Joe Wolverton

Memphis

Constitutional Law Scholar for The John Birch Society. Building a scholarly community. I am the author of three books on the Constitution. [email protected]

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Articles

The Influence of Machiavelli on the Founding Fathers of the United States

1 week ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

When discussing the intellectual influences on the Founding Fathers of the United States, one typically hears names such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone. However, one influential thinker often overlooked is Niccolò Machiavelli. Far from being merely the author of The Prince, a treatise often associated with ruthless political maneuvering, Machiavelli also penned Discourses on Livy, a profound examination of republican government and civic virtue.
Exposing the Deception: How the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act of 2025 Infringes on Gun Rights

1 week ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

The Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act of 2025 is being promoted as a pro-Second Amendment measure, but a closer examination reveals a starkly different reality. Despite its seemingly protective title, the bill contains numerous provisions that undermine the fundamental right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
When “Limited” Isn’t Limited: The Cautionary Tale of the Connecticut Convention of 1818

1 week ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

In 1818, the people of Connecticut were promised a “limited” convention — one that would deal narrowly and exclusively with two supposedly urgent reforms: to secure a clearer separation of powers and to restore religious liberty. That was the bait. The switch? A brand-new constitution and an entirely new form of government.
The Shot Heard ’Round the World: How Liberty’s First Warriors Lit the Fire of Freedom

3 weeks ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

At first light on April 19, 1775, the soft soil of a village green in Lexington, Massachusetts, was soaked in the blood of farmers, fathers, and freemen. These men — ordinary in station, but extraordinary in spirit — stood shoulder to shoulder, not to revolt, but to defend what was already theirs: the right to govern themselves, to keep what they earned, and to live without the yoke of distant despotism.
Maundy Thursday: A Meditation on Humility, Commandment, and Communion

4 weeks ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

Maundy Thursday — reverently known also as Holy Thursday or Sheer Thursday — stands as one of the most sacred observances in the Christian calendar. It marks the eve of Christ’s Passion, the night on which two of the most humbling and holy events unfolded: the washing of the disciples’ feet and the institution of the Last Supper. Falling within Holy Week, Maundy Thursday is situated between Holy Wednesday and Good Friday.
No Third Term: Preserving the Presidency Within Constitutional Bounds

1 month ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

When the Founding Fathers designed the office of the president of the United States, they did so with the keen memory of monarchy fresh in their minds. George Washington, whose example remains the gold standard of American republican virtue, set a precedent that no president would serve more than two terms. That standard stood unbroken for nearly 150 years, until Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented four terms.
The War Powers Act: Another Congressional Abdication of Constitutional Duty

1 month ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

For decades now, Washington has played a shameful shell game with the lives of American soldiers and the liberties of the American people. Nowhere is this more obvious — and more dangerous — than in the War Powers Act of 1973. This law is an affront to the Constitution, a perversion of the rule of law, and a cowardly escape hatch for Congress to shirk its solemn duty to declare war while still allowing American blood to be spilled in unconstitutional, undeclared conflicts all over the globe.
The Second Amendment Is Not Subject to Judicial Repeal: A Response to the Supreme Court’s Betrayal

1 month ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States has once again demonstrated that black robes are no defense against yellow spines. In a stunning 7-2 decision, the Court upheld the Biden administration’s authoritarian attempt to regulate so-called ghost guns, surrendering yet another critical inch of the Constitution to the ever-hungry Leviathan in Washington.
Paul de Rapin: The Exile Who Shaped American Liberty

1 month ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

In the long corridor of forgotten champions of liberty, few names deserve to be dusted off and remembered more than Paul de Rapin — a French Protestant, a political exile, a soldier turned historian. Rapin’s life was not merely a series of odd turns. It was a pilgrimage toward truth, a life spent illuminating the principles of constitutional government.
“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”: A Call to Arms for the Spirit of 1775

1 month ago | thenewamerican.com | Joe Wolverton

Two hundred and fifty years ago, in the smoky sanctum of St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, a man stood, not with musket or saber, but with words forged hotter than any blade. Patrick Henry’s thunderous cry — “Give me liberty or give me death!” — did not merely echo through the chamber of the Second Virginia Convention; it ignited a fire in the hearts of freemen that turned colonies into a nation and subjects into sovereigns. Now, a quarter of a millennium later, that flame flickers.