Bill Norton is a constitutional scholar and the author of Speaking the Language of Liberty, the book he describes as a liberty self-help book, and the coauthor of Behind the Bill of Rights, written with Jeremy Nelson of the National Center for Constitutional Studies. Companion volumes on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are in progress. This is the fourth and final lesson in his founding principles training series with Jenny Beth Martin, following two lessons on the Declaration of Independence and one on the Constitution, with bonus episodes accompanying each.
Jenny Beth Martin hosts.
Key topics:
- Why the Bill of Rights protects rights rather than granting them, and what changes the moment you read it the other way
- The Bill of Rights as a restriction on Congress alone, and what the courts did with the Fourteenth Amendment
- George Mason refusing to sign the Constitution, and Madison's answer that the government had not been given enough power to abuse anyone
- Hamilton and Madison's argument against listing rights at all, and why Norton says both of their fears were validated
- More than two hundred state suggestions cut to seventeen, twelve sent out, and only ten ratified
- Why the two that failed were numbered one and two, and how that shifts every amendment number in the founders' letters
- The Twenty-Seventh Amendment, unratified for two centuries until a law student finished the job
- The preamble to the Bill of Rights, and Congress writing down that its purpose was to prevent misconstruction or abuse of the government's powers
- Freedom of conscience as the founders' original framing, and Thomas Paine calling toleration the counterfeit of intolerance
- The 1735 trial of publisher Peter Zenger, and Gouverneur Morris calling that jury the germ of American freedom
- The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the expiration date set for the next election, and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
- The Second Amendment read militia first and individual right second, and why Norton says the individual right survives either way
- The Third Amendment, the one court case it ever produced, and the principle of pre-consent it left behind
- Writs of assistance, and how Norton applies the Fourth Amendment to the Internal Revenue Service
- The Fifth Amendment past pleading the fifth: charge stacking, spousal testimony, civil asset forfeiture, and the takings clause
- The Ninth Amendment misreading Norton says he made for years, and Madison telling Washington that protecting a right is the same as listing it
Timestamped breakdown:
00:14 — Cold open: the concluding lesson on the founding documents
01:42 — Philadelphia, 1787: four months in a stuffy building
02:04 — George Mason stands up and refuses to sign
03:40 — Hamilton and Madison argue against listing rights at all
06:12 — The states say no ratification without a bill of rights
08:46 — Two hundred suggestions cut to seventeen, twelve sent out
09:22 — Why the two that failed were numbered one and two
10:18 — The Twenty-Seventh Amendment, two centuries later
12:37 — The Bill of Rights does not grant you anything
13:11 — A restriction on Congress, and what the Fourteenth changed
16:03 — The preamble to the Bill of Rights
19:40 — Amendment One, and freedom of conscience
23:55 — Thomas Paine on toleration
25:14 — Freedom of speech
26:46 — The Peter Zenger case, 1735
28:53 — The Alien and Sedition Acts
32:57 — Freedom of the press
33:55 — The right to peaceably assemble
37:11 — Petition for a redress of grievances
38:28 — The Second Amendment
48:25 — The right of self-preservation
49:34 — The Third Amendment
53:21 — The pandemic and the principle of pre-consent
56:14 — The Fourth Amendment
57:45 — Writs of assistance
59:54 — Income tax and the Internal Revenue Service
01:02:10 — The Fifth Amendment
01:06:47 — Eminent domain and the takings clause
01:11:48 — The Sixth Amendment
01:18:42 — The Seventh Amendment
01:19:33 — The Eighth Amendment
01:21:28 — The Ninth Amendment
01:24:56 — The Tenth Amendment, the catch-all
01:28:55 — Closing: keeping the republic takes work
01:30:28 — The books behind the lessons
Links: jennybethshow.com | teapartypatriots.org
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