. It was later discovered the pretext for war was false. The president was never impeached; he was not held accountable.

http://albionmonitor.com/0402a/iraqwarunconstitutional.html

Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 11 Art. 2, Sec. 2, Clause 1

15. The U.S. House of Representatives for decades has ceded power to initiate military conflicts to the president. According to the U.S. Consitution, the president is the one who is the Commander In Chief of the armed forces, but it has given the power to declare war (and appropriate funds) to the U.S. House of Representatives. https://www.justsecurity.org/64451/take-back-how-congress-can-reclaim-its-power/

Art I, Sec. 7, Clause 1 Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 11 Art II, Sec. 2, Clause 1

16. A guidance rule in U.S. Department of Justice holds that a president can not face legal criminal charges while he or she is president (New Jornal and Guide, 2020), short of impeachment in the house and removal in a senate trial. When that process is short circuited or avoided in a politicized manner, the president is not able to be held accountable for criminal activity and violation of U.S. Constitutional law. http://thenewjournalandguide.com/holding-the-president-above-the-law/

Art. I, Sec. 3, Cl. 7

17. In violation of campaign finance laws, the president gave the go ahead to help arrange pay off (Sklansky; Driscoll, 2018) to a sex worker to prevent knowledge of his extra-marital affair from becoming public before the 2016 election. https://law.stanford.edu/2018/08/22/cohen-trump-and-campaign-finance-violations/

Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 Amendment 1 Amendment 14, Sec. 1 Art. II, Sec. 4

18. President Trump is alleged to have stolen the 2016 election with the help of Russia, to send disinformation online bots to Americans and to release derogatory emails from his opponent, with Russia’s help, along with his son, some campaign staffers, Wikileaks, and Roger Stone.

Art. I, Sec. 2, Clause 5 Art. II, Sec. 4 Art IV, Sec. 4 (guarantee republican form of government)

19. President Trump attempted to cover-up an FBI investigation, fired the FBI Director, Comey, and said it’s about Russia. He made an unsuccessful attempt to fire Special Counsel Mueller, and encouraged witnesses not to testify (National Security Action, 2020). His Attorney General, Bill Barr mischaracterized the Mueller report’s findings (American Constitution Society, 2020) in a widely televised summary. https://nationalsecurityaction.org/newsroom/trump-cover-ups

https://www.acslaw.org/projects/the-presidential-investigation-education-project/other-resources/stark- contrasts-between-the-mueller-report-and-attorney-general-barrs-summary/

Art. I, Sec. 4 (guarantee republican form of government) Art. I, Sec. 9, Clause 8 (exchange of gifts, emoluments, foreign influence) Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 (extension, 18 U.S. Code § 1512, intimidation of witnesses) Art. II, Sec. 4

20. The president commuted Oliver Stone’s sentence after Stone was convicted of seven felonies involving the 2016 campaign, so Stone will not serve time in jail. Commutations are part of a president’s pardon powers, but president Trump commuted Stone to cover up a part of the ‘Trump-Russia’ scandal and possible criminality in which both men were subjects. https://publicseminar.org/essays/what-roger-stones- commuted-sentence-tells-us-about-trumps-commitment-to-conspiracy/

Art. 2, Sec. 2, Clause 1 (Pardon clause)

21. The president may legally assume the presidency if he or she wins the “Electoral College” (states’ votes) and loses the popular vote. It has happened five (5) times in U.S. history to date. But, the popular will of the people is duperceded in the U.S. Constitution by the electoral college.

Art. II, Sec. 2 & 3 (See Cornell copy of Constitution.) Amendment 12

22. During elections, certain states and precints have reduced or removed the number of polling places for minority precints likely to cast majority votes for candidates in the Democratic party. Precincts in the country with a past history of racial discrimination have in recent years shown a greater percentage of eligible registered voters purged and disenfranchised. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter- suppression-in-2020/

Art. I, Sec. 4, Clause 1 Art. I, Sec. 18, Clause 18 Amendment 14, Sec. 1 Amendment 15

23. The post master of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has dismantled mail sorting machines (still not replaced), just months ahead of a national presidential election, when the Covid-19 pandemic indicates voting by mail for safety. The president has opposed additional funding for the USPS and mail in voting (Kaufman, 2020), as mail-in voting may not favor his reelection. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/trump-usps-funding- comments-2020-election/index.html

Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 7 Art. IV, Sec. 4

24. President Trump has refused to assure that he won’t refuse to concede the election if he loses the election, claiming fraud with widespread mail in voting. He mentioned the idea of postponing the presidential election. These prospects threaten the confidence in the legitamcy of the election and peaceful transfer of power in the United States. https://theintercept.com/2020/08/11/trump-november-2020-election/

Art. II, Sec. 1 Art. IV, Sec. 4

References

American Civil Liberties Uniton (2020, Feb. 3). Block the Vote: Voter Suppression in 2020. ACLU.

https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020/

American Constitution Society (2020). Stark contrasts between Mueller Report and attorney general Barr’s

summary. ACSLaw. https://www.acslaw.org/projects/the-presidential-investigation-education-

project/other-resources/stark-contrasts-between-the-mueller-report-and-attorney-general-barrs-

summary/

Bernstein, L. (2020) Police ‘Bill of Rights’ grants special protection for officers accused of misconduct. WJLA,

ABC7 (Online). https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/law-enforcement-officers-bill-of-rights

BriceSaddler, M. (2019, Jul 23). While bemoaning mueller probe, trump falsely says the constitution gives

him ‘the right to do whatever I want’. Washington Post (Online)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/23/trump-falsely-tells-auditorium-full-teens-

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Behrmann, S. (2020, Sep 9). Quick look: Here’s what Trump told the public versus what he told Bob Woodward

abut Covid-19. USA Today (Online)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/09/heres-what-trump-told-public-versus-

bob-woodward-covid-19/5764729002/

Britsh Broadcasting Company (2020, Feb 5) Trump impeachment: The short, medium and long story. BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181

Brookton, B. (2020, Feb, 13) Trump Administration Diverts $3.8 Billion In Pentagon Funding To Border Wall.

NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805796618/trump-administration-diverts-3-8-billion-in-

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https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html

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https://www.justsecurity.org/64451/take-back-how-congress-can-reclaim-its-power/

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merrick-garland

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