FAQ 1: Photos
US Navy Photographs Courtesy of www.maritimequest.com
FAQ 2: What is different about The Second Bill of Rights and the New Federalist Papers?
Here is an excerpt from the Introduction to the book by Seth Lipsky, founding editor of the New York Sun and author of The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide.
What makes Dr. Miller’s Second Bill of Rights and The New Federalist Papersdifferent is that they are a holistic attempt to repair what he and his co-authors perceive as flaws revealed by two centuries of experience. Dr. Miller makes a point of retaining the Founders’ masterful structure and their commitment to individual freedom and liberty. He starts not with any narrow problem but with an effort to find a balance among the enumerated powers of the national government, the police power of States, and the day-to-day exercise of liberty rights by citizens.
…The Second Bill of Rights and the New Federalist Papers couldn’t come at a more opportune time. America turns out to be in what I have called a “constitutional moment.”
…If one can imagine the Constitution as a sprawling home, here is a master of soil mechanics and law with a plan to shore up the foundation. A reading of these essays will repay the effort.
—Seth Lipsky, Author of “The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide”, New York City, January 2012
FAQ 3: Who are Amicus, Atticus, Prosperus, and Valerius?
Four anonymous contributors of the essays comprising The New Federalist Papers. Amicus, Atticus, and Valerius also contributed the eleven essays that comprise The Road of Freedom. We hope to encourage attention on the merit of the ideas in The Second Bill of Rights and the New Federalist Papers and in The Road of Freedom.
FAQ 4: Who is Dr. Miller? Why did he edit these books?
Editor John B. Miller was formerly an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to a BS in civil engineering, an MS in soil mechanics, and a PhD in infrastructure delivery systems from MIT, Miller received his law degree and an advanced degree in taxation from Boston University School of Law. He has been engaged in the public and private sector delivery of infrastructure facilities throughout the United States and abroad for nearly forty years.
The divisive work of factions across the spectrum (from left and right) in American political discourse continues to tear our nation apart. Focusing on concepts that unite us rather than divide us, these books provide a practical path for Americans to think about the original principles of individual freedom and liberty that produced the extraordinary opportunities available across our society.
FAQ 5: Does TheNewFederalism LLC sell books?
No, publications are available in paperback and electronic format through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and bookstore outlets. Links to Amazon can be found in the Links section at the bottom of this page.
FAQ 6: Are these opinion books, without citations and sources?
No, just the opposite.
The fifty essays that comprise The New Federalist Papers include extensive citations to the Constitution, the original Federalist Papers, relevant Supreme Court and state court cases, federal and state legislation, and well-recognized writings. There are 314 footnotes to the essays, and an extensive bibliography is included. Each of the fifty essays is short (approximately 1500 words), and they attempt to mix facts, history, humility, and humor together to provide context.
The eleven essays that comprise The Road of Freedom include extensive citations to F.A. Hayek and quotations from many of the most famous Americans in our history, along with a bibliography for related reading.
FAQ 7: Did James Madison and George Washington predict a need for corrections in the Constitution?
Yes, James Madison (and George Washington) believed that experience would confirm the need to add specific “controls and precautions” (to use Madision’s terminology) to repair flaws in how factions responded over time to the Constitution’s broad protections of the liberty rights of individual American citizens.
The New Federalist Papers reacquaint readers with the simple framework the Founders created—a limited national government of enumerated powers, the police power retained by the States, and broad individual liberty rights, exercisable under the Rule of Law.
The Road of Freedom reacquaints readers with the place of the individual in American society, and the Constitution’s commitment to economic and political freedom as a single uniquely American right.
FAQ 8: Are these proposals perfect?
No, of course not. These books remind us of our unique heritage, and how a few basic principles created the world’s most successful nation of free people.
The ideas in the The Road of Freedom are American, presented as a practical whole in 11 short essays.
The proposals and essays in The Second Bill of Rights scrape the algae and the barnacles (attached by factions) off the US(S) Constitution (see essay Number 1.) The amendments are a package. 50 essays connect the amendments to each other and to basic principles established in our Constitution by the Founders of the United States.