I. INTRODUCTION
A. Art of the Week
As the birds make their winter trip in synchronized form, they almost magically make the form of their species in live time in the air, captured in the moment by a photographer’s film, reminding us of the Creator’s noble design and winking at us in real time.
B. Recommendation of the Week
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard unmasked that many of the men at the Convention Hall in Philadelphia were not as enlightened and allied to the Founding generation as later history would tell the tale. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187702.An_Economic_Interpretation_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States
C. Wisdom of the Week
Affording politicians “a universal, unbounded permission” to take another’s liberty or property in the name of the public fisc will “when the expenses of the nation, by their ambition are grown enormous” inescapably “oppress and subject” the citizenry.” William Symmes.
D. Appearances
- Dr. Bowden
E. Best of the Board
- Birthright citizenship. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7341595/is-the-nationality-act-of-1940-the-proper-starting-point-for-analyzing-the-scope-of-subject-to-th
- Viva done w/ Candace. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516832/update-about-a-month-ago-i-asked-for-prayers-for-my-mom-since-we-were-going-to-get-an-update-on
- Curated content from @CCandent https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516486/title
- Massie: let’s leave NATO. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516236/massie-introduces-bill-to-get-us-out-of-nato-by-paul-dragu-the-new-american-representative-thom
- Nice ruling in PA. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516323/robertbarnes-well-at-least-there-are-still-a-few-judges-in-pa-that-follow-the-constitution-good-r
*Bonus: Personal hope. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7516832/update-about-a-month-ago-i-asked-for-prayers-for-my-mom-since-we-were-going-to-get-an-update-on
F. Best Across the Internet
- Disconnect from purpose.
II. THE EVIDENCE
A. NEWS OF THE WEEK: The Library
- EU crosses Rubicon. https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1999358779763183953?s=20
- Vaccines & chronic disease. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/125
- Disney’s AI gamble. https://x.com/HedgieMarkets/status/1999170314580746623?s=20
- Lindell goes for Governor. https://x.com/realMikeLindell/status/1999191330829009327?s=20
- Honduran election dispute. https://x.com/SalvaPresidente/status/1998955182277722383?s=20
*Bonus: Foster kids helped. https://x.com/MAHA_Action/status/1999241337745670236?s=20
B. DEEP DIVE: RUSSIA-US Reasons for Alliance
- Tucker: Russia-US natural allies. https://x.com/AFpost/status/1998968887724183834?s=20
- Russia: world’s richest resources. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-10-countries-by-value-of-all-their-natural-resources/
- Russia: world’s largest country. https://x.com/World_Insights1/status/1999029803458965765?s=20
- Russia: world’s largest nuclear arsenal. https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_arsenals
- Russia’s GDP replaced Europe. https://x.com/IslanderWORLD/status/1978510171589513504?s=20
*Bonus: Russia’s traditional culture. https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1998812811171082739?s=20
C. HOMEWORK: Cases in Controversy
- SCOTUS: Trump authority over bureaucracy. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/25-332_7lhn.pdf
- SCOTUS: campaign spending limits. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/24-621_q86b.pdf
- SCOTUS: sentencing the disabled. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/24-872_b07d.pdf
- SCOTUS: Covid immunity limits. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-180_8m59.pdf
- SCOTUS: Bondi defends Whitmer Fednapping convictions. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-5249/387036/20251210183835177_Croft_Opp_12.10.pdf
- Courts extend special protection to Maryland Man. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/paula-xinis-grants-abrego-garcia-tro-block-rearrest.pdf
- Share Ryan v. Crenshaw. https://x.com/ShawnRyan762/status/1999554231842349564?s=20
- Pipe Bomber Patsy. https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1999541341466866022?s=20
- Big Tech contempt. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/epic-games-vs-apple-ninth-circuit-opinion.pdf
- Pentagon wins trans ban. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/dc-circuit-trans-soldier-ban-opinion.pdf
- Russia Euroclear Arbitration possibilities. https://share.google/FdKIPKgvLfEeJXsUz & https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/treaties/bit/3645/belgium-luxembourg---russian-federation-bit-1989-
- Doctor liability for patient’s drugs. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/oregon-supreme-court-cyclist-doctor-liability.pdf
*Bonus: Ferrari Tennessee tax case up in flames. https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a69556804/whistlindiesel-tennessee-allegations-ferrari-tax-evasion/
**Bonus: Class Action AI in Healthcare. https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/news-insights/new-class-action-targets-healthcare-ai-recordings.html
***Bonus: What does AI own? https://www.commonplace.org/p/matthew-b-crawford-ownership-of-the
III. CLOSING ARGUMENT: Masterclass -- The Constitution Article I, The Power of the Purse
- The first power of the purse the Constitution affords the legislative branch of government in Article I is the power to pay themselves, as section 6 of Article 1 provides: “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.”
- The second power of the purse is Article I's most controversial and most consequential: the power to tax and the power to borrow, or, colloquially, the power to “raise Revenue” in section 7. The mechanism for “raising revenue” shall be by legislation that “shall originate in the House” and then be concurred with by the Senate. The power finds explicit enumeration in Section 8: lay taxes; collect taxes; lay duties; collect duties; lay imposts; collect imposts; law excises; collect excises; pay debts; borrow money on credit of the US; coin Money; regulate the value of Money; regulate the value of foreign Coin; fix weights and measures; appropriate money to support Armies (capped at 2 years); provide and maintain a Navy; provide for arming the Militia; and the broad “necessary and proper” catchall in Section 8. The power of the purse finds further enumerated restrictions within Section 1 itself, though subsequent Constitutional provisions could further constrain and restrain the power of the Purse: section 8’s requirement that all “duties, imposts and excises” must be “uniform”; section 9’s prohibiting a tax on importation of people capped at $10 per person; prohibiting any tax that constitutes a bill of attainder or ex post facto law; no direct tax unless apportioned amongst the states; no tax on exports; no port-preferential tax; and no money spent that is not “in consequence of appropriations made by law”.
- The Sixteenth Amendment clarified one key aspect of the power of the Purse: enumerating Congress “power to tax” including the power to “law and collect taxes on incomes” regardless of “whatever source derived” without requiring apportionment. This removal-of-the-source rule was later interpreted to be a Congressional reversal by Constitutional Amendment of the Pollock decision of 1896, and enshrining the dissenting opinion as the authoritative interpretation of the power of the Purse in the court’s Brushaber decision by the dissenting Pollock Judge turned Brushaber Chief Judge White. White would treat any tax on income as an indirect tax, and decided that’s all that the 16th Amendment authorized, codifying his 1896 dissent into the Constitution in 1913. White used the 1794 Carriage Tax Act to claim a direct tax was a tax on an object whereas an indirect tax was a tax on use, effectively affording a broad power to tax “incomes” as long as the subject of the tax was the gain severed from the source rather than a tax on existing or ownership. The absent clarity from the court enabled Congress to evade ever defining income itself subject to tax since 1916.
- This power of the purse exceeded that intended by many in the founding generation, as the Articles of Confederation did not authorize such centralized, federalized power to begin with, and the anti-federalists proved prescient in their warning against the bond-holding elite that packed the text-writing segments of the Constitutional Convention, as well detailed in Charles Beard’s Economic History of the Constitution. https://cdn.mises.org/11_1_6_0.pdf#:~:text=The%20Antifederalists'%20fundamental%20and%20most%20enduring%20objection,in%20nearly%20all%20of%20the%20Antifederalist%20writings.
- As one of that generation, known only as Federal Farmer, forewarned: “The only semblance of a check is the negative power of not re-electing them. This, sir, is but a feeble barrier, when their personal interest, their ambition and avarice, come to be put in contrast with the happiness of the people. All checks founded on anything but self-love, will not avail.”
