Guest: Bill Norton
Bill Norton is a constitutional scholar and author who has spent roughly thirty five years studying the founding principles and keeps a personal library of about four thousand books. He is the author of Behind the Bill of Rights, co-authored with Jeremy Nelson of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, with Behind the Declaration of Independence and Behind the Constitution of the United States to follow. This is the bonus conversation that closes his four-lesson founding principles training series with Jenny Beth Martin.
Key topics:
- The Ninth Amendment, the amendment scholars call forgotten, and why the Supreme Court has cited it only a handful of times
- Why "enumerated in the Constitution" cannot mean the Bill of Rights, which did not exist when the Ninth was written
- James Madison telling George Washington that protecting rights and limiting powers are two sides of the same coin
- Why the Ninth Amendment was originally numbered the Eleventh, and how two failed amendments shift every number in the founders' letters
- The rarely read preamble to the Bill of Rights and the phrase "misconstruction or abuse of its powers"
- The natural law principle behind the Second Amendment, which Norton says is simply the right of self preservation
- Why English law once required a man to own a longbow and to be trained on it
- Freedom of conscience versus religious tolerance, and why Thomas Paine and George Washington called tolerance condescending
- John Adams on mixing religion and government, and Norton's argument that the church tax exemption silences pastors
- The trial of William Penn, the jury held without food or sleep, and the verdict they would not change
- Jury nullification, what it actually does, and why a judge can overturn a guilty verdict but never an acquittal
- The Third Amendment's single court case and the principle of pre-consent
- How Arizona's governor cited the wrong constitutional sections during the pandemic lockdowns
- Jenny Beth Martin on leading the fight to reopen America's schools
- What James Madison's most misquoted letter really says about an Article Five convention
Timestamps:
00:14 — Cold open: the last conversation in the founding principles series
00:57 — Behind the Bill of Rights, and the three books
03:14 — What surprised him: the founders barely explained the principles
05:50 — The Second Amendment and the right of self preservation
07:38 — The research: a dozen books, Magna Carta, and Jamestown
10:37 — Freedom of religion, or freedom of conscience
11:23 — The Pilgrims, Holland, and the freedom they did not want
14:53 — Thomas Paine and George Washington on tolerance
19:42 — John Adams: religion and government corrupt each other
21:42 — The paradox of tolerance
24:30 — Superiority, captivity, and cancel culture
29:05 — Jury nullification and how to get out of jury duty
32:09 — The trial of William Penn
41:14 — The Third Amendment and the principle of pre-consent
44:42 — Arizona's governor and the wrong emergency sections
47:45 — Jenny Beth Martin on the fight to reopen the schools
50:52 — The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and on-call judges
52:58 — The Ninth Amendment we have been reading wrong
55:14 — Why the Ninth was originally the Eleventh
58:37 — Enumerated in the Constitution, not the Bill of Rights
59:34 — Madison to Washington: two sides of the same coin
01:02:40 — The amendment the Supreme Court barely cites
01:03:41 — Madison, Patrick Henry, and the Virginia ratification fight
01:06:44 — Jenny Beth Martin on the SAVE America Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and proof of citizenship to register to vote
01:08:14 — What Madison's letter about a new convention really says
01:13:01 — Two hundred fifty years, and a government you can change
01:14:43 — Closing: you do not have to become a scholar
Links mentioned:
- The full four-lesson founding principles training: teapartypatriots.org/1776
- The show: jennybethshow.com
- Tea Party Patriots Action: teapartypatriots.org