Constitution Thursday

Dave & John look at Article 2, Sections 3 and 4

The treaty power and relationship between the Senate and the President

Dave & John take a look at Article 2 and Treaties with other nations

The new President, Gerald R. Ford, pardons the old President, Richard M Nixon. Thirty-nine years later, Dave & John take a look at Article 2 Section 2, Opinions and Pardons

The LPOV takes the show on the road to the VFW Hall in Turlock to have the show in front of a live audience.

An anonymous tip leads the stopping, searching and subsequent arrest of two men in California. Later the Supreme Court will take up the question as to whether or not an anonymous tip is sufficient probable cause to have stopped the truck, leading to the search and the arrest? Moreover, if the Court says that it is, what is the long-range effect on American Society? A live audience means questions and interactions!

Bonus 2013 Episode

Dave & John take a detour into the 5th Amendment and your right to remain silent

The authority to declare war

Dave & John explore the War Powers of the Commander and Chief in Article 2 Section 2

A look at the citizenship requirements for becoming President...

Dave & John look at the issue of who is eligible to be President

The process for electing the President was, like most things, a compromise...

Dave & John look at the process to elect a President

President Richard Nixon,  defending against the growing scandal of Watergate, has his lawyer argue before the  Supreme Court that he is a man who is as powerful as King Louis XIV...

Dave & John look at the Executive and what its powers were intended to be versus what they have become in Article 2 Section 1

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Even as the  Constitutional Convention is meeting in Philadelphia, the fallout from one of the "causes" of it is reaching its tragic conclusion. Captain Henry Gale is a  hero of the Revolutionary war. But he is also one of the leaders of last year's Shay's Rebellion. For that, he has been sentenced by the State of Massachusetts to death by hanging. As he languishes in jail, there is seemingly no hope.

The great question is whether or not a man who fought for Independence, and then rebelled against his home State when it denied those rights and freedoms for which he fought,  should be executed or rewarded? The state of Massachusetts has had its say. The  Convention will not finish in time and even if it does, it won't be ratified until long after Captain Gale has hung.

The tension is building. did we win our freedom from Great Britain only to have it replaced by  State Governments? Who will speak for the condemned man?

Is this what the  United States has become just five years after the end of the war?

What will the  Convention do as it considers the powers it wants to bestow on the new  Government?

=====================================================================================================================================

General rated as the BEST episode of Constitution Thursday, it is based on the marvelous book,  Shays' Rebellion: The Hanging of Co-Leader, Captain Henry Gale, by Lisa Saunders, a descendent of Henry Gale. It is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing stories I have ever read and I cannot recommend the book highly enough.   -ȸ