Judge Napolitano on the Worst Supreme Court Decisions

Mises Daily: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano joined the Mises Institute in August as the Institute’s Distinguished Scholar in Law and Jurisprudence. During Mises University in July, Judge Napolitano taught what David Gordon described as a “conference within the conference” and “a masterful survey of how the Supreme Court has interpreted the commerce clause, from Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) to the present.”This summer, the Mises Institute spoke briefly with Judge Napolitano about the Constitution and the American political system.

Mises Institute: Why is understanding constitutional law and its history important? The text of the document is pretty short, so can’t we just read it for ourselves and know what it says?

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: The Constitution proclaims itself to be the Supreme Law of the Land. It was written to create, define, and restrain the federal government. If history is prologue, it is important for all concerned about the overreach of the government today to understand how we got to where we are today; and the history of that is essentially a study of the history of the debates over the implementation of the powers set forth in the Constitution......To Read More.....

My Take – This is a must read article, especially his thoughts on the 10^th, 16^th and 17^th amendments.