>No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United
>States: U.S. Const., Art I, Sec 9. Cl. 8
(--- mike larkin wrote: Royal titles are next.)
How about
--"...their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of Free Persons...three fifths of all other persons." : Art I, Sec 2. Cl. 3 (Court has defined corporations as "Persons" but has not
permitted states to count them, neither integrally nor
even on a three-fifths basis, for representational entitlement)
--"The Congress shall have power...To Declare War...": Art I, Sec 8, Cl. 10 (Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War I&II, etc.)
--"The President...shall have power, by and with the consent of the Senate, to make treaties...: Art II, Sec 2, Cl. 2 (But Bush can withdraw from treaties without reference to the Senate or the faintest rebuke from Court)
--"The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion [the Congress determines that] the public Safety may require it": Art I, Sec 9, Cl. 2 (Except when the *lettre de cachet* names its victim as an alien, "enemy combattant," terrorist suspect, or anything else the AG can invent)
--"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors..." Art II, Sec 1, Cl. 2 (Bush v. Gore)
--"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution...are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Amendment X (All drug-prohibition laws as applied to intra-State commerce, and much, much else).
--"No Bill of Attainder...shall be passed" Art I, Sec 9, Cl. 3 (But it is now a "crime" to belong to or support any organization arbitrarily "attainted" by the Executive as a "terrorist" group).
etc., etc.....
Impossible to overestimate how easily the Court can "distinguish" any provision of the Constitution, no matter how explicit. For instance, should Congress pass a "Sullan"* law giving something tantamount to a Title of Nobility to "Military Heroes," Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas et. al. would have no qualms about accepting it as a "National Security" measure.
Shane Mage
"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)
*The Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla enacted a law granting to winners of the "corona graminea" and "corona civica" (Rome's two highest awards for personal military valor) automatic membership in the Senate plus the rights to a standing ovation whenever entering the Senate House as well as to speak on any question before other members were permitted to speak. Ironically, the first winner of a "corona civica" to gain this privilege was Caesar, the only close associate of Gaius Marius to escape the proscriptions and the man whose objective was to undo the Sullan system.