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Paper: When to Overthrow your Government: The Right to Resist in the World’s Constitutions

Ginsburg et al.* 60 UCLA L. Rev. 1184

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Abstract

On December 17, 2010, a young Tunisian street vendor protesting an abusive police official set off a wave of democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world.  In rising up against their governments, the peoples of the Arab countries were confronting an age-old problem in political theory: When is it acceptable to rise up against an unjust authority?  This question is not only of great importance to the peoples of the Middle East today but was also of profound interest to the American founders and, through them, has informed the very basis of modern constitutionalism.  It is perhaps unsurprising then that many countries’ constitutions allow the people to challenge or overthrow their governments under certain circumstances.  But to date, little systematic and empirical analysis has been done on the prevalence of this so-called right to resist in national constitutions or on what motivates constitutionmakers to adopt such a right.

 

This Article takes up the task.  It presents an original dataset on right-to-resist provisions in all national constitutions written since 1781, tracing such provisions’ historical trajectory and demonstrating how they have proliferated in recent decades.  The Article moreover provides the first-ever empirical exploration of why it is, exactly, that constitutionmakers give their people a constitutional mandate to overthrow or contradict their governing authorities—likely those very authorities elsewhere empowered by the same constitution.  Drawing on a range of real-world examples as well as regression analysis, we show that right-to-resist provisions are most likely to be first established following a disruption of the previous constitutional order, either through popular democratic transition or through a violent political break such as coup d’état.

 

These findings suggest that the constitutional right to resist serves a dual function, depending on its context.  On the one hand, the constitutional right to resist can represent a fundamentally democratic and forward-looking tool that constrains future government abuse, empowers the national citizenry, and acts as an insurance policy against undemocratic backsliding.  On the other hand, the right can serve as a backward-looking justification for coupmakers who seek retroactive legitimacy for whatever political crimes placed them in a position to make a new constitution in the first place.  Which of these two functions prevails may be in large part regionally determined.  Latin American constitutionmakers primarily adopted the right to resist in the aftermath of coups d’état, while in other parts of the world the right to resist functions as a precommitment device against undemocratic backsliding.

 

Our findings have significant implications for our broader understanding of constitutionalism.  Ostensibly, at the heart of any constitution lies a wish to bind the future on behalf of the present.  Yet our findings suggest that, at least in some cases, constitutional provisions may also serve the function of reinterpreting and justifying the past.  At least as far as the right to resist is concerned, constitutions are as much about yesterday as they are about tomorrow.

* Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Professor of Law and Ludwig and Hilda Wolf Scholar at University of Chicago Law School and Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation.

Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez is a Constitutional Research Fellow at the Comparative Constitutions Project and a J.D. Candidate, 2013, at the University of Chicago Law School.

Mila Versteeg is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Obamunist trip to Africa

Breaking: New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies

Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers reveal 38 targets including EU, France and Italy

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• Ewen MacAskill in Rio de Janeiro and Julian Borger
• The Guardian, Sunday 30 June 2013 14.33 EDT
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One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed Dropmire, which according to a 2007 document is 'implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC'. Photograph: Guardian

US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest 'top secret' US National Security Agency documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

READ MORE:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/30/nsa-leaks-us-bugging-european-allies

Fire Al Franken.

LIKE to retire Al Franken? Join our fight: http://bit.ly/14WuGSb

Vote for Mike McFadden http://www.facebook.com/MikeforMN

Judicial Watch: Obama Admin Collecting Financial Data From Private Citizens Without Warrants

by DEBRA HEINE 27 Jun 2013 310POST A COMMENT

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Well, we almost made it through a whole week without a new Obama Regime scandal, but the good folks at Judicial Watch never rest, and they announced today that they've obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) exposing that millions of dollars have been spent by the agency on the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans’ financial transactions,

READ MORE:  http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/27/Judicial-Watch-Obama-Regime-Collecting-Financial-Data-From-Private-Citizens-Without-Warrants

Best Bartender joke ever!!

A lawyer, and illegal alien, a pathological liar, a Muslim, a Communist, and a black man walk into a bar.

Bartender asks, "What'll it be, Mr. President?"

Greatest advice to the prince Libtard Schumer: You work for me!!!

Schumer thinks he's ordained from God.  Schumer, The American people are God.

GRAPHIC: I'm sure this animal will get the best lawyer at tax payer expense. Boston bombers did.

This victim Probably has a gun control law in her state. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speechless. Oh well they will make millions this year. Imagine a different scenario if you know what I'm talking about. "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Matthew 23 v 33 (King James Bible)

Quote of the day

No matter how healthy a man's morals may be when he enters the White House, he comes out again with a pot-marked soul.

Mark Twain.  (if he were alive today, the IRS would be auditing him)

Democratic Party official confesses to bribing IRS agents

In the midst of a far-reaching Internal Revenue Service scandal, a chairman of a local Democratic Party committee and father of an officeholder in New Jersey confessed on Friday that he bribed two IRS officials so that they would erase his federal tax debt, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

READ MORE:  http://www.examiner.com/article/democratic-party-official-confesses-to-bribing-irs-agents?fb_action_ids=10200305104414942&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210200305104414942%22%3A394333104021490%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210200305104414942%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

King Poverty Pimp: Tamara Holder Sleeps with Jesse Jackson – Jackson Aide Aruba Tommy Has to Clean Up the Hotel Room?

Thanks to Ninety Miles for the H/T

Two Tamara Holder posts, one after the other today. Tommy R. Bennett, known as ‘Aruba Tommy’ on Chicago radio, was an aide to the, uh, Revvvvrend Jesse Jackson. Aruba Tommy is a gay man. Attorney Thomas V. Leverso has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Tommy Bennett alleging he was used to escort wormen to the, uh, Revvvvrend Jackson’s motel hotel room for “sexual intercourse.” On one occasion, the hotel was the Hilton at Chicago O’Hare airport. The lawsuit alleges that Jackson visited Holder’s apartment while Bennett waited in a car outside, was known as his “mistress” and Jackson’s family was told about Tamara by another “mistress” via a letter.  According to Tommy, Fox News analyst and all-around ditsy Dem, Tamara Holder was among those women. Tommy says he was forced to clean up the mess “after” the hotel meet-ups.

Tamara Holder

Bennett worked for Jackson for more than two years and was known as “Aruba Tommy” on local Chicago radio station WVON. The lawsuit alleges that Bennett was subjected to “humiliating tasks” because he was a homosexual, such as “escorting women to his [Jackson’s] hotel room” and then being ordered to clean up after Jackson had sexual intercourse with them.
One of those women, the suit claims, was Tamara Holder, a pundit and criminal defense attorney who claims she “single-handedly” founded what she calls “a pro bono legal clinic at Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition.” A self-described Democrat, she appears regularly on Fox News to defend the Obama Administration and other prominent Democrats. “Because of the Democratic Party’s deep Chicago roots, Tamara has worked closely with some of the City’s most prominent leaders,” her website says. Source: Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media (AIM)

You can guess by now that gay man Tommy Bennett was fired by the Jackson organization, thus the lawsuit. Bennett claims discrimination by the Black Revvvvrend Jesse Jackson because he is gay.

The, uh, Revvvvrend Jesse Jackson

Yeah sure, I'll obey this stupid law

Queen Libtard strikes again: ‘YOU SUCK!’: NANCY PELOSI BOOED, HECKLED BY LIBERAL ACTIVISTS OVER SNOWDEN COMMENTS

Queen Libtard heckled by her own scum.  This is the most profuse, wretched degenerate politician in human history.  I wish she would seriously crawl back in the hole where she came from.

Liberal activists booed and heckled House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi after she stated Saturday that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden broke the law by leaking details of classified surveillance programs.

(Credit: Raw Story) 

It all happened at the annual Netroots Nation conference in San Jose, which gives “progressive voices…an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate” its site says.

The Huffington Post describes the scene:

As she spoke about the need to “balance” privacy and security, a man stood and yelled, “it’s not a balance, it makes us less safe.” The man continued to decry “secret courts,” and staffers began to escort him from the room.

Pelosi said it was fine for him to stay, but the man was eventually ejected. On the way out, some members of the audience began to shout at the staffers to “leave him alone.”

The conversation then shifted to Snowden, who on Friday was charged with espionage over his leaking of classified documents to media outlets.

Pelosi said that Snowden “did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents,” a remark that elicited boos and yells throughout the ballroom. One man screamed, “You suck!”

Others yelled “Secrets and lies!” and “No secret courts!” and “Protect the First Amendment!” according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Below is the full video of Pelosi’s remarks. She runs into resistance around the 47-minute mark, but things get hairy at about 50:45 after she calls Snowden a lawbreaker:

And here is a shorter clip of the most contentious section:

(H/T: HuffPo)

I love the beach

Q & A

Grandaughter:  Who are some of our great Presidents Grandpa?

Grandpa:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan.

Grandaughter:  Thats strange, My teacher said Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the only Presidents we have ever had.

Libtard Logic