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CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATIONS

CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATIONS


  • January 23, 2026

    RE: BOYS PLAYING GIRLS’ SPORTS

    Several state legislatures have enacted laws that prohibit transgender girls, i.e., individuals born as males who subsequently “identify” as females,[1] from participating in school-sponsored sports activities that are intended for girls. The United States Supreme Court is currently considering whether those laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.[2] They do not.… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    Equal Protection of the Laws, Transgender Discrimination
  • January 16, 2026

    RE: SHOOTING A PROTESTOR

    By now, surely most people in the United States are aware of the shooting incident that occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7, 2026. A federal police officer shot a woman, with an apparent intent to kill her, in the course of an incident where she intentionally obstructed his fellow police officers from carrying out… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    Excessive Force, Police Immunity, Searches and Seizures
  • January 9, 2026

    RE: THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SECRETLY

    Three and a half years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protected the right of nearly every American citizen to publicly carry a handgun outside the home for the purpose of “self-defense.”[1] This “right” is often called the right “to public carry.”[2] The Court now has a… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    The Right to Carry Concealed Weapons, The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
  • January 2, 2026

    RE: IMMIGRATION AND BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

    The U.S. Constitution provides “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States ….”[1] In his effort to deport as many immigrants as he possibly can, President Trump has contended that the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” exclude from citizenship children born… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    Birthright Citizenship, Immigration
  • December 19, 2025

    RE: Freedom of Speech

    The State of Colorado has a statute that prohibits licensed mental health professionals, including psychiatrists and psychologists, from offering “conversion therapy” to minors, some of whom may be seeking it. Colo. Rev. Stat. §12-245-224(1)(t)(v). The broader statute defines “conversion therapy” as any “treatment,” including verbal counseling, which seeks to change the patient’s self-professed sexual identity… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    Freedom of Speech, Judicial Review, Speech v. Conduct
  • December 11, 2025

    RE: THE WAR POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT

    President Trump seems determined to go to war with Venezuela without affirmative Congressional assent. Although the United States Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue, I believe the United States Constitution prohibits the President’s militaristic orders against that country and its people without Congressional approval. Article I of the Constitution contains the following provisions:… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    War Powers
  • December 1, 2025

    RE: THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS

    On June 26, 2008, the United States Supreme Court answered the prayers of many Americans, perhaps even a majority, who wanted increased Constitutional protection against gun control legislation. On that day, the Court solemnly declared, for the first time in American history, that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited legislation that interfered… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    Self-Defense
  • November 21, 2025

    RE: THE PRESIDENT’S IMMUNITY

    On January 6, 2021, hundreds if not thousands of protestors violently invaded the United States Capitol building in violation of the law, in an effort to prevent Congress from counting Electoral Votes cast in 2020 Presidential Election, and from certifying the winner of that election. Since then, substantial evidence has emerged indicating that then-President Donald… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    The Presidency
  • November 14, 2025

    TRUMP’S ILLEGAL TARIFFS, PART 3

    During the last six months of 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed roughly a ten percent surcharge, subject to an absolute maximum tax, all payable to the federal government, upon most goods imported into the United States from foreign countries. In 1975, the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals upheld the legality of that… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    The Power to Tax
  • November 7, 2025

    RE: TRUMP’S TARIFFS

    In the arguments before the United States Supreme Court last Wednesday, counsel for President Trump defended the tariffs the President imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act  (the IEEPA) on the ground that statute did authorize the Presidential imposition of tariffs whenever a ‘‘national emergency’’ is declared by the President himself. (Citing 50 U.S.C.… Continue reading

    Constitutional Law
    The Division of Powers Clauses, The Necessary and Proper Clause
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ABOUT THIS SITE

Here, I offer a weekly column on Constitutional Law. My purpose here is to advocate for a complete return to the historical principle that an act by the government that is “repugnant” to the federal Constitution is or else should be “void.” Responsive, but civil, and signed opinions are welcome here and will be published on request.

ABOUT THE WRITER

I am a retired lawyer with forty-two years of experience in civil litigation. I have a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. Between schools, I worked full time as a newspaper reporter for the Middlesboro, Kentucky Daily News.

Dan D. Rhea 

  • The Constitution and the DHS Shutdown
  • WHAT IS AN “EX POST FACTO” LAW?
  • RE: The SAVE America Act
  • TRUMP V. SLAUGHTER
  • MR. TRUMP’S WAR


Recent Posts

  • The Constitution and the DHS Shutdown
  • WHAT IS AN “EX POST FACTO” LAW?
  • RE: The SAVE America Act

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