Constitutional Powers

The framers of the Constitution were very concerned about limiting the power of government and in securing the liberty of citizens. To strike a balance between authority and liberty is the central purpose of American Constitutional Law. To this end, they created three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial with separation of powers, and there were checks and balances of each branch against the other. This was to assure the guarantees of individual liberty. The Death of America occurred on November 5, 2024 as the fatal blow will culminate on January 20, 2025 with the ...

Words shape laws. They justify force. They decide who is protected and who is punished. In this installment of the Letter to America series, a U.S. Navy Veteran examines how powerful terms like domestic terrorist, threat, and extremist have expanded in meaning, and why that expansion matters to every citizen. This short, reflective letter explores: How legal definitions can be stretched through interpretation Why permitted actions like protesting or lawful carry can still result in punishment The growing gap between rights on paper and rights in practice What happens when language is used ...

What happens when a democracy changes the subject at the exact moment accountability is closing in? Epic Distraction investigates the week America’s attention pivoted from mounting pressure over the Epstein files to military escalation with Iran—and asks what that shift revealed about war, media, money, and power. Beauregard Calhoun Bragg examines Operation Epic Fury not as a simple conspiracy, but as a case study in how modern crises function: threat narratives narrow debate, cable news rewards spectacle, Congress funds consequences after the fact, and debt-financed war allows ...

What happens when the people no longer trust the institutions designed to protect them? In The Illusion of Checks and Balances, a U.S. Navy veteran examines the growing belief that America’s political safeguards are no longer functioning as intended. What was once presented as a balanced system of accountability now appears, to many Americans, to be a political structure increasingly controlled by party loyalty, institutional protection, and unchecked power. This powerful entry in the A Letter to America series explores: The weakening of public trust in government The collapse of ...

This audiobook examines how power operates once policy leaves speeches and enters the real world, where speed replaces caution, oversight weakens, and consequences often arrive long before accountability does. Rather than arguing ideology or partisanship, it tracks outcomes. It follows decisions through executive authority, agency enforcement, budgets, courts, markets, and foreign policy to reveal the widening gap between intention and impact.

As the highest court in what has become the world's most powerful nation, The Supreme Court of the United States sits at the faultline between the ideal and the real, between justice and power, between the serene majesty of The Law and the sometimes bombastic, sometimes grubby disputes that define our politics. In the arguments before the court, principles clash with ambition and avarice, and it can be difficult to tell which is which. The decisions that the justices hand back are often wise and reasonable, but there have been moments of folly as well, and on more than one occasion it has ...

What If America's Founding Fathers Could See Us Today? Would George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton recognize the Republic they helped create? Or would they warn us that the principles sustaining American democracy are being tested as never before? The United States was conceived as a bold experiment in self-government. Drawing on the lessons of history and political philosophy, the Founders crafted a Constitution designed to safeguard liberty, limit power, and ensure government remained accountable to the people. Through checks and balances, the rule of...

The Supreme Court was designed to be independent. But independence was never supposed to mean unchecked power. In The Problem with the Supreme Court, Julian Mercer examines how nine unelected justices came to hold extraordinary authority over American life, often with little accountability, limited transparency, and lifetime power that can shape the country for generations. From abortion and gun rights to voting access, campaign finance, religious liberty, corporate power, presidential authority, and federal regulation, the Court no longer simply interprets the law from a distance. It helps...

In this groundbreaking portrait of corporate seizure of political power, We the Corporations reveals how American businesses won equal rights and transformed the Constitution to serve the ends of capital. Corporations - like minorities and women - have had a civil rights movement of their own and now possess nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Uncovering the deep historical roots of Citizens United, Adam Winkler shows how that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision was the capstone of a 200-year battle....

Before there was a president, there was a fear of one. Fear doesn’t arrive with sirens. It walks in smiling, carrying authority in one hand and consequences in the other. Counterbalance turns on the lights. It reveals how power has been drifting inside the American system, not in headlines, but in the machinery beneath them. It shows how the separation of powers, our oldest safeguard, was designed to protect the Republic, and how the rise of the administrative state has bent that safeguard out of shape. What follows is a gripping, clear‑eyed journey through the forces distorting the ...

The Oath: A Short Perspective on Voluntary Obligation and the Discipline of Fidelity In The Oath, Paul J. Ferguson examines one of the most enduring and least examined foundations of leadership: the act of binding oneself to something greater than personal authority. Across constitutional systems, oaths are required before power is exercised. They are spoken in ceremony, but they are meant for something more enduring. This Short Perspective explores why institutions depend on sworn fidelity, how allegiance is properly ordered, and what it means to exercise authority within inherited ...

The War Powers Resolution: A Constitutional Crisis? by Gerald R. Ford offers a concise yet powerful examination of the struggle between presidential authority and congressional control over military action. Drawing on historical examples, legal analysis, and his own experience as President, Ford explores the origins and consequences of the 1973 War Powers Resolution. He questions its practicality, constitutionality, and impact on U.S. foreign policy during times of crisis. Blending real-world case studies with insightful commentary, this book sheds light on one of the most enduring debates ...

The presidency was never supposed to be a throne. The American president was designed to be powerful, but limited. Accountable, not untouchable. A national leader, not a national ruler. Yet over time, one office has become the center of American political life, absorbing more authority, more symbolism, more media attention, and more public fear than any democratic office should carry. In The Problem with the Presidency, Julian Mercer examines how the modern presidency became too powerful, too personal, and too dangerous to ignore. From war powers and executive orders to media spectacle, ...

In 2025, the United States stands at a constitutional crossroads. "Beyond the Two-Term Limit: 2025's Constitutional Crisis Over Presidential Power" delves into the unprecedented challenges facing the nation's highest office. As debates intensify over the possibility of a third presidential term, this comprehensive analysis examines the historical foundations of term limits, the evolution of executive authority, and the potential ramifications of altering this cornerstone of American democracy. Through meticulous research and insightful discourse, the book offers readers a profound ...

A clear-eyed investigation into the cultural, institutional, and political transformations reshaping public life. Is today’s “woke” movement a spontaneous cultural shift — or part of a deeper intellectual winnowing that echoes older collectivist doctrines? Woke Communism traces the ideas, institutions, and incentives that have taken root in universities, media, corporations, and public policy. Drawing on history, case studies, and policy analysis, this book argues that new forms of cultural activism have become entangled with institutional power in ways that reshape civic norms, ...

What happens when presidential pardons, taxpayer money, federal settlements, and tax enforcement all begin pointing in the same direction? In The Presidential Loyalty Payout, Beauregard Calhoun Bragg examines one of the most consequential and underreported constitutional controversies of modern American politics: the emergence of a system that appears to link political loyalty, legal jeopardy, executive clemency, government compensation, and protection from ordinary enforcement. At the center of the story are three extraordinary developments: the sweeping January 6 clemency actions, the ...

America asks Black citizens to move on from history. But what happens when history never fully ends? In Letter to America: What Does “Make America Great Again” Mean for Black America?, a U.S. Navy veteran delivers a powerful historical and social examination of race, civil rights, political rollback, and historical memory in the United States. This book explores the long arc of Black American history — from slavery and Reconstruction to Jim Crow, lynching, segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, affirmative action, voting rights battles, DEI controversies, and the modern political ...

U.S. President Sterling faces the worst crisis of his presidency. California, New York, and eight other coastal states are organizing referendums to leave the United States and join Canada. His approval ratings have cratered. His own party is in revolt. Political obituaries are already being written. But Sterling isn't finished. When the coastal alliance announces their secession timeline, Sterling unveils a response that no one sees coming—a plan so audacious it will either save American democracy or destroy it completely. As constitutional crisis spirals into something unprecedented, ...

A Reflection on Power, Silence, and Accountability is a concise, thought-provoking letter written by a U.S. Navy veteran asking questions many Americans feel but rarely voice. This book examines the uncomfortable space where government authority, public silence, and constitutional responsibility intersect. Without naming incidents or assigning partisan blame, it challenges readers to consider what happens when accountability fades and silence becomes normalized. Rather than arguing positions, this reflection asks readers to confront deeper civic questions: What is the role of government ...

Justice Robert Jackson once quipped about his role on the Supreme Court: "We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final." But in the end even the Supreme Court is not the final word on the law. There will always be another case, and another session of the court to consider it -- and maybe to reconsider what the court has ruled before. As long as The United States endures, the Supreme Court will have its work to do. Keep learning about the US Supreme Court with this book.