March 27, 2025 • 38 mins
Recorded March 26, 2025 Get ready for a no-nonsense layman's dive into Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution! Jamie and I rip through Sections 1-10, explaining Congress’s powers, limits, and how it all plays out—from lawmaking and impeachment to gerrymandering and election chaos. We’re talking real-world examples: FDR’s New Deal, Trump’s wall, Obama’s pen, and a Michigan kid accidentally voting illegally.
Thank you so much @RealCharlieKirk from Turning Point USA, who sent us the Constitution that sparked this series—thanks for the inspiration, Charlie! It’s the people’s guide to the nation’s lawmakers—raw, unfiltered, with history, debate, and some Founding Father paranoia. Is Congress still king, or are presidents and courts twisting it like pretzels? Drop your take below—we’re ready to argue it out! Next up: Article 2. @RealCharlieKirk @turningpointusa
#Constitution101 #Article1Breakdown #CharlieKirk #TurningPointUSA #USPolitics2025 #ImpeachmentExplained #Gerrymandering #VotingRights #SeparationOfPowers #FoundingFathers #news #trump #podcast
Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Constitution 01:38 Understanding Congress: Structure and Function 04:57 The House of Representatives: The People's Voice 11:11 The Senate: Balancing Power 14:26 Elections and Meetings: The Role of States 20:44 Voting Rights and Election Integrity 26:58 Congressional Powers and Limitations 33:06 Checks and Balances: The Legislative Process 35:56 State Limitations: Federal Authority 36:59 Conclusion: The Balance of Power
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:53):
All right, so we are going back to school today, Jamie.
Yeah, so I do, which is weird.
That should have been a flag.
But I got this in the mail, which might be backwards.
Kirk.
from Charlie Kirk.
And I thought what a great thing to do is go over the constitution in layman's termsbecause I know I forgot it.
(01:19):
I know you didn't, but I'm sure that most people are like me and don't really know the insand outs of it.
So let's do it for the American people and let's give them the constitution in layman'sterms.
So today we're going to cover article one, sections one through 10.
Are you ready?
not trying to pack this all into one podcast.
(01:40):
Exactly.
It might be too much for people.
But all right, so let's break it down.
So Congress is part of the US government which writes federal laws.
It is made up of two groups, which is the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Their main job is to represent the American people in the states.
They hash out issues through debates and pass bills.
(02:02):
proposed laws.
Once a bill gets through both the House and the Senate, it goes to the President.
If the President signs it, or if Congress overrides a veto with enough votes, that billbecomes a law.
Picture Congress as a two-headed beast.
You have the House is big, a loud head tied to population, and the Senate is smaller, thecalmer one giving every state an equal say.
(02:26):
They're the nation's lawmakers, and Article 1 lays out how they roll.
the House of Representatives is often just called the House.
It is the People's House.
It's got 435 voting members right now, and each state gets a number based on population.
All of these folks serve two-year terms, so they're always on their toes.
They're trying to make a difference in as little time as they have, and they have theunique power to impeach officials.
(02:51):
So then we have the Senate.
which is dubbed the upper house.
It's smaller with 100 members.
There's two from each state, no matter how big or how small the state is.
And the senator serves six year terms, which gives them a little more breathing room, thatmakes the Senate steadier, less frantic body.
But they do have special powers because they confirm big presidential picks like theSupreme Court justices or cabinet members, and they approve treaties with other countries.
(03:15):
If the house impeaches someone, the Senate holds the trial.
acting like jury, the vice president is technically the president of the Senate, but onlyvotes to break ties.
And the Senate's vibe is more deliberate, less chaos, more mature debate.
So people say the house is where passions boil over and the Senate cools them down.
one quick thing just on impeachment.
(03:37):
So when people say somebody's impeached, people automatically think that, that meansthey've been removed from office.
If they've been impeached, it just means that they've been accused, quote, by the grandjury.
So the House is the grand jury, if you think of it from a law and order standpoint.
And then the Senate, if they vote in favor of impeachment,
(03:59):
That is what removes an elected official from office.
And we usually think of that as just presidential, but it's judges and you could impeachcabinet members.
You can impeach all kinds of federal officials, but it's the House that's the grand jurythat makes the formal accusation in the Senate who removes them.
And in an impeachment, there was one small error, is in an impeachment, the Chief Justiceof the US Supreme Court,
(04:26):
presides over the US Senate, not the vice president.
The vice president is the president of the Senate in every other case.
But if the impeachment is the president of United States, the vice president does notoversee that jury.
The chief justice of the...
Yeah, now I'm president.
Now I'm president.
(04:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Sorry to bog us down here on the very first thing, but just a few minor things of...
clarification just on impeachment and how that works.
Okay, all right, so section one, and we're gonna go through these in layman's terms tomake it easy.
So if you wanna see the real wording, get the little thing, which is great, but this isall gonna be layman's terms.
(05:07):
So section one, Congress holds the law making power.
What it says is all power to make federal laws belong to Congress, which is split into theSenate and to the House of Representatives.
That's it.
So it's short, but it's massive, right?
So what it means is only Congress can pass laws for the whole country.
The president can't do it and neither can the courts.
(05:31):
This sets up the separation of powers, making sure no branch runs everything.
It's the foundation of Congress as the voice of the people and states.
So how this plays out.
So back in 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, pushed his new deal to fix theGreat Depression.
When court struck down some parts, he got Congress to pass new laws to keep it going,sticking to section one.
(05:54):
But in 1950, Harry Truman, another Democrat, sent troops to Korea without Congressdeclaring war.
That's a legislative power, and Congress let it slide, setting a pattern where presidentsstart wars and Congress just nods.
So let's fast forward to modern times.
We have Barack Obama.
they're not wars, they're military actions and Congress does nod by paying for them.
(06:18):
Okay, paying for them monetarily.
Okay.
Fast forward to modern times when Barack Obama frustrated with stalled Congress usedexecutive orders for stuff like immigration and climate rules, saying I've got a pen and a
phone.
Republicans yelled he was bypassing Section One.
Then Donald Trump declared an emergency in 2019 to grab funds for his border wall afterCongress refused the full amount.
(06:45):
Democrats called it unlawful saying he was stealing Congress's law making role.
Both stretched the line, presidents acting like they can make or shift laws when Congresswon't play ball.
Yeah, everybody's going to push the lines of their powers.
certainly this is not exclusive to one party or one president.
Okay.
(07:05):
Section two, the House of Representatives, voice of the people.
What it says is House members are elected every two years by the people in each state.
You've got to be at least 25, a US citizen for seven years and live in the state yourepresent.
The number of reps per state depends on population updated by census every 10 years.
The House picks its own speaker and officers and it's the only one that can impeachofficials.
(07:29):
What it means is the House stays close to voters with short terms and population basedseats.
It's got the first say on taxes and can start the process to boot out bad actors ingovernment.
That three fifths compromise about counting enslaved people, it's history now wiped out bythe 14th Amendment.
How this plays out.
Ever hear of gerrymandering?
(07:49):
And I love this one, I read this, I didn't know about this.
I probably did, but I forgot it.
It kicked off in 1812 when Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry, a Democrat, a DemocraticRepublican, how does that work?
Yeah, they both, they were the Democrat, it was kind of a separation between Southern andNorthern Democrats.
Okay, signed off on a district map.
(08:10):
So it twisted like and look like a salamander.
the trick packing voters to favor his party stuck around.
Today, both sides do it.
After the 2010 census, North Carolina's Republican legislator drew maps to lock in 10 GOPseats out of 13.
One guy bragged he'd have gone 11/2 to if he could.
It's legal but messes with the fair representation idea in section two.
(08:33):
The second thing is impeachment.
Impeachment is a big deal here.
In 1998, a Republican House impeached Democrat Bill Clinton over lying about an affair.
Dems said it was petty politics.
Then in 2019 and 2021, a Democratic House impeached Republican Donald Trump twice, oncefor pushing Ukraine to dig dirt on a rival, then for the January 6th Capitol riot.
(08:56):
Republicans called it a witch hunt.
Each time it was partisan brawl, Section 2's toll used more for scoring points than fixinghigh crimes.
Yeah, I was not supportive of any three of those presidential impeachments, including theimpeachment of Bill Clinton.
I agree that it was, even at the time, distracting and, took away from work that couldhave been done.
(09:19):
but as far as Section 2 is concerned, we have, with gerrymandering,
it's a double edged sword because, in Florida, for instance, we have a fair districtconstitutional amendment that says, yes, the legislature can draw the maps, but the maps
must be compact.
They must make geographic sense.
(09:40):
They have to have some racial balance or, you know, some racial history put into it.
Although they don't say that, that's what they mean, and which is against the law.
But that's, how that works.
So there's probably two or three seats that are held by Democrats that would be held byRepublicans if we could gerrymander.
The problem is, in Democrat blue states, they still gerrymander.
(10:01):
So in California, they have an overbalance of Democrats because they have a huge Democratlegislature.
And, people think that there's not Republican areas, but there's certainly largeRepublican areas in California.
They just split them up and put them in more Democrat areas so the Democrats get morerepresentation in Congress.
New York has gerrymandered.
So, it's one of these things where truly the Fair District's amendment to the FloridaConstitution is almost an equal protection violation because our legislature isn't allowed
(10:31):
free reign like California and New York to draw the lines that they want.
And so it's, everybody likes the idea of saying, they should be fair.
But the truth of the matter is none of it's fair.
If you put three judges on this panel,
and had them draw it, you would have partisan judges.
We know that that's the case.
Everybody thinks, a judge is above partisanship.
(10:52):
And we all know that's BS.
And to go along with your Fierce AF podcast, that's what you should include in your BSsection, is that the judges are partisan people.
They have their own biases and they can't separate it.
That's right, it is BS.
Thank you, Jamie, for.
chiming in.
Section three, what it says is every state gets two senators originally chosen by statelegislators, but now by voters since the 17th Amendment in 1913.
(11:21):
You need to be 30 a citizen for nine years and live in your state.
The VP runs the Senate but only votes on ties.
The Senate picks its other leaders like the president pro tempore.
And it's the only body that tries impeachments needing two thirds to convict.
What it means is the Senate balances things out equal state power, longer terms and bigjobs like approving justices and holding trials.
(11:44):
It's less about the mob and more about stability.
So how this plays out.
Senate confirmations can get ugly.
In 2016, Republican leader Mitch McConnell refused to even consider Obama's Supreme Courtpick Merrick Garland saying it was too close to an election eight months out.
Democrats fumed.
Then in 2020 with weeks to go before the election, the same GOP Senate fast-trackedTrump's pick Amy Coney Barrett.
(12:12):
No rule was broken, but the flip-flop showed how partisan the Senate's advice and consentcan get.
Impeachment trials don't expect impartiality.
In Clinton's 1999 trial and Trump's 2020 and 2021 ones, senators voted almost entirely byparty.
(12:33):
Nobody got two thirds to remove.
Section three wants them as jurors but they're more like cheerleaders.
History's got a rare hero though.
In 1868, Senator Edmund Ross broke ranks to save Andrew Johnson by one vote.
Brave or bot, depends on who you ask.
Yeah, so the problem is, is that when the 17th Amendment changed the very nature of ourcountry and in a bad way.
(12:59):
And because since the 17th Amendment, I forget what year that was, 19, whatever it was,and early 20th century.
Yeah.
So that was when we went from state legislature
electing US senators to direct election by people, of course that makes sense, right?
(13:19):
People want more votes.
But what it took away was it diminished state rights and there's been an erosion of staterights over the last 110 years.
And that's going to be a problem in the next 110 years.
And so we should repeal the 17th Amendment and go back to legislatures electing the USSenate because as it was originally
(13:42):
intended the U.S.
House was supposed to represent people.
It's so much so that if there's a vacancy in the House, in the Constitution, it says thatthere must be an election to replace them, that a governor cannot appoint.
You know, and we know that the U.S.
a governor can still appoint because we just had a vacant for U.S.
Senate in Florida with Marco Rubio and Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ashley Moody.
(14:07):
So there's real life examples and because
Matt Gaetz resigned and Michael Waltz went to national security advisor.
We are having elections right now as we speak in Florida next Tuesday for both JimmyPetronis in North Florida and Randy Fine in Northeast Florida.
Okay.
(14:27):
So section four is elections and meetings, keeping it regular.
What it says is states decide how, when and where to hold elections for Congress, butCongress can step in and change those roles if needed.
Congress has to meet at least once a year, now set for January 3rd by the 20th Amendment.
What it means is states run the show on elections, but Congress has a veto to keep thingsfair.
(14:50):
The yearly meeting ensures lawmakers don't slack off like they did under the old articlesof confederation.
How this plays out.
Congress used section four to set election day as the Tuesday after the first Monday inNovember, standardizing what used to be state by state mess.
In the 1960s, they passed the Voting Rights Act to stop southern states from blockingblack voters, big federal muscles over state rules.
(15:14):
After 2020, election fights heated up.
Republicans in some states
Tighten voting laws, IDs, less mail voting, saying it stopped fraud.
Democrats pushed federal bills to override that, claiming it's suppression.
Trump's crew argued state courts extending mail deadlines, like in Pennsylvania, brokeSection 4's legislator-decides rule.
(15:35):
Courts mostly let it stand, but the tension's real.
Yeah, there's no question that specifically the governor of Pennsylvania, not the currentsitting governor, but the previous governor in 2020 broke election laws because the
legislature had the Pennsylvania legislature had the opportunity to require that everybodyget a mail-in ballot during vote during COVID and they chose not to take action.
(15:58):
And so the governor in his infinite wisdom decided to break the law and send mail-inballots to every single voter in the state.
probably costing Donald Trump the state.
so what Democrats have tried to do with voting over years and years, you have to have morevoters if you're gonna mine extra votes.
And so certainly with Donald Trump's executive order, just today, or just yesterday, andthe substack will go out Friday about this, Donald Trump, and all of these rules are just
(16:29):
towards federal elections.
But Donald Trump is requiring a voter ID that includes a citizenship clause.
So the driver's license alone won't work anymore unless your driver's license shows thatyou're a US citizen.
You can use your passport.
How does your driver's license show your U.S.
citizen?
So Florida tried to pass a law saying that your driver's license would have, where youhave male, female, would say US citizen, yes or no.
(16:56):
And so it would allow green card holders to have the legal ability to drive, but showtheir citizenship.
And it should.
And so we're gonna see that change.
The other one is only U.S.
citizens will be allowed to vote in federal elections.
And the other is all ballots for federal elections must be received by the federalelection day that's determined by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is the first Tuesday
(17:23):
after the first Monday in even-numbered years.
And so we're going to see that.
And the interesting thing here is that things that I've advocated for are not included inDonald Trump's
executive order like same day registration because that is a state rule.
And so even Donald Trump in his executive order decided to leave that alone and just say,Hey, I'm just
(17:46):
same same day registration?
So in some states, not Florida, in, for instance, Wisconsin, Minnesota, if you're notregistered to vote, you can go in on election day and register to vote and vote.
can take it all.
Well, because you, because how do you know if number one, it's wrong to ask a fellowcitizen to determine another citizen's eligibility.
(18:12):
It's just wrong.
It's like asking a juror to be a lawyer, to be a defendant.
if the ID changes?
Like if the ID shows that they're US citizen and all of that?
still don't register the same day and get to vote.
The onus is too large.
It's like asking a juror to be the lawyer for a defendant.
(18:33):
They're not qualified to make the determination if another citizen is qualified or not.
Let's say they bring in some other form of ID.
We know that in the one case that blew up in this last election was a University ofMichigan student.
goes and votes, he's 18 years old, he takes his college ID down, he looks at fellowcitizen in the face and says, hey, here's my college ID with a picture, and okay, sure,
(19:00):
you can vote.
He goes back and tells all his friends, he's like, hey, I voted, I'm so happy, it's myfirst time ever voting in America, it's great, and they're like, you broke federal law,
they can deport you for that, because you're from China.
You're Chinese citizen, you don't get to vote.
And so the guy was literally just,
He was awestruck that he broke the law, number one.
So he goes back to the precinct and says, Hey, I want my vote back because I think Iillegally voted because I'm not a U S citizen.
(19:28):
Well, then a poll watcher says, well, there's somebody who's a non-citizen who voted.
And then they come out and like, okay, so there's police are called.
It's a big brouhaha.
And this kid in this particular case, this kid made an honest mistake, but it proves alsothe point that I've made for 25 years that.
You know, once an illegal ballot is cast, it becomes a legal vote because while theychastise this kid a little bit, they slapped him on the wrist as they should have.
(19:55):
He wasn't running a fraud operation.
He was happy to experience the American experience and the laws in Michigan allowed him,they're so lax that a fellow citizen could not even stop this person from registering to
vote and casting a ballot.
And so the kids like, want my ballot back so it doesn't count.
(20:16):
Well, of course he can't get it back.
It's already been voted.
And so we're never going to take a vote out of that pile.
So we know that that one legal vote was counted in Michigan.
And we know that that happens all the time.
So I'm not sure where we started with this, but you know, the voting rights act certainlyexpanded federal authority and punishment for federal elections.
(20:39):
Certainly states are allowed to run their own elections.
I just I don't even understand that.
Like I just I still just don't understand how everything is not the same way in everystate.
Everybody is voting for one person.
So how do you not have all 50 states working the same exact way?
(21:00):
Like the rules are the same.
Trump's, Donald Trump's order does not even say that, that legal and illegal immigrantscannot vote.
You know, there are some States and cities that have, and have decided that, Hey, ifyou're here illegally, you should be able to vote because you know, you should have the
right to decide whether there's a playground in your community.
You're paying taxes here or whatever.
I disagree with that.
(21:20):
But Donald Trump said, you know, he did say in federal elections, you can't have legal andillegal immigrants vote, but
If a state law changes and says you want to have legal and illegal immigrants vote, goahead.
But now those states are going to have to decide the bureaucracy of that.
Are we going to provide two different ballots and then make sure that only thenon-citizens get one ballot, the local ballot, and only citizens get the federal ballot?
(21:45):
Now there's a whole different level of election fraud that can happen in precincts.
Okay, let's have it.
So if they do it by ID and they change the ID to show that everybody's a US citizen, theyhave special machines that are created just for that.
You stick your ID into it and then you can vote for federal.
(22:06):
If you don't have your ID and it's not right, then forget it.
There's tons of ways we can do this.
It is a brilliant idea.
oversimplifying it.
It's so complicated and beautiful.
It's a wonderful idea, baby.
idea.
mean, you get a card to stick into an ATM machine to get money out.
(22:27):
Why can you not have a...
They have the same thing to check IDs at bars.
You just run it through the machine and it says, oh, you're 21 or you're not.
So it should say, oh, you're a citizen or not.
bouncers can't do math and I couldn't either.
I wouldn't be able to tell that either.
But yeah, I think.
have to remember all the year.
Somebody turns 21.
It's usually written on the wall of the bar.
(22:48):
it's a perfect idea.
Federal machines should be different and you need to stick your ID in in order to be ableto do it.
So now we don't need fingerprinting.
Now we got it.
It's all taken care of.
Excellent.
You're welcome.
Section five.
All right, section five.
Congress sets its own rules.
(23:10):
What it says is a majority of members make a quorum to do business.
Each chamber writes its own rules, keeps a public journal of what happens with somesecrets allowed and can't break for more than three days or move without the others okay.
They can punish or expel members with two thirds vote.
What it means is Congress
polices itself, sets how it works, stays transparent and keeps people in line.
(23:34):
It's about independence and accountability.
So how this plays out.
In the 1800s, the House minority would dodge roll call to kill quorums and stall votes.
In 1890, Speaker Thomas Reed said enough and counted anyone in the room.
Dems hit under desks, but he won.
His Reed's role made the House functional again.
(23:57):
The Senate's filibuster, a role not in the Constitution.
In 2013, Democrats axed it for most judges to push Obama's picks.
Republicans did the same in 2017 for Gorsuch.
Both used Section 5's power, but it trashed old norms.
Each side screamed when they weren't in charge.
Yeah, so this is where I came up with the brilliant idea that Congress should change itsrule to make sure that states make laws for free, fair, and transparent elections.
(24:26):
And so they should include no voter registration, same day registration.
should include no illegals can vote.
And they can do this by rule because section five allows it, where they say that
If you are from a state that doesn't have a free, fair, and transparent election definedby those two or three things, then you are not seated, we're not seating anyone, Democrats
(24:50):
or Republicans from that state for organizational session.
And section five is what allows this type of thing to happen, where they can say, youknow, we're not gonna seat you.
So nobody from your state, like California, the other thing they should say is you have toreport your.
results within 24 hour, initial results within 24 hours.
Donald Trump's executive order does not cover that.
(25:11):
even do anything.
Don't show election night, don't do anything.
Nobody knows who won or who is losing until midnight, period.
That time period, election night, midnight, should, whatever time zone you're in.
can start announcing election results three hours to influence the California election.
(25:32):
So you're saying it should be 3 a.m.
on the East Coast, midnight in California.
So what about Hawaii?
So now it's 6 a.m.
semantics, wherever we can get everybody on board.
Okay, 6 a.m., 6 a.m.
Eastern time, everything gets rolled out the next day.
Yes.
Okay.
(25:54):
you know, if, so Donald Trump's executive order doesn't even cover that, but you allow,you would, you would keep, where was I at?
You interrupted me with midnight.
You should be out of the line.
You gotta stay with it, man.
I don't know what you were talking about.
about sessions, about voting and letting people in sessions and all of that.
(26:17):
You've said it.
Yeah, you would make sure that people are not seated and they would not be eligible to runfor speaker, vote on speaker, and you would have states fix this problem immediately.
Correct.
Okay, section six, members rights and restrictions.
What it says is Congress folks get paid from the Treasury.
(26:39):
They can't be arrested during session except for serious crimes and can say what they wantin debate without lawsuits.
They can't take other federal jobs created or boosted in pay during their term and no onein another branch can join Congress.
What it means, it protects lawmakers from harassment and keeps them honest.
No double dipping or rigging cushy gigs for themselves.
(27:02):
How it plays out.
The speech or debate clause saved Senator Mike Gravel in 1971 when he read the PentagonPapers aloud in a hearing.
Government couldn't touch him.
It's a shield for free talk.
want a cabinet job?
if Congress raised the pay while you're in office, you're out unless they fix it.
(27:25):
Nixon cut the
attorney general salary for Senator Saxbe in 1973.
Obama did it for Hillary Clinton in 2009.
It's a loophole around section six, no new jobs role.
That one was hard to read.
Yeah, so this is how cool our founding fathers were.
(27:46):
they were so afraid of the majority that they were concerned that the majority would roundup the minority and have them arrested or vice versa, depending on who was friends with
the police, that they put it in the constitution that you could not be arrested duringcongressional session.
How funny is that?
(28:08):
Who knows what was going on back then?
We thought it was bad now.
There must have been some shit going down.
they're hiding under desks.
So they're not counted.
Man, it had to be fun to be in Congress back there, right?
Like, it sounds pretty freewheeling.
But they're kind of like, oh, have to limit our members from having each other arrestedduring votes.
(28:35):
Yeah, my gosh.
All right, section seven, how bills turn into laws.
What it says is tax bills start in the house, but the Senate can tweak them.
Every bill needs both chambers, then goes to the president, sign it, veto it or let itsit.
If vetoed two thirds in both can override.
If Congress adjourns and the president doesn't sign in 10 days, it's a pocket veto.
(28:59):
It's dead.
What it means it's the recipe for laws, House Senate
president all get a say.
Checks and balances keep one branch from dominating.
How this plays out.
The Affordable Care Act started as a House tax bill, but the Senate gutted it and stuffedin Obamacare.
Critics said it broke the taxes start in the House role.
(29:21):
Courts shrugged and let it ride.
Vetoes are rare to beat.
Congress overrode Ford in 1974 for FOIA, Reagan in 1988 for civil rights, and Obama in2016
for a 9-11 lawsuit bill.
Takes guts and unity, doesn't happen often.
Yeah, so FOIA is the Freedom of Information Act.
(29:42):
yeah, and it should be hard to override a veto.
There should be some level of consensus.
it keeps, for instance, right now, let's say for instance, you had a Democrat president,but you had a Republican House and Senate.
Well, keeps that from just plowing through and over people.
And you still have...
(30:02):
know, people are like, oh, well, you know, the president's Republican.
So of course they're all going to get along.
And we now, you know, you see that, you know, when it comes to spending bills, you know,which is the major thing that Congress is supposed to do, even though they haven't passed
all 12 appropriation bills since 1997, they've, they argue about all this becauseeverybody wants their, either their power or their piece of the pie, or they have
(30:28):
You know, certain state has dairy farmers, others have sugar farmers.
And so even, you know, the community, even those who are major farm states don'tnecessarily all see eye to eye because somebody might be vegetables, somebody else's
cattle, you know, all of these different things.
And so it really is a pretty imperfect, perfect balance to ensure that yes, things can getdone, but it's hard to get anything done and it should be.
(30:54):
Okay, section eight Congress's power list.
What it says is Congress can tax spend borrow, regulate trade coin money set up courts,declare war raise armies and more.
The necessary and proper clause lets them do what's needed to make it all work.
What it means is this is Congress's toolbox specific powers but flexible.
(31:14):
It's if it's not here or in an or in amendments, it's supposed to stay with states.
So how this plays out.
The commerce cause went from trade roles to monster power.
FDR's New Deal, 1960s civil rights law, even marijuana bans all lean on it.
Courts pull it back a bit.
In 1995, guns near schools, but it was still huge.
(31:38):
War on Congress, but presidents run it.
No declaration since 1941, Korea, Vietnam, Libya.
All executive moves.
we had war actions without a declaration of war.
Okay.
All executive moves with Congress winking or whining the 1973 War Powers Act tried to fixthat president still dodged it.
(32:00):
Yeah, so, Congress still has to pay for the war or war actions, like we have inAfghanistan or, you Vietnam, but, naturalization of citizens is here in this where
Congress can determine the naturalization of citizens.
You have a lot of, I mean, this allows a broad power
(32:24):
a lot of broad power to Congress, but it also limits it because if it's not enumeratedhere, it doesn't exist in Congress.
And so, you know, for instance, it says we must have a Navy here.
It also is the reason why Ron DeSantis' bill this spring to basically set up his ownimmigration because Congress...
(32:49):
the naturalization of citizens comes under Congress and this particular section.
What Ron DeSantis was pushing was likely a violation of the Constitution in this veryparticular section.
Because it's enumerated in this section, a state cannot do it.
Okay, section nine, what Congress can't do.
(33:09):
What it says is no slave trade trade being before 1808.
No suspending habeas corpus unless rebellion.
No targeting people with laws or retro crimes.
No export taxes.
No favoritism.
No spending without approval.
No titles or foreign gifts without consent.
What it means is it limits Congress to protect rights, fairness and federal unity.
(33:31):
No playing favorites or acting like tyrants.
How this plays out.
Lincoln suspended habeas in 1861 to nab rebels.
Court said only Congress can.
Post 9-11, Guantanamo detainees fought for it.
Supreme Court said it stands.
Trump's money wall grab in Obama's ACA payments without Congress, courts slapped bothdown.
(33:53):
Section nine says the purse is Congress's.
Yeah, and it's sort of a list of things that Congress cannot do.
it talks about the census, the enumeration of people that...
I think this is where it says that a census must be taken every 10 years and it's paid forby Congress regardless.
(34:15):
So Congress can't say, you know what, we've had the California gold rush and all thesecitizens moved to California, but we're going to skip the census this year.
so they, they decided our founding fathers in, their infinite wisdom decided, then theywere very worried about jail here.
you can't just arrest somebody without due process.
by delaying habeas corpus.
(34:36):
And so you're in, it's kind of interesting to kind of go back and listen to this and readit, and go, okay, well, these guys have a healthy dose of paranoia, if because these
things were happening back in that time and they haven't happened.
And so we take it for granted.
And, the ability to arrest your political opponents, even though Nancy Pelosi tried toillegally impeach a president.
(35:00):
And you can argue that Republicans tried to illegally impeach Clinton over, quote, lyingto Congress, but it really wasn't about lying to Congress.
It was about the affair in the Oval Office.
So, but yeah.
All right, section 10.
States don't get to play king.
What it says a states can't make treaties, money, retro laws mess with contracts or startwars and less invaded.
(35:25):
No tariffs or deals with other with others without Congress saying yes.
What it means is it keeps states in check federal government runs the big stuff no statemini kingdoms, how it plays out the Confederacy in 1861.
treaties, money, war, all Section 10 no-nos.
They lost, proving states can't break free.
(35:46):
Missouri's 2021 gun law tried to nullify federal rules, courts killed it.
Sanctuary states dodge immigration help, but don't cross Section 10 yet.
Yeah, they probably do, by having sanctuary cities say that, they're, they're breakingfederal law.
for instance, I believe it was Texas.
I think this was a section.
(36:06):
I'd have to go do a little bit more research, but remember Texas decided to put barbedwire on its border to keep, immigrants out.
And Biden was like, no, no, you can't do that.
Well, this is kind of the section where Texas said, yeah, we can because.
we can control our own border because we're being invaded.
Like this word invaded means somebody you don't want coming illegally across your state.
(36:28):
And so they were able to use section 10 here to put up the barbed wire and keep it up.
Okay.
All right.
So that is the end of our sections.
So presidents grab parties twist states push article ones rules are solid on paper, butpeople bend them like pretzels.
So what's reasonable?
(36:48):
Is Congress still king or are we letting it slip?
So I think that anybody listening to this, if they have any comments, or any questions oranything like that, let us know.
And let's argue it out, right?
is still king because, it's a three-way balancing act.
It's a three-level, a three-plank seesaw almost.
So yeah, sometimes the courts pull a little bit more and they're taking over.
(37:14):
Sometimes the executive branch has a little bit more pull, certainly during times of war.
And then sometimes, Congress has a little bit more pull.
And so, so it's constantly seesawing back and forth and
You know, that's what makes it an imperfect perfection.
All right.
All right.
Well, with that, we will be back next week with Article 2, I guess, and going throughthose sections.
(37:38):
So we'll see you then.
All right, sounds great.
All right, so we are going back to school today, Jamie.
Yeah, so I do, which is weird.
That should have been a flag.
But I got this in the mail, which might be backwards.
Kirk.
from Charlie Kirk.
And I thought what a great thing to do is go over the constitution in layman's termsbecause I know I forgot it.
(01:19):
I know you didn't, but I'm sure that most people are like me and don't really know the insand outs of it.
So let's do it for the American people and let's give them the constitution in layman'sterms.
So today we're going to cover article one, sections one through 10.
Are you ready?
not trying to pack this all into one podcast.
(01:40):
Exactly.
It might be too much for people.
But all right, so let's break it down.
So Congress is part of the US government which writes federal laws.
It is made up of two groups, which is the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Their main job is to represent the American people in the states.
They hash out issues through debates and pass bills.
(02:02):
proposed laws.
Once a bill gets through both the House and the Senate, it goes to the President.
If the President signs it, or if Congress overrides a veto with enough votes, that billbecomes a law.
Picture Congress as a two-headed beast.
You have the House is big, a loud head tied to population, and the Senate is smaller, thecalmer one giving every state an equal say.
(02:26):
They're the nation's lawmakers, and Article 1 lays out how they roll.
the House of Representatives is often just called the House.
It is the People's House.
It's got 435 voting members right now, and each state gets a number based on population.
All of these folks serve two-year terms, so they're always on their toes.
They're trying to make a difference in as little time as they have, and they have theunique power to impeach officials.
(02:51):
So then we have the Senate.
which is dubbed the upper house.
It's smaller with 100 members.
There's two from each state, no matter how big or how small the state is.
And the senator serves six year terms, which gives them a little more breathing room, thatmakes the Senate steadier, less frantic body.
But they do have special powers because they confirm big presidential picks like theSupreme Court justices or cabinet members, and they approve treaties with other countries.
(03:15):
If the house impeaches someone, the Senate holds the trial.
acting like jury, the vice president is technically the president of the Senate, but onlyvotes to break ties.
And the Senate's vibe is more deliberate, less chaos, more mature debate.
So people say the house is where passions boil over and the Senate cools them down.
one quick thing just on impeachment.
(03:37):
So when people say somebody's impeached, people automatically think that, that meansthey've been removed from office.
If they've been impeached, it just means that they've been accused, quote, by the grandjury.
So the House is the grand jury, if you think of it from a law and order standpoint.
And then the Senate, if they vote in favor of impeachment,
(03:59):
That is what removes an elected official from office.
And we usually think of that as just presidential, but it's judges and you could impeachcabinet members.
You can impeach all kinds of federal officials, but it's the House that's the grand jurythat makes the formal accusation in the Senate who removes them.
And in an impeachment, there was one small error, is in an impeachment, the Chief Justiceof the US Supreme Court,
(04:26):
presides over the US Senate, not the vice president.
The vice president is the president of the Senate in every other case.
But if the impeachment is the president of United States, the vice president does notoversee that jury.
The chief justice of the...
Yeah, now I'm president.
Now I'm president.
(04:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Sorry to bog us down here on the very first thing, but just a few minor things of...
clarification just on impeachment and how that works.
Okay, all right, so section one, and we're gonna go through these in layman's terms tomake it easy.
So if you wanna see the real wording, get the little thing, which is great, but this isall gonna be layman's terms.
(05:07):
So section one, Congress holds the law making power.
What it says is all power to make federal laws belong to Congress, which is split into theSenate and to the House of Representatives.
That's it.
So it's short, but it's massive, right?
So what it means is only Congress can pass laws for the whole country.
The president can't do it and neither can the courts.
(05:31):
This sets up the separation of powers, making sure no branch runs everything.
It's the foundation of Congress as the voice of the people and states.
So how this plays out.
So back in 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, pushed his new deal to fix theGreat Depression.
When court struck down some parts, he got Congress to pass new laws to keep it going,sticking to section one.
(05:54):
But in 1950, Harry Truman, another Democrat, sent troops to Korea without Congressdeclaring war.
That's a legislative power, and Congress let it slide, setting a pattern where presidentsstart wars and Congress just nods.
So let's fast forward to modern times.
We have Barack Obama.
they're not wars, they're military actions and Congress does nod by paying for them.
(06:18):
Okay, paying for them monetarily.
Okay.
Fast forward to modern times when Barack Obama frustrated with stalled Congress usedexecutive orders for stuff like immigration and climate rules, saying I've got a pen and a
phone.
Republicans yelled he was bypassing Section One.
Then Donald Trump declared an emergency in 2019 to grab funds for his border wall afterCongress refused the full amount.
(06:45):
Democrats called it unlawful saying he was stealing Congress's law making role.
Both stretched the line, presidents acting like they can make or shift laws when Congresswon't play ball.
Yeah, everybody's going to push the lines of their powers.
certainly this is not exclusive to one party or one president.
Okay.
(07:05):
Section two, the House of Representatives, voice of the people.
What it says is House members are elected every two years by the people in each state.
You've got to be at least 25, a US citizen for seven years and live in the state yourepresent.
The number of reps per state depends on population updated by census every 10 years.
The House picks its own speaker and officers and it's the only one that can impeachofficials.
(07:29):
What it means is the House stays close to voters with short terms and population basedseats.
It's got the first say on taxes and can start the process to boot out bad actors ingovernment.
That three fifths compromise about counting enslaved people, it's history now wiped out bythe 14th Amendment.
How this plays out.
Ever hear of gerrymandering?
(07:49):
And I love this one, I read this, I didn't know about this.
I probably did, but I forgot it.
It kicked off in 1812 when Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry, a Democrat, a DemocraticRepublican, how does that work?
Yeah, they both, they were the Democrat, it was kind of a separation between Southern andNorthern Democrats.
Okay, signed off on a district map.
(08:10):
So it twisted like and look like a salamander.
the trick packing voters to favor his party stuck around.
Today, both sides do it.
After the 2010 census, North Carolina's Republican legislator drew maps to lock in 10 GOPseats out of 13.
One guy bragged he'd have gone 11/2 to if he could.
It's legal but messes with the fair representation idea in section two.
(08:33):
The second thing is impeachment.
Impeachment is a big deal here.
In 1998, a Republican House impeached Democrat Bill Clinton over lying about an affair.
Dems said it was petty politics.
Then in 2019 and 2021, a Democratic House impeached Republican Donald Trump twice, oncefor pushing Ukraine to dig dirt on a rival, then for the January 6th Capitol riot.
(08:56):
Republicans called it a witch hunt.
Each time it was partisan brawl, Section 2's toll used more for scoring points than fixinghigh crimes.
Yeah, I was not supportive of any three of those presidential impeachments, including theimpeachment of Bill Clinton.
I agree that it was, even at the time, distracting and, took away from work that couldhave been done.
(09:19):
but as far as Section 2 is concerned, we have, with gerrymandering,
it's a double edged sword because, in Florida, for instance, we have a fair districtconstitutional amendment that says, yes, the legislature can draw the maps, but the maps
must be compact.
They must make geographic sense.
(09:40):
They have to have some racial balance or, you know, some racial history put into it.
Although they don't say that, that's what they mean, and which is against the law.
But that's, how that works.
So there's probably two or three seats that are held by Democrats that would be held byRepublicans if we could gerrymander.
The problem is, in Democrat blue states, they still gerrymander.
(10:01):
So in California, they have an overbalance of Democrats because they have a huge Democratlegislature.
And, people think that there's not Republican areas, but there's certainly largeRepublican areas in California.
They just split them up and put them in more Democrat areas so the Democrats get morerepresentation in Congress.
New York has gerrymandered.
So, it's one of these things where truly the Fair District's amendment to the FloridaConstitution is almost an equal protection violation because our legislature isn't allowed
(10:31):
free reign like California and New York to draw the lines that they want.
And so it's, everybody likes the idea of saying, they should be fair.
But the truth of the matter is none of it's fair.
If you put three judges on this panel,
and had them draw it, you would have partisan judges.
We know that that's the case.
Everybody thinks, a judge is above partisanship.
(10:52):
And we all know that's BS.
And to go along with your Fierce AF podcast, that's what you should include in your BSsection, is that the judges are partisan people.
They have their own biases and they can't separate it.
That's right, it is BS.
Thank you, Jamie, for.
chiming in.
Section three, what it says is every state gets two senators originally chosen by statelegislators, but now by voters since the 17th Amendment in 1913.
(11:21):
You need to be 30 a citizen for nine years and live in your state.
The VP runs the Senate but only votes on ties.
The Senate picks its other leaders like the president pro tempore.
And it's the only body that tries impeachments needing two thirds to convict.
What it means is the Senate balances things out equal state power, longer terms and bigjobs like approving justices and holding trials.
(11:44):
It's less about the mob and more about stability.
So how this plays out.
Senate confirmations can get ugly.
In 2016, Republican leader Mitch McConnell refused to even consider Obama's Supreme Courtpick Merrick Garland saying it was too close to an election eight months out.
Democrats fumed.
Then in 2020 with weeks to go before the election, the same GOP Senate fast-trackedTrump's pick Amy Coney Barrett.
(12:12):
No rule was broken, but the flip-flop showed how partisan the Senate's advice and consentcan get.
Impeachment trials don't expect impartiality.
In Clinton's 1999 trial and Trump's 2020 and 2021 ones, senators voted almost entirely byparty.
(12:33):
Nobody got two thirds to remove.
Section three wants them as jurors but they're more like cheerleaders.
History's got a rare hero though.
In 1868, Senator Edmund Ross broke ranks to save Andrew Johnson by one vote.
Brave or bot, depends on who you ask.
Yeah, so the problem is, is that when the 17th Amendment changed the very nature of ourcountry and in a bad way.
(12:59):
And because since the 17th Amendment, I forget what year that was, 19, whatever it was,and early 20th century.
Yeah.
So that was when we went from state legislature
electing US senators to direct election by people, of course that makes sense, right?
(13:19):
People want more votes.
But what it took away was it diminished state rights and there's been an erosion of staterights over the last 110 years.
And that's going to be a problem in the next 110 years.
And so we should repeal the 17th Amendment and go back to legislatures electing the USSenate because as it was originally
(13:42):
intended the U.S.
House was supposed to represent people.
It's so much so that if there's a vacancy in the House, in the Constitution, it says thatthere must be an election to replace them, that a governor cannot appoint.
You know, and we know that the U.S.
a governor can still appoint because we just had a vacant for U.S.
Senate in Florida with Marco Rubio and Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ashley Moody.
(14:07):
So there's real life examples and because
Matt Gaetz resigned and Michael Waltz went to national security advisor.
We are having elections right now as we speak in Florida next Tuesday for both JimmyPetronis in North Florida and Randy Fine in Northeast Florida.
Okay.
(14:27):
So section four is elections and meetings, keeping it regular.
What it says is states decide how, when and where to hold elections for Congress, butCongress can step in and change those roles if needed.
Congress has to meet at least once a year, now set for January 3rd by the 20th Amendment.
What it means is states run the show on elections, but Congress has a veto to keep thingsfair.
(14:50):
The yearly meeting ensures lawmakers don't slack off like they did under the old articlesof confederation.
How this plays out.
Congress used section four to set election day as the Tuesday after the first Monday inNovember, standardizing what used to be state by state mess.
In the 1960s, they passed the Voting Rights Act to stop southern states from blockingblack voters, big federal muscles over state rules.
(15:14):
After 2020, election fights heated up.
Republicans in some states
Tighten voting laws, IDs, less mail voting, saying it stopped fraud.
Democrats pushed federal bills to override that, claiming it's suppression.
Trump's crew argued state courts extending mail deadlines, like in Pennsylvania, brokeSection 4's legislator-decides rule.
(15:35):
Courts mostly let it stand, but the tension's real.
Yeah, there's no question that specifically the governor of Pennsylvania, not the currentsitting governor, but the previous governor in 2020 broke election laws because the
legislature had the Pennsylvania legislature had the opportunity to require that everybodyget a mail-in ballot during vote during COVID and they chose not to take action.
(15:58):
And so the governor in his infinite wisdom decided to break the law and send mail-inballots to every single voter in the state.
probably costing Donald Trump the state.
so what Democrats have tried to do with voting over years and years, you have to have morevoters if you're gonna mine extra votes.
And so certainly with Donald Trump's executive order, just today, or just yesterday, andthe substack will go out Friday about this, Donald Trump, and all of these rules are just
(16:29):
towards federal elections.
But Donald Trump is requiring a voter ID that includes a citizenship clause.
So the driver's license alone won't work anymore unless your driver's license shows thatyou're a US citizen.
You can use your passport.
How does your driver's license show your U.S.
citizen?
So Florida tried to pass a law saying that your driver's license would have, where youhave male, female, would say US citizen, yes or no.
(16:56):
And so it would allow green card holders to have the legal ability to drive, but showtheir citizenship.
And it should.
And so we're gonna see that change.
The other one is only U.S.
citizens will be allowed to vote in federal elections.
And the other is all ballots for federal elections must be received by the federalelection day that's determined by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is the first Tuesday
(17:23):
after the first Monday in even-numbered years.
And so we're going to see that.
And the interesting thing here is that things that I've advocated for are not included inDonald Trump's
executive order like same day registration because that is a state rule.
And so even Donald Trump in his executive order decided to leave that alone and just say,Hey, I'm just
(17:46):
same same day registration?
So in some states, not Florida, in, for instance, Wisconsin, Minnesota, if you're notregistered to vote, you can go in on election day and register to vote and vote.
can take it all.
Well, because you, because how do you know if number one, it's wrong to ask a fellowcitizen to determine another citizen's eligibility.
(18:12):
It's just wrong.
It's like asking a juror to be a lawyer, to be a defendant.
if the ID changes?
Like if the ID shows that they're US citizen and all of that?
still don't register the same day and get to vote.
The onus is too large.
It's like asking a juror to be the lawyer for a defendant.
(18:33):
They're not qualified to make the determination if another citizen is qualified or not.
Let's say they bring in some other form of ID.
We know that in the one case that blew up in this last election was a University ofMichigan student.
goes and votes, he's 18 years old, he takes his college ID down, he looks at fellowcitizen in the face and says, hey, here's my college ID with a picture, and okay, sure,
(19:00):
you can vote.
He goes back and tells all his friends, he's like, hey, I voted, I'm so happy, it's myfirst time ever voting in America, it's great, and they're like, you broke federal law,
they can deport you for that, because you're from China.
You're Chinese citizen, you don't get to vote.
And so the guy was literally just,
He was awestruck that he broke the law, number one.
So he goes back to the precinct and says, Hey, I want my vote back because I think Iillegally voted because I'm not a U S citizen.
(19:28):
Well, then a poll watcher says, well, there's somebody who's a non-citizen who voted.
And then they come out and like, okay, so there's police are called.
It's a big brouhaha.
And this kid in this particular case, this kid made an honest mistake, but it proves alsothe point that I've made for 25 years that.
You know, once an illegal ballot is cast, it becomes a legal vote because while theychastise this kid a little bit, they slapped him on the wrist as they should have.
(19:55):
He wasn't running a fraud operation.
He was happy to experience the American experience and the laws in Michigan allowed him,they're so lax that a fellow citizen could not even stop this person from registering to
vote and casting a ballot.
And so the kids like, want my ballot back so it doesn't count.
(20:16):
Well, of course he can't get it back.
It's already been voted.
And so we're never going to take a vote out of that pile.
So we know that that one legal vote was counted in Michigan.
And we know that that happens all the time.
So I'm not sure where we started with this, but you know, the voting rights act certainlyexpanded federal authority and punishment for federal elections.
(20:39):
Certainly states are allowed to run their own elections.
I just I don't even understand that.
Like I just I still just don't understand how everything is not the same way in everystate.
Everybody is voting for one person.
So how do you not have all 50 states working the same exact way?
(21:00):
Like the rules are the same.
Trump's, Donald Trump's order does not even say that, that legal and illegal immigrantscannot vote.
You know, there are some States and cities that have, and have decided that, Hey, ifyou're here illegally, you should be able to vote because you know, you should have the
right to decide whether there's a playground in your community.
You're paying taxes here or whatever.
I disagree with that.
(21:20):
But Donald Trump said, you know, he did say in federal elections, you can't have legal andillegal immigrants vote, but
If a state law changes and says you want to have legal and illegal immigrants vote, goahead.
But now those states are going to have to decide the bureaucracy of that.
Are we going to provide two different ballots and then make sure that only thenon-citizens get one ballot, the local ballot, and only citizens get the federal ballot?
(21:45):
Now there's a whole different level of election fraud that can happen in precincts.
Okay, let's have it.
So if they do it by ID and they change the ID to show that everybody's a US citizen, theyhave special machines that are created just for that.
You stick your ID into it and then you can vote for federal.
(22:06):
If you don't have your ID and it's not right, then forget it.
There's tons of ways we can do this.
It is a brilliant idea.
oversimplifying it.
It's so complicated and beautiful.
It's a wonderful idea, baby.
idea.
mean, you get a card to stick into an ATM machine to get money out.
(22:27):
Why can you not have a...
They have the same thing to check IDs at bars.
You just run it through the machine and it says, oh, you're 21 or you're not.
So it should say, oh, you're a citizen or not.
bouncers can't do math and I couldn't either.
I wouldn't be able to tell that either.
But yeah, I think.
have to remember all the year.
Somebody turns 21.
It's usually written on the wall of the bar.
(22:48):
it's a perfect idea.
Federal machines should be different and you need to stick your ID in in order to be ableto do it.
So now we don't need fingerprinting.
Now we got it.
It's all taken care of.
Excellent.
You're welcome.
Section five.
All right, section five.
Congress sets its own rules.
(23:10):
What it says is a majority of members make a quorum to do business.
Each chamber writes its own rules, keeps a public journal of what happens with somesecrets allowed and can't break for more than three days or move without the others okay.
They can punish or expel members with two thirds vote.
What it means is Congress
polices itself, sets how it works, stays transparent and keeps people in line.
(23:34):
It's about independence and accountability.
So how this plays out.
In the 1800s, the House minority would dodge roll call to kill quorums and stall votes.
In 1890, Speaker Thomas Reed said enough and counted anyone in the room.
Dems hit under desks, but he won.
His Reed's role made the House functional again.
(23:57):
The Senate's filibuster, a role not in the Constitution.
In 2013, Democrats axed it for most judges to push Obama's picks.
Republicans did the same in 2017 for Gorsuch.
Both used Section 5's power, but it trashed old norms.
Each side screamed when they weren't in charge.
Yeah, so this is where I came up with the brilliant idea that Congress should change itsrule to make sure that states make laws for free, fair, and transparent elections.
(24:26):
And so they should include no voter registration, same day registration.
should include no illegals can vote.
And they can do this by rule because section five allows it, where they say that
If you are from a state that doesn't have a free, fair, and transparent election definedby those two or three things, then you are not seated, we're not seating anyone, Democrats
(24:50):
or Republicans from that state for organizational session.
And section five is what allows this type of thing to happen, where they can say, youknow, we're not gonna seat you.
So nobody from your state, like California, the other thing they should say is you have toreport your.
results within 24 hour, initial results within 24 hours.
Donald Trump's executive order does not cover that.
(25:11):
even do anything.
Don't show election night, don't do anything.
Nobody knows who won or who is losing until midnight, period.
That time period, election night, midnight, should, whatever time zone you're in.
can start announcing election results three hours to influence the California election.
(25:32):
So you're saying it should be 3 a.m.
on the East Coast, midnight in California.
So what about Hawaii?
So now it's 6 a.m.
semantics, wherever we can get everybody on board.
Okay, 6 a.m., 6 a.m.
Eastern time, everything gets rolled out the next day.
Yes.
Okay.
(25:54):
you know, if, so Donald Trump's executive order doesn't even cover that, but you allow,you would, you would keep, where was I at?
You interrupted me with midnight.
You should be out of the line.
You gotta stay with it, man.
I don't know what you were talking about.
about sessions, about voting and letting people in sessions and all of that.
(26:17):
You've said it.
Yeah, you would make sure that people are not seated and they would not be eligible to runfor speaker, vote on speaker, and you would have states fix this problem immediately.
Correct.
Okay, section six, members rights and restrictions.
What it says is Congress folks get paid from the Treasury.
(26:39):
They can't be arrested during session except for serious crimes and can say what they wantin debate without lawsuits.
They can't take other federal jobs created or boosted in pay during their term and no onein another branch can join Congress.
What it means, it protects lawmakers from harassment and keeps them honest.
No double dipping or rigging cushy gigs for themselves.
(27:02):
How it plays out.
The speech or debate clause saved Senator Mike Gravel in 1971 when he read the PentagonPapers aloud in a hearing.
Government couldn't touch him.
It's a shield for free talk.
want a cabinet job?
if Congress raised the pay while you're in office, you're out unless they fix it.
(27:25):
Nixon cut the
attorney general salary for Senator Saxbe in 1973.
Obama did it for Hillary Clinton in 2009.
It's a loophole around section six, no new jobs role.
That one was hard to read.
Yeah, so this is how cool our founding fathers were.
(27:46):
they were so afraid of the majority that they were concerned that the majority would roundup the minority and have them arrested or vice versa, depending on who was friends with
the police, that they put it in the constitution that you could not be arrested duringcongressional session.
How funny is that?
(28:08):
Who knows what was going on back then?
We thought it was bad now.
There must have been some shit going down.
they're hiding under desks.
So they're not counted.
Man, it had to be fun to be in Congress back there, right?
Like, it sounds pretty freewheeling.
But they're kind of like, oh, have to limit our members from having each other arrestedduring votes.
(28:35):
Yeah, my gosh.
All right, section seven, how bills turn into laws.
What it says is tax bills start in the house, but the Senate can tweak them.
Every bill needs both chambers, then goes to the president, sign it, veto it or let itsit.
If vetoed two thirds in both can override.
If Congress adjourns and the president doesn't sign in 10 days, it's a pocket veto.
(28:59):
It's dead.
What it means it's the recipe for laws, House Senate
president all get a say.
Checks and balances keep one branch from dominating.
How this plays out.
The Affordable Care Act started as a House tax bill, but the Senate gutted it and stuffedin Obamacare.
Critics said it broke the taxes start in the House role.
(29:21):
Courts shrugged and let it ride.
Vetoes are rare to beat.
Congress overrode Ford in 1974 for FOIA, Reagan in 1988 for civil rights, and Obama in2016
for a 9-11 lawsuit bill.
Takes guts and unity, doesn't happen often.
Yeah, so FOIA is the Freedom of Information Act.
(29:42):
yeah, and it should be hard to override a veto.
There should be some level of consensus.
it keeps, for instance, right now, let's say for instance, you had a Democrat president,but you had a Republican House and Senate.
Well, keeps that from just plowing through and over people.
And you still have...
(30:02):
know, people are like, oh, well, you know, the president's Republican.
So of course they're all going to get along.
And we now, you know, you see that, you know, when it comes to spending bills, you know,which is the major thing that Congress is supposed to do, even though they haven't passed
all 12 appropriation bills since 1997, they've, they argue about all this becauseeverybody wants their, either their power or their piece of the pie, or they have
(30:28):
You know, certain state has dairy farmers, others have sugar farmers.
And so even, you know, the community, even those who are major farm states don'tnecessarily all see eye to eye because somebody might be vegetables, somebody else's
cattle, you know, all of these different things.
And so it really is a pretty imperfect, perfect balance to ensure that yes, things can getdone, but it's hard to get anything done and it should be.
(30:54):
Okay, section eight Congress's power list.
What it says is Congress can tax spend borrow, regulate trade coin money set up courts,declare war raise armies and more.
The necessary and proper clause lets them do what's needed to make it all work.
What it means is this is Congress's toolbox specific powers but flexible.
(31:14):
It's if it's not here or in an or in amendments, it's supposed to stay with states.
So how this plays out.
The commerce cause went from trade roles to monster power.
FDR's New Deal, 1960s civil rights law, even marijuana bans all lean on it.
Courts pull it back a bit.
In 1995, guns near schools, but it was still huge.
(31:38):
War on Congress, but presidents run it.
No declaration since 1941, Korea, Vietnam, Libya.
All executive moves.
we had war actions without a declaration of war.
Okay.
All executive moves with Congress winking or whining the 1973 War Powers Act tried to fixthat president still dodged it.
(32:00):
Yeah, so, Congress still has to pay for the war or war actions, like we have inAfghanistan or, you Vietnam, but, naturalization of citizens is here in this where
Congress can determine the naturalization of citizens.
You have a lot of, I mean, this allows a broad power
(32:24):
a lot of broad power to Congress, but it also limits it because if it's not enumeratedhere, it doesn't exist in Congress.
And so, you know, for instance, it says we must have a Navy here.
It also is the reason why Ron DeSantis' bill this spring to basically set up his ownimmigration because Congress...
(32:49):
the naturalization of citizens comes under Congress and this particular section.
What Ron DeSantis was pushing was likely a violation of the Constitution in this veryparticular section.
Because it's enumerated in this section, a state cannot do it.
Okay, section nine, what Congress can't do.
(33:09):
What it says is no slave trade trade being before 1808.
No suspending habeas corpus unless rebellion.
No targeting people with laws or retro crimes.
No export taxes.
No favoritism.
No spending without approval.
No titles or foreign gifts without consent.
What it means is it limits Congress to protect rights, fairness and federal unity.
(33:31):
No playing favorites or acting like tyrants.
How this plays out.
Lincoln suspended habeas in 1861 to nab rebels.
Court said only Congress can.
Post 9-11, Guantanamo detainees fought for it.
Supreme Court said it stands.
Trump's money wall grab in Obama's ACA payments without Congress, courts slapped bothdown.
(33:53):
Section nine says the purse is Congress's.
Yeah, and it's sort of a list of things that Congress cannot do.
it talks about the census, the enumeration of people that...
I think this is where it says that a census must be taken every 10 years and it's paid forby Congress regardless.
(34:15):
So Congress can't say, you know what, we've had the California gold rush and all thesecitizens moved to California, but we're going to skip the census this year.
so they, they decided our founding fathers in, their infinite wisdom decided, then theywere very worried about jail here.
you can't just arrest somebody without due process.
by delaying habeas corpus.
(34:36):
And so you're in, it's kind of interesting to kind of go back and listen to this and readit, and go, okay, well, these guys have a healthy dose of paranoia, if because these
things were happening back in that time and they haven't happened.
And so we take it for granted.
And, the ability to arrest your political opponents, even though Nancy Pelosi tried toillegally impeach a president.
(35:00):
And you can argue that Republicans tried to illegally impeach Clinton over, quote, lyingto Congress, but it really wasn't about lying to Congress.
It was about the affair in the Oval Office.
So, but yeah.
All right, section 10.
States don't get to play king.
What it says a states can't make treaties, money, retro laws mess with contracts or startwars and less invaded.
(35:25):
No tariffs or deals with other with others without Congress saying yes.
What it means is it keeps states in check federal government runs the big stuff no statemini kingdoms, how it plays out the Confederacy in 1861.
treaties, money, war, all Section 10 no-nos.
They lost, proving states can't break free.
(35:46):
Missouri's 2021 gun law tried to nullify federal rules, courts killed it.
Sanctuary states dodge immigration help, but don't cross Section 10 yet.
Yeah, they probably do, by having sanctuary cities say that, they're, they're breakingfederal law.
for instance, I believe it was Texas.
I think this was a section.
(36:06):
I'd have to go do a little bit more research, but remember Texas decided to put barbedwire on its border to keep, immigrants out.
And Biden was like, no, no, you can't do that.
Well, this is kind of the section where Texas said, yeah, we can because.
we can control our own border because we're being invaded.
Like this word invaded means somebody you don't want coming illegally across your state.
(36:28):
And so they were able to use section 10 here to put up the barbed wire and keep it up.
Okay.
All right.
So that is the end of our sections.
So presidents grab parties twist states push article ones rules are solid on paper, butpeople bend them like pretzels.
So what's reasonable?
(36:48):
Is Congress still king or are we letting it slip?
So I think that anybody listening to this, if they have any comments, or any questions oranything like that, let us know.
And let's argue it out, right?
is still king because, it's a three-way balancing act.
It's a three-level, a three-plank seesaw almost.
So yeah, sometimes the courts pull a little bit more and they're taking over.
(37:14):
Sometimes the executive branch has a little bit more pull, certainly during times of war.
And then sometimes, Congress has a little bit more pull.
And so, so it's constantly seesawing back and forth and
You know, that's what makes it an imperfect perfection.
All right.
All right.
Well, with that, we will be back next week with Article 2, I guess, and going throughthose sections.
(37:38):
So we'll see you then.
All right, sounds great.
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