Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 10 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 10 on Sunday, March 21, 2010. This is its content:

10. The Eighth Amendment

Cruel and Unusual Punishment, including why drawing and quartering is no longer acceptable, but vegetarian meals for prisoners might be required.

The Fourteenth Amendment, revisited

Equal protection of the law: race, and its ugly manifestations from discrimination to segregation, and the reverse racism called “affirmative action.”

Conclusion of the course, and some final thoughts about "the inner contradiction.”

The length of Lecture 10, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture's contents, HERE. Click on "Add to Cart" to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 9 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 9 on Sunday, March 14, 2010. This is its content:

9. The First Amendment, continued

Speech, continued. Can you get away with shouting "fire" in a crowded theater? Why is child pornography unproteced speech? Are depictions of animal abuse?

The length of Lecture 9, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture's contents, HERE. Click on "Add to Cart" to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 8 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 8 on Sunday, March 7, 2010. This is its content:

8. The First Amendment

Religion. Who's correct about "establishment of religion," the Founders or the ACLU and the Supreme Court? And is the "free exercise" of religion really free?

Speech. Of the various categories of speech—political, obscene, threatening, commercial, symbolic, employee, defamatory, indecent—which are more and which less protected and why? What about subversive advocacy?

The length of Lecture 8, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture's contents, HERE. Click on "Add to Cart" to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 7 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 7 on Sunday, February 28, 2010. This is its content:

7. Prohibitions On Both Congress And The States: The Bill Of Rights and The Fourteenth Amendment

Introduction to the Bill of Rights, which almost failed to be adopted.

By what trick of judicial legerdemain did the Bill of Rights—whose First Amendment begins "Congress shall make no law. . . ."—come to limit the powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment?

The myth of "substantive" Due Process, and laundresses, killers, contraception, and abortion.

The length of Lecture 7, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture's contents, HERE. Click on "Add to Cart" to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 6 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 6 on Sunday, February 21, 2010. This is its content:

6. Intergovernmental Relations

The "horizontal" relationship between the states, and the requirement of "full faith and credit" in our political system of "joint sovereignty."

Constitutional Limitations on Congress's Power

Textual limitations on the power of Congress, including suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, to which alien terrorists now captured on the field of battle are entitled.

Constitutional Limitations On The Power Of The States

The few textual limitations of the power of the states, including the prohibition against impairment of contracts—which didn't prevent the Supreme Court from upholding the Minnesota Mortgage Death Act in the heyday of the New Deal.

The length of Lecture 6, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture's contents, HERE. Click on "Add to Cart" to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 5 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 5 on Sunday, February 14, 2010. This is its content:

5. The Judiciary And Its Powers

The source, nature, and scope of judicial power, as provided in the Constitution and federal statutes.

Limitations, if any, on judicial power. For example, can courts render opinions that are only advisory; should they sometimes simply decide not to decide; are there questions that are moot or too “political”; can just anyone sue, and what do tomatoes have to do with the federal judiciary?

Why the "natural born citizen" cases brought concerning Obama's citizenship were doomed from the start, and why none will succeed during his current term of office.

The length of Lecture 5, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture’s contents, HERE. Click on “Add to Cart” to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 4 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 4 on Sunday, February 7, 2010. This is its content:

4. The Presidency And Its Powers

The President's "chief executive" and "faithfully execute" power, including the appointment of czars by the "Capo di Tutti Capi," the embargo on selling arms in the Chaco War, loss of American sovereignty to the United Nations and other one-world entities, one United States Senator's attempt to prevent the U.S. from becoming just another "state" on a planet with no separate countries, and the Supreme Court's "reassurance" that treaties don't override domestic United States law.

The President as Commander-in-Chief, recently undercut by the Court in its four terrorism cases which have nearly emasculated his war-fighting powers by treating al-Qaeda terrorists like common criminals, granting them constitutional rights in defiance of controlling precedent and making the judiciary into America's ultimate generalissimo.

The length of Lecture 4, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture’s contents, HERE. Click on “Add to Cart” to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 3 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 3 on Sunday, January 31, 2010. This is its content:

3. Congress and Its Powers

The source, nature, and scope of Congress's power, limited as it is supposed to be.

The Alien and Sedition Acts, and a surprising side of Thomas Jefferson.

The "bank controversy," with Washington refereeing between Jefferson and Hamilton.

The second bank of the United States, the "necessary and proper clause" and birth of the Congressional-power monster.

The Commerce Clause, steamboats, lottery tickets and home-grown wheat.

The Commerce Clause, Bobby Kennedy, "moral wrongs," hamburgers, motels, and how some Court conservatives won two small victories against the clause's tsunami.

The Commerce Clause, and buying health insurance or going to jail.

Congress's war powers, including removal and incarceration of Americans in the Korematsu case, World War II rent control in 2010, and dying (unwillingly) in Vietnam.

The length of Lecture 3, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture’s contents, HERE. Click on “Add to Cart” to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

Constitutional Law 101 Lecture 2 Now Available For Download

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 101

An Internet Course

Presented By Professor Henry Mark Holzer

www.henrymarkholzer.com

Hank Holzer delivered his live Lecture 2 on Sunday, January 24, 2010. This is its content:

2. The American Constitutional System

A working definition of "constitutional law."

"Originalism" and other tools of constitutional interpretation, emotional and otherwise. And a word about this week’s Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Griswold v. Connecticut, illustrating federalism, separation of powers and judicial review—and judicial invention at its worst.

Kelo v. City of New London, illustrating the Supreme Court's playing fast and loose with clear constitutional language.

Judicial supremacy: primarily Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison, which established the principle of Judicial Review; how the Supreme Court came to be the Constitution's final arbiter and the Court the more equal branch.

Federalism: the relationship and tensions between the federal and state governments, with examples showing federal legislation affecting matters which should be within the powers of the states; how the Court thwarted Arkansas voters, and how the conservatives thwarted Congress in the Brady Law case of Printz v. United States.

Separation of powers: the relationship and tensions between the three supposedly equal branches of government — legislative, executive and judicial — with examples of where the "more equal" Court refereed battles between the other two branches and, in the bargain, expanded its own powers. Illustrations include President Truman's seizure of the steel mills during the Korean War and the House's refusal to seat a playboy Congressman.

The length of Lecture 2, and how it can be downloaded, can be found after the last sentence of that lecture’s contents, HERE. Click on “Add to Cart” to purchase.

Note

Please remember that while there is no "homework" for these lectures, to benefit fully from them Hank Holzer strongly recommends you obtain and read a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Also, especially before you download Lecture 2, you will benefit from reading the Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut. You will find it useful to have the four documents available during the lectures you download.

"The Best of Times, the Worst of Times": Ruminations by Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer about Anne C. Heller’s "Ayn Rand and the World She Made"

Corrected Version

Hank Holzer and I got to know Ayn Rand a half-century ago. For several years we represented her legally, and during these past fifty years, Rand’s ideas have continued to be a major influence on our lives (and that of countless others.)

Until recently, there was virtually no biographical information available about Rand written by people without their own axe to grind. The Brandens, hardly dispassionate observers, have had their say. The Ayn Rand Institute, devoted to the promulgation of her ideas and thus having its own interests to serve, has weighed in. Other biographical writing has been published, but by authors who did little or no original research and provided only superficial analysis of Rand and her work.

In late 2009, a biography by Anne C. Heller entitled Ayn Rand and the World She Made was published. Heller’s book is commendably long on biographical detail and contains some fascinating insights about Rand’s unconventional ideas in the context of her novels (especially The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged), but it is unfortunately a mixed bag when it comes to providing her readers with a satisfactorily balanced perspective from the people who knew Ayn Rand well—particularly in the Sixties and at the time of her break with her then “intellectual heir,” Nathaniel Branden. Some of Heller’s sources, quoted and anonymous, who know better, have nothing good to say about Rand.

For about five years in the late 1960s, Hank Holzer and I were close friends of Ayn Rand. It is from this perspective that we have written our lengthy essay/review entitled, “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times”: Ruminations by Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer about Anne C. Heller’s Ayn Rand and theWorld She Made. It can be found HERE.