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Barnes Brief: Week of July 4, 2024
July 03, 2024
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Barnes Brief

Schedule

·      Wednesday, Bourbon w/ Barnes at 9ish pm eastern

·      Sunday at 6 pm eastern: Law For the People w/ Viva

·      Book Recommendation:

·      Closing Argument: Remembering the Revolution

Introduction: Top 10 Headlines of the Week

  1. Trump immunity.
  2. Trump trends.
  3. Harris plots.
  4. Donors fear.
  5. Biden won’t leave.
  6. Deep State plots.
  7. Trump lawfare.
  8. Europeans skeptical of Ukraine.
  9. Hurricanes incoming.
  10. Pension problems.

*Bonus: Fishing troubles from Hurricane.

Wisdom of the Day: “We for Ten Years incessantly and ineffectually besieged the Throne as Supplicants; we Reasoned, we Remonstrated with Parliament in the most mild and decent Language. But Administration, sensible that we should regard these oppressive Measures as Freemen ought to do, sent over Fleets and Armies to enforce them.” Representatives of the Colonies, 1775.

The Evidence: Top Ten Articles Curated from The Barnes Library

  1. Immunity decision summation. https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/07/justices-rule-trump-has-some-immunity-from-prosecution/
  2. The unrealism of Dump Biden. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-absurdity-of-the-dump-biden-uprising/ar-BB1phY5B
  3. SCOTUS greenlights censorship. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/07/02/no_remedy_for_censorship_the_perils_of_murthy_.html
  4. Need for military reform. https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/06/29/next_secretary_of_defense_1041262.html
  5. Trump joins Medical Freedom. https://x.com/BoLoudon/status/1808187088455471349
  6. Dem Delegate rules
  7. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/07/02/democrats_convention_rules_actually_give_delegates_some_leeway_151193.html
  8. Deep State Debate rigging. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/06/26/james_clapper_mr_october_surprise_how_obamas_intel_czar_rigged_2016_and_2020_debates_against_trump_1040444.html
  9. Petrodollar concerns. https://realinvestmentadvice.com/petrodollar-panic-separating-fact-from-fiction/
  10. Industrial resurrection. https://chroniclesmagazine.org/columns/short-views/rebuilding-what-weve-lost/

*Bonus: ACLU’s anti-Trump obsession. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/how-the-aclu-is-planning-for-the-return-of-trump/

Homework: Top Dozen Cases TBD on Sunday Show

I.          SCOTUS: Suing agencies. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-1008_1b82.pdf

II.         SCOTUS: Social Media https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-1008_1b82.pdf

III.        SCOTUS: Trump Immunity https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

IV.        SCOTUS: Social Media Cert https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/doe-snap-thomas.pdf

V.         SCOTUS: Unconstitutional Agencies Cert https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/doe-snap-thomas.pdf

VI.        SCOTUS: Racial Jury Selection Cert https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/king-warden-jackson-dissenting.pdf

VII.       SCOTUS: Prosecutorial Misconduct https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/king-warden-jackson-dissenting.pdf

VIII.       SCOTUS: 2nd Amendment. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-877_8nka.pdf

IX.         SCOTUS: Jury trial presence. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-5618_7648.pdf

X.          SCOTUS: Jury trial numbers. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-5171_5426.pdf

XI.        Trump motion for mistrial in New York. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24787717-trump-letter

XII.      Vaccine mandate verdict. https://www.local3news.com/local-news/fired-bcbst-employee-awarded-680k-in-covid-19-vaccine-lawsuit/article_0c883e0c-37da-11ef-a546-0b8b7c35ef7f.html

*Bonus: Trump search. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/cannon-ruling-franks-hearing-warrant-trump-classified-documents.pdf

** Bonus: Biden Export Ban overturned. https://ago.wv.gov/Documents/LNG%20ruling.pdf

*** Bonus: Missouri Sues New York https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/Missouri-v.-NY.pdf

Closing Argument: Remembering the Revolution

  • No better expression of the meaning of the Constitution exists than the American Revolution itself. The Revolution established the principle “that all civil government, as far as it can be denominated free, is a creature of the people. It originates with them. It is conducted under their direction; and has in view nothing but their happiness.” Any government unconsented to by the people is not a “free” government.
  • Let’s start from First Principles. At the outset, each individual human may “assume among the power of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” All legitimate power derives from the consent of the governed; any other asserted power is usurped, illegitimate and unfree. This surmises the first of the Eternal Truths we know to be “self-evident.” Of note, the appeal to conscience and the archives of Nature – God’s writing on the soul of each human and the world created – provides the first and foremost admissible evidence in support of these truths. This informs the reason “all man are created equal” and “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” The origin of government is “to secure these rights” as the only “just powers” must obtain “the consent of the governed.” Nothing better surmises the core precepts of the Revolution: respect for each human being as a human being, and the constraints on civil society and authorized governance to respect the rights of each human being.
  • Every principle and precept of the Constitution should be read in light of its purpose: “to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” The Constitution must “provide new Guards for their future security” of their “unalienable rights.” What are those unalienable rights? At a minimum, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  
  • The litany and list of offenses against those unalienable rights give us further definition of what the Constitution must be a security Guard against. Refusing to “assent to laws.” The right of Representation. Distant venues of representative assemblies. Border mismanagement. No independent judiciary. Biased judges corrupted by loyalty to something other than the law and the rights of the people. A ridiculous multitude of new administrative offices that “harass our people and eat out their substance.” Standing armies. A military power above the law. Foreign jurisdiction. Mock trials that protect the politically connected. Taxation without representation. Depriving the people of Trial by Jury. Venues and vicinages of trials beyond their home. Military drafts for perfidious wars. Left defenseless against invasion. Refusal to answer petitions for redress of grievances. An unwarrantable jurisdiction of government over the citizen. In objection to this, they declared independence and swore their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.
  • These principles should form the frame for filtering any Constitutional question of today. We witness in the DC courts the recreation of “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.” We see in the NYC courts “a mock trial” that makes a mockery of justice. We see in the judicial denial of jury trials in a range of case the “depriving us in many case of the benefits of
    Trial by Jury.” We see in the self-aggregating administrative state a hungry bureaucracy “erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
  • A simple refrain for any Constitutional question must commence with What Would the Revolutionaries Do? Answer that question, and the Constitution comes alive an entire new light, like the night skies of the Fourth around America.
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The Weekend Barnes Brief: Friday, May 8, 2026
 
I. THE INTRODUCTION
 
A. Art of the Week
  • Venezia. The Atlantis-like ancient city with its bridges over canals, long boats mastered by the gondolier, the city whose balls made masquarade masks famous, where artisans of show-making spend a whole day to make a single show of artistic wonderment, a hidden restaurant in a corner alley uncovers the best Italian cuisine, and the city whispers of its centuries of stories from its cathedrals and water-hugging mansions of Casanova’s fame. 
 
B. Wisdom of the Week
  • You’re never out of the race. 
 
C. Cultural Recommendation of the Week
 
D. Appearances
 
 
 
II. THE EVIDENCE
 
A. Barnes Library: Weekly Curated Articles
 
 
B. Homework: Sunday Show Cases
  1. Malpractice. https://www.foxnews.com/us/iowa-woman-died-hernia-repair-nurses-dismissed-painful-post-surgery-symptoms-lawsuit
  2. Gates fake meat goes to court. https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Events/Article/10760/Opinion-Fake-Meat-Real-Trouble-Texas-Won-t-Bow-to-Billionaires-or-Bureaucrats
  3. DOJ sues Commierado for 2A.https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1439591/dl
  4. DOJ promises action against Big Ag. https://www.fooddive.com/news/beef-prices-trump-antitrust-doj-investigation/819331/
  5. Democrat raided. https://courthousenews.com/fbi-raids-democratic-virginia-state-senators-office/
  6. Insider trading indictment. https://www.justice.gov/d9/2026-05/usa_v._fejal_et_al_-_indictment.pdf
  7. Insider trading investigation https://seekingalpha.com/news/4588393-doj-probes-26b-in-war-linked-oil-trades---report
  8. Pay for play investigations https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pardon-recipients-democrats-congressional-investigation-pay-to-play/
  9. EU: must allow welfare for migrants. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/kh-inps-cjeu-judgment.pdf
  10. DEI may lose, even in Twin Cities. https://courthousenews.com/minneapolis-public-schools-struggles-in-trump-suit-over-dei-policy/
  11. China spies on trial. https://courthousenews.com/feds-describe-global-network-of-chinese-police-stations-at-nyc-spy-trial-opening/
  12. Tiger’s DUI: Implied Consent Constitutionality Questions. https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1401&context=elj
 
C. Deep Dive: The Economy
  1. Stock Market & Commodities: 
  2. AI Bubble & Capital Shift
  3. Housing
  4. Gold’s future. https://substack.com/inbox/post/196409142
  5. Inflation expectations. https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/inflation-expectations-jump-3-year-high-financial-pessimism-surges-ny-fed-survey
 
D.  Best of the Board
 
III. THE CLOSING ARGUMENT: Constitution Masterclass -- The 30,000 Cap
 
  • Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 provides: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative.”  Interpretations clash: was this intended to impose a cap on the number of people a member of the House could represent, or the number of Representatives that could ever be in the House? Equally, who can enforce the rights of Section 2 as applied to Representatives?
  • Congress capped the number of representatives by the Permanent Apportionment Act of June 18, 1929, and has not changed it since. A 1941 federal law provided the means to assign seats after the Census. States contested this when it lost a seat after the 1990 census due to this cap.  The Supreme Court acknowledged this was not a question submitted exclusively to the Legislative branch as a “political question” beyond its jurisdiction to resolve. Thus, the question turns to the import and intent of the 30,000 rule — is it a cap on the number of representatives or is it a ceiling on the number of people represented?
  • The phraseology can be read either way — that the restaint is on the “number of” Representatives in a ratio to the population rather than the population size represented by the District; or that the ratio intends a cap on the number of people represented by each representative. Linguistically, the former argument holds more sway; historically and philosophically, the latter argument proffers more persuasive evidence.
  • If we see it as sufficiently ambigious to turn to the Constitutional record, we find that the ratio of the house to the population was intended to be close to the people at a size no more than 30,000 people, reflected in the papers of the Founding Fathers themselves.
  • Indeed, the controversy over this language almost sunk the Constitution itself, despite the supporters arguing in Federalist Papers throughout that this was a minimum of people to be represented not merely a cap on the number of representatives in the House. So much so, that the very first amendment ever proposed was to clarify this point: that the minimum number of representatives must be proportional to the population in a strict ratio. Due to an editing error as passed by Congress, the amendment never passed, though mostly it faded as the Founding generation protected the intended ratio in fact.
  • The best plaintiff to seek such a relief would likely be a state without representation due to the absence of this maximum number of people per representative, given the prior case-law on the subject, or, of course, Congress itself could remedy the problem all by itself. 
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The Briefer Barnes Brief: Thursday, May 7, 2026
  • Art of the Day
Something majestic of a colorful Oriole in flight, the feeling of freedom in the outstretched wings to soar in the sky, beyond gravity and above the landed earth, ready to roam and reign while seeking a safe and strong landing place for a bit of a rest. 
 
  • Board Post of Note
 
 
  • Economics
Burry of Big Short fame: Yen trade unwinding impacts. https://substack.com/@michaeljburry/note/c-205215463
 
  • Politics
Tucker & Massie.
 
  • Law
 
  • World
Peruvian elections feature left-right battle. https://boz.substack.com/p/peru-presidential-election-polls
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The Briefer Barnes Brief: Wednesday, May 6, 2026

I. INTRODUCTION

  • A.  Art of the Day: Best way to start a day: early morning coffee. Maybe on a back porch. Maybe at a kitchen table. Maybe in a friendly diner. Maybe at a corner caffe. Maybe in a local coffee house. A tradition commenced in the hills of Yemen, it traversed the Islamic world until it reached Europe, where it turn the holy inspirational drink in the Turkish caves to the everyday place of chatter in the newborn cafes of Europe in the 17th century. Be that as it may, for many still, it signals the start of the day in a good way. 
  • B.  Board Post of the Day: https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7905561/title
II. THE EVIDENCE 

A.  Barnes Library

  1. Economy: Snider on gas prices.
  2. Culture: World Cup interest dims. https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2026/05/05/hotels-world-cup-non-event-so-far/
  3. Politics: Massie mini-documentary.
  4. Law: Abortion pill at SCOTUS. https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/05/abortion-pill-dispute-returns-to-supreme-court/
  5. Geopolitics: Larry Johnson on Trump’s mixed signals. https://sonar21.com/ball-of-confusion-trumps-mixed-signals-on-iran/
*Bonus: Animated Fed history told by some friends of mine years ago that they gave away for free. 
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