I.   INTRODUCTION

A.   Art of the Week

·      One of the first superb memes for the Brief, recollecting a device many youngsters might not even recognize: the old typewriter, with its diligent use of the keys that moved like a an old cash register before recording its mark onto the page, and the ever needful Whiteout to fix the inevitable error, stacking the pages neatly somewhere nearby because once lost, never recovered. A time when writing required a different kind of dedication.

B.   Wisdom of the Week

·      “Civility is not a sign of weakness, but of strength.” President John Kennedy.

C.   Recommendation of the Week

·      Current book club reading over at People’s Pundit on the important virtue of a return to civil society. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17974854-our-virtuous-republic

D.  Appearances of the Week

·      Chatting w/ Stanislav.

II.   The Evidence

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I. INTRODUCTION

A.  Art of the Week

A dream work space, atop a lighthouse, with wrap-around windows above the ocean’s roar and the tumult of the waves cresting and crashing against the rocks below, a wrap-around desk to match the window shape, a good hard wooden chair for support, and the necessary small heater with stove to keep it warm and refreshed. I love architectural spaces that marry the inner world to the outside, the natural external environment to the man-made inside. Makes me want to read, work, think, and dream. 

B.  Recommendation of the Week

The peculiar history of the Sixteenth Amendment. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22474138-the-law-that-never-was-vol-1-the-fraud-of-the-16th-amendment-and-pers

C.  Wisdom of the Week

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” Frederic Bastiat. 

D.  Appearances

• Barnes Brothers
  
• Betting w/ Barnes AMA https://sportspicks.locals.com/post/7619256/live-betting-w-barnes-wednesday-january-21-2026
• Tennessee Press Conference https://x.com/StacyCase_/status/2014088250185359451?s=20
• RT Perspective Interview
  

II. THE EVIDENCE 

A reminder: links are NOT endorsements of the authors or their interpretation of events, but intended to expand our library of understanding as well as expose ideas of distinct perspective to our own. 

A. Barnes Library: Five of the Top Curated Weekly Articles 

1. Dems warn: losing cultural issues. https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/democrats-and-the-siren-call-of-culture
2. Replicating DOGE. https://www.city-journal.org/article/elon-musk-doge-states-waste-fraud?skip=1
3. Cuba next for regime change. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/is-cuba-next/ar-AA1UEeUA
4. Trump 2024 coalition lost. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/22/polls/times-siena-national-poll-crosstabs.html
5. Out of WHO! https://thehill.com/policy/international/5702306-us-officially-withdraws-from-who/

B. Homework: Dozen of the Top Cases of the Week for Sunday

1. ICE Home Raids w/o a Warrant. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/can-ice-enter-a-home-to-make-an-arrest-with-only-an-administrative-warrant
2. Don Lemon charges. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/22/don-lemon-prosecution-justice-department-00741629
3. SCOTUS: state rules in Med Mal cases. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-440_1b82.pdf
4. SCOTUS: Restitution is punishment. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-482_d1oe.pdf
5. SCOTUS: Time deadlines for void cases. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-808_lkgn.pdf
6. SCOTUS: Trump & the Fed. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/25a312_c0nd.pdf
7. SCOTUS: 2ndA. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2025/24-1046_hejm.pdf
8. 2A & property. https://courthousenews.com/appeals-court-weighs-challenge-to-texas-gun-signage-laws/
9. Trump vs JP Morgan. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/trump-v-jp-morgan-miami-eleventh-judicial-circuit.pdf
10. Games of chance. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/minnesota-tribe-loses-challenge-to-electronic-table-games.pdf
11. Target cancer. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/dangerous-acne-treatment.pdf
12. Bayer immunity. https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/monsanto-company-v-durnell/

*Bonus: Section 241 & 1A. https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/monsanto-company-v-durnell/

**Bonus: Section 241 in the 8th Circuit. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/6/1297/576550/

***Bonus: Warrants. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/443/

C. Best of the Board: Ten of the Top Posts

1. Stay chill. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627349/title
2. JD welcome. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627643/i-sure-hope-and-pray-that-jd-gets-a-chance-to-lead-our-country-after-this-trump-administration-he
3. Peace Board thoughts. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627852/a-very-interesting-take-on-trumps-peace-board-is-trump-creating-a-new-organization-undermining-the
4. Immigration data review. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627593/food-for-thought-are-the-claims-that-around-2-million-illegal-aliens-have-already-self-deported-too
5. Fun satire. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627870/title
6. Scott Adams memorial. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627060/livestream-in-honor-of-scott-adams-next-sunday-jan-25-i-hope-it-s-the-biggest-livestream-ever
7. Brilliant photos. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7626511/some-northern-lights
8. CIA Insanity. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7626494/robertbarnes-robert-barnes-has-repeatedly-referred-to-this-egregious-seymour-hersh-article-in-re
9. Don Lemon Church videos. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627194/here-is-dons-full-live-stream-im-not-good-at-clipping-things-out-or-screen-recording-so-those-of
10. Fun memes. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7627227/title

*Bonus: Biblical wisdom. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7626746/today-s-thought-11and-behold-there-was-a-woman-which-had-a-spirit-of-infirmity-eighteen-years

III.  Closing Argument: Constitution Masterclass Series — Article I, Power to Tax

• As part of the enumerated legislative powers granted Congress by the Constitution, none is more potent, and potentially destructive, of liberty and property than the power to “raise revenue.” Under section 8 of Article I, this affords the “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposes and excises” to “pay the debts” or “provide for the common Defense” or provide for “the general Welfare of the United States.” Of note, the Constitution separately affords the legislative branch methods of revenue raising independent of taxes and tariffs — the power “to borrow money on the credit of the United States” and the power “to coin money” as well as “regulate the value thereof.” 
• The limits on this power to tax derive from several other sections of Article I. Under Section 7 of Article I, all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House, not the Senate. The next limit is substantive rather than procedural: “all duties, imposts and excises” have to be “uniform throughout the United States.” The foremost, fundamental limit requires any “direct taxes” must be “apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union.” Indeed, section 9 of Article 1 imposes the requirement that “no capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein.” Of note, no tax could be imposed on articles exported from a state. 
• These two big requirements — Uniformity and Apportionment — are the key restraints on the power to tax, segregating taxes into two separate categories: Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes. Indirect Taxes only require Uniformity. 
• Uniformity requires indirect taxes operate with the same force and same effect in every state, precluding Congress from geographical favorites. Uniformity is solely a prohibition on the geographic impact of the tax, rather than classification based on some factor other than geography. Apportionment is the real hurdle. Apportionment req tires direct taxes be divided among the states based on  that state’s population, a politically impossible barrier to cross in the modern era. This effectively neuters the power of Congress to impose any Direct Tax without Constitutional Amendment. 
• What then is a Direct Tax? The first case to address this dates to the early years of our Constitutional Republic, when Supreme Court Justices wrote their own opinions, often without a shared majority. The law at issue as a carriage tax. Complaining about how apportionment would make any tax “absurd and inequitable” the early Court decided to water down the Direct Tax definition in order to escape the Apportionment Constitutional conditionality of such a tax. The split amongst the jurists left the question mostly undecided, with the dumbest argument being the Justice who claimed if a Direct Tax could not be easily apportioned, then it was magically no longer a Direct Tax. The latter would be invalidated and effectively mocked by the Court a century later, when it noted “such a tax, for more than one hundred years of national existence, has as yet remained undiscovered, notwithstanding the stress of particular circumstances has invited thorough investigation into sources of revenue.” 
• The Court invalidated the income tax portions of the Tariff Act of 1894. That Act limited itself to a 2% tax on $4K+ of income, which 99% of Americans did not owe, as exempt from it. The tax imposed a tax on real estate rents, and Congress justified it as an excise tax and thus Indirect. The Court clarified the definition of Direct Tax in accord with originating principles: any tax whose liability “cannot be avoided” was a Direct Tax; only taxes that could “shift the burden upon someone else” with “no legal compulsion to pay them” were considered Indirect. The Court went further, and identified Direct Taxes as the kind commonly imposed by States at the time of the Founding, including taxes on real estate, personal property, or the rents or income thereof, like taxes on people. Taxes on franchises, privileges or use were seen as Indirect Taxes. The dissenting justices would have held a tax on revenues “severed from the source” of those revenues was an Indirect Tax. That dissent would matter decades later. 
• The Sixteenth Amendment removed the apportionment  clause for the tax power, providing: “Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States” or in proportion to the census or enumeration herein. Why? Because the Supreme Court determined the 1893 federal tax on incomes was a “Direct Tax” that had not been apportioned. This removal of “incomes” from the apportionment requirement tempted Congress to never define the word income itself in the future hope they could escape and evade the apportionment requirement by just labeling a future new tax a tax “on incomes.” 
• The understanding of how broadly Congress could label a tax as an “income” tax to escape apportionment for direct taxation took a turn in 1916, when dissenting Justices from the prior 1896 decision now held sway. They decided that the 16th Amendment merely codified their 1896 dissent, thus forever constraining Congress’ capacity to use the income tax exception from apportionment as its escape and evasion tool. Congress’ answer was to simply never define income ever again, except in manners self-referential and circular. 
• A fully enforced Constitution would find any tax on property or people directly that make individual Americans liable must be apportioned unless within the limited definition of income the Court gave it — gain and profit severed from the source of that gain and property. Like much of our policy debates, a solution often sits in the text of the Constitution itself. 

I. INTRODUCTION

A.  Art of the Week

• The shadows chasing the light along the wall, sitting back pondering and searching for the perfect expression, the contemplative thought at the typewriter seeking the text to capture the image and escape the mind into the universe and speak it into truth, French doors open the platform under a Moroccan style key-shaped window onto the world outside mirroring the mind within. An artistic articulation of the weekly entreaty to craft the Barnes Brief.  

B.  Recommendation of the Week

• A favorite of our Founders — The Law of Nations. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4618391-the-law-of-nations

C.  Wisdom of the Week

• “Here then is an infallible criterion, by which the nation may judge of the intentions of those who govern it ... if they corrupt the morals of the people, spread a taste for luxury, effeminacy, a rage for licentious pleasures, - if they stimulate the higher orders to a ruinous pomp and extravagance, - beware, citizens! beware of those corruptors! they only aim at purchasing slaves in order to exercise over them an arbitrary sway.” Emer de Vattel, The Law of Nations. 

D.  Appearances

• Sidebar w/ Col. Macgregor https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7601541/live-with-colonel-douglas-macgregor-are-we-on-the-brink-of-world-war
• Sidebar w/ Max Blumenthal https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7595594/live-with-max-blumenthal-trumps-action-in-venezuela-to-iran-chaos-what-comes-next-viva-barne
• LIVE w/ the Duran
  

II. THE EVIDENCE

A.   Barnes Library: Ten of the Top Curated Weekly Articles 

A reminder: links are NOT endorsements of the authors or their interpretation of events, but intended to expand our library of understanding as well as expose ideas of distinct perspective to our own. 

1. Democrats losing path on Immigration. https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/the-bankruptcy-of-the-democrats-elvis
2. Dems’ Identity Politics problem. https://josephklein.substack.com/p/dem-blindness
3. Gun-boat politics: the risks. https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/01/what-would-trumps-threatened-strikes-colombia-mexico-or-cuba-achieve
4. Google as AI Dictator. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/will-google-organize-the-worlds-prices
5. Trucker protest to secession. https://trendcompass.substack.com/p/breakup-of-canada-alberta-independence
6. The literary scam. https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/perhaps-people-are-cynical-about
7. Russia’s new weapon: Thor’s Lightning. https://bmanalysis.substack.com/p/oreshnik-vs-lviv-targets-i
8. Pardon problems. https://x.com/kenvogel/status/2012223411523588300?s=20
9. Iran: bombs not problem-solvers. https://substack.com/home/post/p-184501786
10. Iran CIA-Mossad coup fails. https://substack.com/home/post/p-184279171

*Bonus: Board member w/ The Duran on Venezuela

B.  Homework: Cases of the Week for Sunday

1. Powell Prosecution https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/the-powell-affair-and-the-limits?
2. SCOTUS: 4th Amendment https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-624_b07d.pdf
3. SCOTUS: Elections. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-568_gfbh.pdf
4. SCOTUS: 2nd Amendment. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-1046/357868/20250501090640899_24-1046%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf
5. SCOTUS: Single conviction. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-5774_9nbe.pdf
6. Insurrection in Twin Cities https://newsletter.amuseonx.com/p/minnesota-is-rejecting-federal-sovereignty
7. ICE Sued. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ACLU-v-Trump-Admin.pdf
8. Musk v ChatGPT https://courthousenews.com/elon-musks-fraud-claims-against-openai-set-to-go-to-trial/
9. 1A case goes to sanctions stage. https://courthousenews.com/judge-slams-government-for-conspiring-to-chill-free-speech-of-pro-palestine-students/
10. EPA’s forever chemicals. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/lawsuit-PFAS-environment.pdf
11. Tina Peters appeal.
12. Benshoof Municipal Appeal. 

*Bonus: Constitutional questions about the Federal Reserve. https://southerncalifornialawreview.com/2024/05/14/the-federal-reserve-and-the-constitution/

**Bonus: Subs w/o consent. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit-settlements/625000-educative-subscription-class-action-settlement/

***Bonus: Bondi burying cases of corporate corruption. https://www.citizen.org/article/canceled-corporate-enforcement-trump-first-year-second-term/

C.  Best of the Board: Ten of the Top Posts

1. A delicious photo. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607864/title
2. Beware of dangerous Karens when out in the wild. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607634/https-x-com-tarabull-status-2012125177245466820-s-20-i-blame-the-cia-fbi-for-creating-these-der
3. Music industry vs Big Tech. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607465/for-those-interested-elon-musk-vs-the-music-industry-jan-16-2025-top-music-attorney
4. Bill Brown effective comedic memes. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7606729/title
5. The color revolution behind ICE protests. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607435/this-is-organized-crime-https-thepostmillennial-com-radical-anti-ice-network-uses-mass-signal-cha
6. Types of TDS multiply. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607854/tds-trump-derangement-syndrome-type-a-and-b-type-a-oppose-hate-trump-at-all-costs-even-when-he-i
7. Biblical blessing of obstacles. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7607379/james-1-2-4-have-you-ever-wondered-why-would-a-loving-heavenly-father-allow-his-children-to-go
8. Trump 2nd term portrait? https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7606837/i-d-be-ok-with-this
9. Good health news from a Board member. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7606735/just-another-update-on-ken-s-progress-following-his-esophagectomy-i-m-honestly-amazed-at-his-re
10. Ideas for improving cars. https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/post/7605241/policy-proposals-to-improve-modern-cars-ban-def-in-new-designs-for-diesel-engines-ban-it-becaus

III.   Closing Argument: The Constitution, Article I: The Law of Nations

• Contrary to some claims, the Constitution recognizes international law and its potential applicability to the actions of the various branches of the government. 
• The Preamble provides the purpose: provide for the common dense, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. 
• Section 8 of Article 1 empowers Congress to both law and collect duties on foreign goods; “to regulate commerce with foreign nations”, “establish a uniform rule of naturalization”, to “borrow money on the credit of the United States”, to “define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the High Seas”; to define and punish “offenses against the Law of Nation”; to “make rules concerning captures on land and water”;and no person holding “office of profit or trust” may accept any “present, emolument, office, title of any kind” from a foreign state. 
• Section 2 of Article 2 provides for the power of the President “to make Treaties” which become legally binding when “two thirds of the Senators present concur.” 
• Of note, the judicial power in Article 3, section 2 provides for the all cases arising under the Treaties made to be adjudicated, along with all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction and controversies concerning foreign states, citizens or subjects. 
• Article 6 provides for debts to be “valid against the United States” while making “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States” as “the supreme law of the land” binding all judges in every state “notwithstanding” any contradiction in their own state laws or state constitution.
• What is the “Law of Nations” referenced by our founders in the Constitution charging Congress with drafting its criminal enforcement mechanism? Colloquially called in the Latin as Jus Gentium, it forms the legal precepts governing relations between sovereign states, rooted in custom and treaties, defining the rights, duties and conduct of nations in areas like international waters, conflict between nations, emigration and immigration between nations, extradition and deportation between nations, and commerce between nations. The origin of this derives from Roman law and concepts of universal jurisdiction. Catholic scholars would add natural law from universal moral precepts and principles as part of it, from which doctrines like jus cogens originate. 
• A prominent scholar recognized and respected by the Founders informed their judgment — the Swiss jurist Emer de Vattell, entitled The Law of Nations. Every thoughtful writer of the Constitution included the text in their library and amongst their lexicon for inspiring their own construct of the justifications for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself. 
• The same doctrine animated the most celebrated application of natural law to the law between nations and citizens in foreign lands — the Nuremberg trials. A good index can be found here: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/imt.asp
• Later codified into the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, America led the way in establishing universal norms of conduct for both citizens and states to engage in. A critical constituent justification for the jus cogens norms derived from the existence of God and natural law. In other words, those that claim “no international law exists” are not just ignoring the Constitution and American-led legal precedent, they are rejecting natural law and the divine inspiration that shapes and justifies it. As always, in general guide to law and life, trust the Founders first, and second, never trust taking the side of the Nazis or those so aligned.