tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83557545518949566572024-03-14T00:55:17.622-07:00Uncommon Lawyercommonlawyer.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382492971086861000noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355754551894956657.post-56788178808427062392012-03-11T12:05:00.005-07:002012-03-15T16:31:33.057-07:00<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 13pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><b>H</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); font-weight: bold; font-size:x-large;">omeland<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Security?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 13pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;color:#262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:17px;"><b>A Common Lawyer Comments <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; ">from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; ">Winters Inn of Court</span></span></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 13pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;color:#262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:17px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; font-size:16px;"><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 49, 224); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.commonlawyer.com/">www.commonlawyer.com</a> </span></span></b></span></span></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Time to plough neglected constitutional ground?</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Small-arms fire from American civilians, said one Japanese flyer after Pearl Harbor, <i>was so thick you could walk on it</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">“</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">I would never invade the United States. <i>There would be a gun behind every blade of grass.” </i>Admiral Yamamoto during WWII<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">When war began </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">most Japanese knew little of Americans. To be sure, our military men at Pearl Harbor were courageous, but responded as the Japanese expected. However, what did surprise the Japanese was the armed aggression of non-military Americans. In fact, civilian small-arms fire chilled arrogant Japanese fantasies about invading the continental <i>States</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Armed Americans on the Island of Oahu struck fear into foreign aggressors and likely would have done the same to any homegrown thugs gone to seed—whether within government or without. Without question, our Constitution’s four Militia Clauses</span><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[i]</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">—</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">indeed our whole Constitution<b>—</b>contemplates both possibilities and provides against them.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Those who drafted and signed the Constitution were savvy, sharpened to dangers at home, whether from their own government or from insurrection. In fact, as each man picked up the quill to screve his name to our Constitution and then to our Bill of Rights, the reek of gunpowder lingered in his nose. Having lived through the crucible of war by invasion of their fellow Brits and by their own neighbors turned Tory, these men had learned that though such aggressors fear an army, they fear even more an <i>armed people</i>, which our Constitution calls<b><i> the Militia of the several States</i></b>.</span><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[ii]</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Rightly so: standing armies, navies, and armed government police forces are not only predictable to invaders from without, but can also, under orders of unscrupulous politicians or lawless superiors, turn on their own people—as did Benedict Arnold and thousands of other Tories in turning on their fellow Americans; and as did police forces in taking guns from the law abiding<b> </b>in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Our forefathers, tempered in trial by battle, learned the danger of concentrated central power. Consequently, our Constitution recognizes no national militia, but only <b><i>the Militia of the Several States</i></b>.</span><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[iii]</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Congress, by Amendment II's forbidding infringement of the individual right to keep and carry firearms, set up a barrier against the government reducing to window dressing the other three Militia Clauses' <b><i>Militia of the Several States</i>:</b><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.</span></b><b><u style="text-underline:#0031E0"><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[iv]</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">In the whole Constitution, only Amendment II says what is necessary to have security without forfeiting freedom: <b><i>a well regulated Militia, </i></b>which is the same<b><i> Militia of the several States </i></b>kept regular (always ready), just as the other three Militia Clauses require. Our Constitution then also tells us what is necessary to keep that Militia always ready: <b><i>the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,</i></b><i> <b>shall</b> <b>not be infringed</b></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Above all then, Amendment II bars infringement, not only to protect the individual right to keep <i>and</i> carry a gun for personal protection, but also for an even greater reason: because it is the only way to have security without forfeiting freedom in exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">In fact, according to our Militia Clauses, the only way to have national security <i>and freedom too</i> is to make sure each Militia of each State works according to the Militia Clauses of our Constitution. Any other method may give short-term security, but will only do so at the expense of freedom—as is now seen: <i>searches without warrant, tribunals without due process, jail time for invoking constitutionally protected rights—the same abuses and usurpations now afoot in the United States.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Simply put, the Constitution’s foundation for freedom is the separate States’ Militia. And the only foundation that can enable each State’s Militia is each person’s personal right to keep and carry firearms.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Bottom line: without the individual right to keep and carry a gun, there can be no State Militia; where there is no State Militia, there is neither security nor freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Do not be deceived: <i>It is impossible</i> to achieve national security and freedom <i>at the same time</i> through any police-state bureau. In fact, the so-called Department of Homeland Security and its police-state comrades—IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA, ATF <i>&</i> etc, etc.—are the very kind of creatures our Militia Clauses target as the foremost dangers to freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">In bears repeating: our freedoms will never last without security, but security by any means other than <b><i>the Militia of the several States</i></b> according to our four Militia Clauses will always demand forfeiting our freedoms.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">The civil-law code says, “Give us your freedoms and relax; our professional police-state bureaucrats will protect you.” Our common law says, “Protect your own selves, and you shall keep your freedoms too.” </span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">In short, bureaucracies promise police-state security, but only in exchange for freedom, and provide neither. By contrast, our Militia Clauses guarantee freedom for all as each able-bodied man takes up his Militia duty in response to State and local authority for the safety of his country, resulting in both security and freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Bottom line: security and freedom at the same time are possible only as the Militia of each State fulfills its non-delegable duty in accord with our Constitution’s four Militia Clauses.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Until the war on terror so-called, Americans enjoyed more of security and freedoms because <b><i>the Militia</i></b> (meaning <b><i>the people</i></b>), as a whole, have stayed armed, discouraging invasion from without and plundering within. But as Supreme Court Justice Story forewarned: through neglect there is <i>no small danger that indifference may lead to… contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause [Amendment II] of our national bill of rights</i>.</span><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[v]</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Time has proven Justice Story right. The result of a 175-year neglect of our Militia Clauses is now seen: thugs have grown bold, threatening from without and within; and the police state, claiming necessity, moves upon us apace, demanding that we give up our freedoms for empty promises of security. The Constitution, however, offers something better.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Because the constitutional ground of our Militia Clauses has been let go briers of academic ignorance have taken root; a matted, tangled confusion of regulatory brambles cover the ground. Promoting the claim of security in exchange for freedom, the police-state's criminal-law industry now gathers a monopoly of force.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Time has come to plough all that under.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">To sum up:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">The Constitution’s <b><i>Militia of the several States </i></b>is the only possible way to achieve security without forfeiting freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">The Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear firearms: the only possible way to enable the <b><i>Militia of the several States</i> </b>to provide that security without forfeiting freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Note well a good report:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">For the first time in our Country’s history, our Supreme Court has enforced the Second Amendment’s personal right to keep and bear arms in<i> District of Columbia v. Heller</i>, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) (enforcing against federal-government infringement) and <i>McDonald v. Chicago</i>, 561 U.S. 3025 (2010) (enforcing against State and local government infringement).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">A right response:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">The next step is for State legislators to enable their State’s Militia in accord with the requirement of the Constitution’s four Militia Clauses.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Indeed, nothing will ruin the country, says Daniel Webster, if the people themselves undertake its safety; and nothing can save it if they leave that safety in any hands but their own.</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Brent Allan Winters © March 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">For Brent’s further comments concerning the Constitution’s <i>War Powers’ </i>and <i>Militia Clauses’ </i>relationship to the <i>Second Amendment</i>, see pages 43, 48, 81–87, 144, 152 of Brent’s Book—<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">United States Constitution & Declaration of Independence:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">A Common Lawyer Comments—Clause by Clause</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> (2010).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Available in book form <i>& audio</i> CD at<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><a href="http://www.commonlawyer.com/"><span style="color:#0031E0;">www.commonlawyer.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">OR<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Order by e-mail:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><a href="mailto:winterscommonlawyer@gmail.com"><span style="color:#0031E0;">winterscommonlawyer@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Brent Allan Winters</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> <i>grew up on a farm in Southeast Illinois; served as Dive Team member (Navy Mobile Diving 1) and aboard carrier USS Coral Sea; worked as geologist and mine engineer; ran for U.S. Congress; has represented clients in six foreign countries, argued before the Jury and appellate courts (both State and federal) in four States, and has briefed cases in the United States Supreme Court. Brent and Susan, his wife of thirty-five years, have eight children and four grand children. Our common-law way of life and thought, says Brent, is not only the lifeblood and backbone of our Declaration and Constitution, but also the object of zeal that delivered our country through the birth pangs of battle to nationhood and, at bottom, is still the fellowship that defines Americans to the rest of the world. Keep it and it will keep your country.</i> www.commonlawyer.com<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[i]</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> <i>See </i>U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 8, cls. 15, 16; art. II, sec. 2, cl. 1; amend. 2<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[ii]</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">U.S. Const. art. II, sec. 1, cl. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[iii]</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">U.S. Const. art. II, sec. 2, cl. 1, Congress’ legislation notwithstanding.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[iv]</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Congress’al Stats. at Large, v. 1, at 97, omits the first and third commas. The meaning, however, remains unchanged. Amendment II is only one of the Constitution’s four Militia Clauses. It was added after the States accepted the Constitution in order to remove from government reach the smallest infrigement of the one freedom necessary to enable the other three Militia Clauses to achieve national security without forfeiting freedom: the personal right to keep and bear arms.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#0031E0;">[v]</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:13.0pt;color:#262626;">Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 708 (Durham N.C., Carolina Academic Press 1987) (1833).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->commonlawyer.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382492971086861000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355754551894956657.post-28548392592946137982012-01-27T19:26:00.000-08:002012-02-14T13:53:21.194-08:00Ron Paul?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;">A Common Lawyer Comments</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">from</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:green;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Winters Inn of Court</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:blue;"><a href="http://www.commonlawyer.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">www.commonlawyer.com</span></a> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-variant:small-capsfont-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;">Ron Paul?</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.2in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi- font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Ron Paul has always affirmed his commitment never to trespass the bounds of our Constitution.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Accordingly,</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">he insists that presidents not send Americans into foreign countries to fight without Congress’ duly passed declaration of war. Why? Because our Constitution requires Congress’ declaration of war before presidents take Americans from their families and send them to other countries to kill and </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">(inevitably) </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">to be killed. Never forget, war is a direct danger to those sent to fight. And even though the American</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">—unlike the Muslim suicide bomber and Japanese kamikaze—</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">fights<i> </i>to kill <i>and</i> <i>not be killed</i>, when Americans wage war some will die. </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">Our Constitution, says the Supreme Court, is couched in our common law. Its requirement that Congress declare war before waging war is a matter of common-law due process: our Country ought never send Americans into another country to kill or be killed without having fulfilled the process due to us all by putting Congress to the moderate inconvenience of debate & vote.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">Bottom line: war without Congress’s declaration is not our Country’s war, but the war of whoever happens to be living in the White House at the time; but worse, without Congress’s declaration of war the lives our soldiers and sailors become a president’s pawns & a ticket to his ego’s lawless adventure.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">Of note, Ron Paul also insists that if Congress does declare war, all concerned must do all within their power to send our armed forces wherever necessary, trained and equipped to strike hard and fast to destroy the enemy Congress has declared war upon. Simply put, once Congress has duly declared war, Americans must not let up until that declared enemy is defeated. The quicker the victory, the more lives spared.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">Is it asking too much that presidents and congressman keep the grisly business of war within the bounds of our Constitution? Each of them did promise, by solemn oath, to uphold it. Is it asking too much that before Americans are taken from their families and sent into foreign lands to take the lives of others—and some, inevitably, to lose theirs’—that such dreadful power be kept under the law of the land: our precious due process, the process our Constitution says is due you and me, requiring Congress to <i>declare </i>war? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Do not misunderstand; the power to wage war is not the danger; power does not corrupt presidents. C</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">orruption</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">t</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">hat <i>mortal weakness</i> common to all Adam’s race—is already the very fabric of each president’s soul upon moving into the White House. But make no mistake, some presidents, lacking necessary discipline, are weaker than others. And when the unassailable military might of the United States is placed into such hands, the temptation it brings magnifies the likelihood for abuse—lawless </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">(unconstitutional)</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> war with the untold hardships that always follow in its dirty wake.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">But, one may ask, what does a president do in an emergency, such as surprise invasion from without or spontaneous insurrection from within? Rest assured, our Constitution provides clear guidance in the common law for such cases—standing orders for all concerned, including presidents. Lord willing, this will be the subject of another blog.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;">To sum up</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;">, our Constitution says Congress alone holds the un-delegable right to say whether a president will ship Americans to foreign lands to kill and risk being killed. Only Congress, says our Constitution, has the power to say <i>yes</i> to war or to say <i>no</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Lastly, consider the comments of Joseph Plumb “J.P.” Martin—a mere sixteen-year old when British Hessians baptized him into the fire of battle. The next year, J.P. ambled over the ground where Americans and Hessians, locked in a death struggle, had been slain. Writing of those Hessians sixty years later J.P. warns us: <i>be careful that you do not</i> <i>allow</i></span><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black;"> yourself to be brought to such an abject servile condition</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black;">: </span></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.3in;margin-bottom: 6.0pt;margin-left:.2in;line-height:12.0pt;tab-stops:.5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:black;">I, with some of my comrades who were in the battle of the White Plains</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">battle of the White Plains</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>in the year ‘76, one day took a ramble on the ground where we were then engaged with the British and took a survey of the place. We saw a number of the graves</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt';"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">graves</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>of those who had fell in that battle; some of the bodies had been so slightly buried that the dogs</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">dogs</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>or hogs</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">hogs</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;">, or both, had dug them out of the ground. Their skulls</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">skulls</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>and other bones, and hair were scattered about the place. Here were Hessian skulls</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">Hessian skulls</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>as thick as a bombshell</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">bombshell</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;">; —poor fellows! They were left unburied in a foreign land; —they had, perhaps, as near and dear friends to lament their sad destiny as the Americans who laid buried near them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:.3in;margin-bottom: 0in;margin-left:.2in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;tab-stops:.5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:black;">But they should have kept at home, we should then never have gone after them to kill them in their own country. But, the reader will say, they were forced to come and be killed here; <i>forced by their rulers who have absolute power of life and death over their subjects. </i>Well then reader, bless a kind Providence</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"> XE "<span style="';color:black';">Providence</span>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:11.0pt;"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color:black;"><span> </span>that has made such a distinction between <b><i>your</i></b><i> </i>condition and <b><i>theirs</i></b>. <i>And be careful too that you do not allow yourself to be brought to such an abject servile condition</i></span><!--[if supportFields]><i style="'mso-bidi-font-style:normal'"><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></span></i><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt';"> XE "<i style="'mso-bidi-font-style:normal'"><span style="';color:black';">abject servile condition</span></i>" </span><![endif]--><!--[if supportFields]><i style="'mso-bidi-font-style:normal'"><span style="'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span></i><![endif]--><i><span style="color:black;">.</span></i><span style="color:black;"> </span><span style="color:black;">(bold and italic in orig.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">J.P.’s words, <i>we should then never have gone after them to kill them in their own country</i> should sting a little. But his further point is to distinguish the Hessians from the Americans: the Hessians’ </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">prince, by his single unfettered will, shipped them to America to kill on command; by contrast, our Constitution forbids that any U.S. president ship Americans to foreign countries to fight unless Congress tells him to do so by formal order called a <i>Declaration of War</i>.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">For good reason, the decision to wage war belongs to Congress alone. But above all, our common-law government is one of law and not of any man or men, such as, for instance, some wrong-headed president—or worse yet, other men for whom such a wrong-headed president is a secret <i>yes-man</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">Copyright <span style="font-variant: small-caps; ">© 2012 Brent Allan Winters<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">January 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;">For Brent’s further comments concerning the Constituion’s <i>War Powers’ and</i> <i>Militia Clauses’ </i>relationship to the <i>Second Amendment</i> see pages 43, 48, 81–87, 144, 152 of Brent’s Book—<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:green;">United States Constitution & Declaration of Independence: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:green;">A Common Lawyer Comments—Clause by Clause</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:green;"> (2010).</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;color:blue;" >Available in book form <i>& audio</i> CD at<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;color:blue;" ><a href="http://www.commonlawyer.com/">www.commonlawyer.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Order by e-mail: <a href="mailto:winterscommonlawyer@gmail.com">winterscommonlawyer@gmail.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;font-size:130%;color:black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border-top:none;border-left:solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:none;mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 4.0pt 4.0pt; background:#F2F2F2;mso-shading:windowtext;mso-pattern:gray-5 auto"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#F2F2F2;mso-shading:windowtext;mso-pattern: gray-5 auto;border:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 4.0pt 4.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Brent Allan Winters</span></b><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> <i>grew up on a farm in Southeast Illinois; served as Dive Team member </i></span><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">(Navy Mobile Diving 1)</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><i> and aboard carrier USS Coral Sea; worked as geologist and mining engineer; ran for U.S. Congress; has represented clients in six foreign countries; has argued before the Jury and appellate courts </i></span><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">(State and federal)</span></i><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> in four States; and has written pleadings and briefed cases in the United States Supreme Court. Brent and Susan his wife of thirty-four years have eight children and four grand children. Our common-law way of life and thought, says Brent, is not only the lifeblood and backbone of our Declaration and Constitution, but also the object of zeal that delivered our country to nationhood and at bottom, the fellowship that still defines Americans to the world. Keep it and it will keep your freedoms.</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> <span style="color:red;">www.</span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:red;">commonlawyer.com</span></span><i><span style="font-size:8.0pt;mso-bidi- mso-font-kerning:1.0ptfont-family:Georgia;font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:3.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-variant:small-capsfont-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->commonlawyer.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382492971086861000noreply@blogger.com0