Academia, Constitutional Law, Free Speech

Turley to Receive James Madison Award at UVU

I have the honor today of receiving the James Madison award at the Utah Valley University. I am deeply appreciative of recognition from the university and the faculty of the Center for Constitutional Studies.

The Center for Constitutional Studies has become an intellectual leader in constitutional research and studies. Applying a multi-disciplinary approach, it brings together a wide array of academic from all over the world to discuss the intersections of political thought, public policy, religion, law, history, and economics. I have enjoyed watching the extraordinary growth of both UVU and the CCS over the years. There is a vibrance and energy in this school that is contagious. It is still a young academic institution with an insatiable appetite for intellectual exploration and discussion. While many schools are limiting free speech and imposing speech codes, UVU is an open and robust academic forum of different ideas and values.

I must also note that, as a Madisonian school, the name of this award is particularly satisfying. While my students and my family will groan at the addition of another Madisonian link in my career, there is no greater founder to celebrate as the embodiment of intellectual values and inquiry.

At the lunch today, I will be delivering a lecture entitled “The Coming Storm:  How Free Speech Can Be Lost In the United States.”

63 thoughts on “Turley to Receive James Madison Award at UVU”

  2. Turleys most famous protege is avennati, haha yes he should get awards….

  5. Karen S.
    – Also, the sky-high cost of living in much of California means that that the higher incomes needed to get by there results in higher federal taxes collected.
    A family with a household income of $100,000 many parts of America might be considered affluent.
    In much of California, it’s a different story.
    Given that federal tax rates are fixed and don’t factor in how far a certain income in one state or region v. another, a high income family doing very well in one part of the country pays no more than a family with the same income in high-priced California.

    1. True. Tiny 1940s bungalows without a garage in need of 6 figure remodels go for over a million dollars in San Francisco, and there’s a bidding war to get them.

  6. Congratulations, Professor Turley! Thank you for sharing the very expertise that earned you this award with lay people and legal professionals, alike, on your blog.

  8. I’m not “forgetting” that; in fact, I just mentioned those most populous states in a very recent earlier comment.
    You’re forgetting THAT.

    1. It’s a free country, I’m within my rights
      Every child should have a weapon
      And a ton of dynamite, my hand is steady
      And my eye is cold, a voice inside my head
      Keeps saying, “Do as you are told”

      All I did was listen to the Fates
      I blew up the United States
      Now little bits of Texas
      Are floating up in space
      I blew up the United States

      1. that is what the irreligious Left do…Self-absorbed, godless, prideful, wrath….the usual stuff of America post Earl Warren and Roe v Wade

    1. I agree! Congratulations and God bless you, Professor Turley! (From a former research assistant of yours at Tulane: Deborah Barnhart, J.D. 1989).

  10. I know what the Constitution says about Senate and House representation per state ( I think the formula for the numbers of House members per state was fixed by statute early in the 20th Century, but every state has always had a minimum of 2 Senate seats and one House seat under the Constitution).
    That’s why those who gripe about unfair/ disproportiate representation of the smaller states had better get busy and get the Amendment(s) past.
    That’s (Amendment) is the only way to get what they want.
    This was all hashed out c. 230 years ago, but those determined to have a “do-over” should call for a Constitutional Convention and resurrect the debate that was settled over 2 centuries ago.

    1. The 38 least populous States are utterly incapable of preserving The Union. They are only capable of dissolving it. Which is both their wont and their doom.

      1. I think most if not all of those 38 would strongly support preserving the Union, especially if California succeeded.

          1. Excluding California, Trump won the other 49 states by a c. one million vote margin.
            The 3 million popular vote plurality lead for Hillary came soley because she California by c.4 million votes.

            1. The point was to click on the link and ogle the totally nifty neat-o maps known as cartograms. They are way far cool.

        1. How much are those 38 states currently borrowing from California?
          I don’t think California is so flush that it’s lending out to other states.

          2. “Californians alone pay more federal taxes than the 25 lowest-paying states combined”

            RANK STATE FEDERAL TAXES PAID
            (in thousands)
            1 California $ 227,530,971
            2 New York $ 133,256,731
            3 Texas $ 117,748,038
            4 Florida $ 92,833,986
            5 Illinois $ 67,712,602
            6 New Jersey $ 61,912,719
            7 Pennsylvania $ 58,824,238
            8 Massachusetts $ 51,853,227
            9 Ohio $ 43,555,457
            10 Virginia $ 43,241,092
            11 Washington $ 43,159,354

            https://www.money-rates.com/research-center/federal-income-taxes-by-state.htm

            “California is among 13 states that ship more tax money to Washington than they get back in federal spending, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank in Albany, N.Y.

            They’re known as donor states, a title California has held for years, mostly because of the state’s relatively younger population and large number of high-income earners….

            In 2015, California residents and businesses pumped $410 billion worth of income, corporate and other federal taxes into the U.S. Treasury, the Rockefeller Institute said.

            At the same time, Washington sent the state $393 billion worth of payments and services, including Social Security checks, Medicare payments, federal employee salaries and government contracts.

            That $17-billion shortfall ranked as the fourth-worst state balance of payments.

            Calculated another way, California received 96 cents of federal spending for each dollar paid in federal taxes. While that’s close to break even, it’s well off the $1.14 national average and ranked 40th in the nation. New Jersey was last at 74 cents.

            Three states — New Mexico, West Virginia and Mississippi — received more than $2 in federal outlays for every dollar in taxes paid, according to the Rockefeller Institute….”

            https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-state-local-tax-subsidy-20171029-story.html

            2. Anon – the article uses selective data. For instance, many retirees simply cannot afford CA’s high taxes after retirement, and flee the state. States with lower taxes and good weather, like FL, tend to attract retirees. Therefore, Fl in general does not pay the same level of income taxes that CA does, and it receives more benefits in the form of Medicare. Unless you want to trap retirees in CA, and force them to work until they die, and take away Medicare, such a disparity will always exist in high tax states.

              In addition, this does not include the $75 billion vacation train to San Francisco boondoggle that Gov Newsome is determined to shove through. Proponents lied about ridership and cost. Taxpayers were out voted, as most people in CA don’t pay much, if any taxes, and therefore could care less about the tax burden. CA hangs on the knife edge of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, both of which have been quietly outsources beyond the state, and often beyond the country’s borders. However, when they do relocate to other states, the same liberal employees who complain about high taxes self destructively continue to vote for higher taxes in other states, brining their problems with them.

              Other examples of disparity are that poor people pay less taxes. Without being propped up by elitist Silicon Valley, Tech, and Hollywood, states with poor pay less taxes. Unless you oppose a progressive income tax, the poor will always pay less. ‘

              States with military contracts receive that federal funding. States in Tornado Alley or the Hurricane Coast receive FEMA and other federal assistance. States with Snowbirds get more retiree benefits.

              Articles implying that any of this is unfair or nefarious are merely clickbait.

              Should Silicon Valley and Hollywood ever flee en masse from CA, it will become an impoverished wasateland. It’s already well on its way to dystopia with all the human feces and dirty needles, as well as the gang activity in LA and Oakland. (RIP Nipsey. Your opportunity to make a difference was cut short by the very violence you were working against.) CA tends to bend over backward to beg its golden goose to stay with special benefits and tax incentives, while hammering those without an army of lobbyists on retainer with high taxes, gas taxes, etc. But we all get hit with the Road Diets of Vision Zero. Fools. Even the most hardcore Democrats are not going to sit in gridlock for hours to get home, or tolerate having people they care about die because an ambulance cannot reach them. Everyone has their limit. Surprisingly, human feces, infectious needles, and vomit on the sidewalk in front of preschools is not that limit for CA Democrats.

              1. Your response is irrelevant to the fact that California is a net federal tax donor, and pays the greatest total amount into the treasury. Whether you otherwise like anything about the state or it’s policies is a different matter.

                1. Any taxpayer not on federal benefits is a net federal tax donor.

                  Ignoring massive federal funding projects like the train to nowhere also undercuts the argument that CA is a net donor.

                  The implication that other states aren’t paying their fair share, that CA is paying more than its fair share and deserves some sort of federal break, is also quite false and irresponsible journalism.

                  1. I wonder how many Californians based on population serve protecting this nation. it is amazing that the left makes this claim for it is the left that wants the federal government to pick up these tabs instead of the states.

                    The left doesn’t know what it wants.

                2. Perhaps if Democrat CA plays its cards right, it can drive its golden geese from the Golden State. With the overwhelming poverty, and the difficulty in maintaining a middle class lifestyle in such an expensive, poorly run, wasteful drought state, it would soon become a Welfare State. It’s already got the Third World conditions down, even in its most affluent, expensive cities.

                  Why, in no time at all, CA would be a net taker in federal benefits. So, just wait, it will be more “fair’ soon… That would make Democrats happy. Then they could keep conning voters into voting Blue for all the free stuff. Promising them they’ll thrive and prosper under government care in government housing…

        2. It depends upon how many sea ports the 38 least populous States could keep open to international trade and commerce.

          1. Also, the location of The Panama Canal and The St. Lawrence Seaway are not especially amenable to the location of very many of the 38 least populous States.

          2. You are ignoring the rising sea levels that will eventually allow many of those 38 states to have seaports.
            So over time, that seaport problem would solve itself.
            For the time being, there are currently numerous U.S. port cities, and areas that could be converted into ports to take up the slack.
            We could also build and use additional ports south of the border, and make Mexico pay for them.

            1. You’re forgetting that Texas is the second most populous State. While Florida is the third most populous State. And that, therefore, neither Texas nor Florida are one of the 38 least populous States. IIRC, North Carolina is the 12th ranked State by population. O bother. I have to double check now.

            2. Nope. Virginia is ranked 12th by population. North Carolina is ranked 9th by population.

  11. Free Speech. Those who exercise free speech. Those who abuse it. Watch TV on meidia stations and you will see this itchBay from Minnesota and the one from NY who sit in Congress and rant about Jews and others. The one with the head scarf is the worst. Folks go on Google and look up the term: “Bitch From Buchenwald”. There you will learn a bit about the bitch who was married to a Nazi military leader of a conventron camp in WWII run by the Germans. She was prosecuted by the alllies after the war snd sent to prison for rounding up and killing Jews. She is little different from the Bitch From Minnesota. Ilse Koch. Google that name.

    1. Anti-Liberty2nd is exactly like that propagandist from the past, Josef Goebbels.

    1. The ten most populous States in The Union are home to 176 million Americans. And the remaining 40 States in The Union are home to 144 million Americans The ten most populous States are represented by 20 US Senators. And the remaining 40 states are represented by 80 US Senators. Each Senator from California represents nearly 20 million people. Each Senator from Wyoming represents roughly 250,000 people. Lo and behold! 250,00 goes into 20 million exactly 80 times. What’s it mean? Let’s ask James Madison.

      1. Slight correction: Wyoming is home to 579,315 people represented by two Senators; such that, each Senator from Wyoming represents 289, 657.5 people. And that goes into 19.8 million 68 times.

      2. OTOH, each Senator from Texas represents roughly 14 million people. And each Senator from Vermont represents 311,828.5 people. And that goes into 14 million 45 times.

      3. Another slight correction: 324 million minus 176 million equals 148 million–not 144 million So the 40 States in The Union that are not ranked in the top ten by population are home to 148 million Americans. But the ten most populous States are still home to 176 million.

      4. Remember: It takes 38 out of 50 State Legislatures to ratify an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or to call for a Constitutional Convention. And that means it only takes 13 State Legislatures NOT to ratify an Amendment to the Constitution or NOT to call for a Constitutional Convention. And it wouldn’t necessarily matter how many Americans live in those latter 13 States. But it might matter how many Americans live in the 38 States that might ratify an Amendment of call for a Convention–if they were the least populous 38 States.

      5. It means there’s a simple solution for those who feel “it’s soohh unfair” for all of those little states to have that much disproportionate representation; pass a Constitutional Amendment to take away one Senator from each of those small states, and “divvy up” the total snatched away between California, Texas, New York, Florida etc.
        E.G., California might end up with 6 Senators instead of 2, and 59 Electoral College votes instead of a mere 55. (Texas, with 39 EC votes, is the second-largest EC prize).
        I don’t see any real hurdles to passing this Amendments….the smaller states would probably go along with it.🙄

        1. ( reply was to L4B’s 3:32 AM comment)…. I just scanned the other posts she has so far in her serial lecture).

          1. PS….It might be better yet to take away the one Congressional Seat that states like Wyoming, the Dakota’s, Idaho, etc. are currently hogging.
            So we’d get them down from 3 members of Congress to 1. And I Electoral College vote instead of the 3 they each have now.
            California could maybe boost their palty current 55 EC votes to maybe 65 if we redistributed the House seats as well.
            And c. 65 House and Senate seats instead of “only” 55.

            1. The House of Representatives is close enough to proportionate representation that there’s no need to quibble about it–except for the whole gerrymandering of Congressional districts thing that Republicans are wont to do. Likewise, there’s no Constitutional way to Amend the Constitution to make the Senate more proportionate in its representation. The American people would have to embark upon a great migration from the major urbanized States to the minor rural States in order to change the facts on the ground as it were.

              The real problem here–(the problem I was gradually building toward with my “serial lecture”) is that the only Constitutional Amendments that will ever be ratified in the future going forward are Amendments proposed and ratified by the 38 least populous States at the expense of the 12 most populous States. And that will likely result in the dissolution of The Union to the detriment of the 38 least populous States. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

          2. 54% (>1/2) of the American people are represented by 20% (1/5) of the United States Senate. And 46% (<1/2) of the American people are represented by 80% (4/5) of the United States Senate. It is only a matter of decades before Three-Fourths of the American people lose the ability to prevent the remaining One-Fourth of the American people from ratifying whatever lame-brained Amendments to the Constitution that that tyrannical Minority One-Fourth sees fit to ratify.

            You will not last long without us. And, No! We will not allow King George The Third of England to take you back into the British Empire. You will have to defend yourselves against Mexico and Haiti on your own dime. Good Luck.

            1. It is doubtful that many will ‘outlast” you, Endora.
              The actual total number of you and those like you is said to be higher than the number of American Presbyterians. ( See earlier JT column on this topic).
              That can be a solid political voting block even if it’s only a million out of c.140 voters.
              But still, it is a small number as a percentage, and there will be future generations that will replace those of us who have died long before you that will keep your influence in check.

                1. I put plastique in the Statue of Liberty
                  And my nerves got a little bit jittery
                  Poor little lady, there goes her head
                  Her arm is melting and her eyes turned red

                  All I did was listen to the Fates
                  I blew up the United States
                  Now little bits of Texas
                  Are floating up in space
                  I blew up the United States

                1. And now for the completion of the previous sentence . . .

                  Right at the beginning of the network news

                  All I did was listen to the Fates
                  I blew up the United States
                  Now little bits of Texas
                  Are floating up in space
                  I blew up the United States

  16. And a timely speech. Free speech has never been under greater assault in our nation; some of our allies have alreadly largely lost that right (it’s arguable that freedom of expression has always been shaky in Britain and its commonwealth).

    The First Amendment to the Constitution defends all other enumerations of civil rights, and the rest of that document as well. The resurgence of McCarthyism and the reflexive labelling of any undesired speech as a crime or tort are symptoms of impending tyranny.

    1. Frauline Lafitte: Go back and research the Nazi era at the death camps in WWII. We have in this country a resurgence of Nazi tyranny. Look up “The Bitch From Buchenwald” on Google. Go watch that itchBay on TV who has a seat in Congress and was elected in Minnesota.

      1. It’s “Herr Lafitte” – my namesake, the privateer Jean Lafitte, helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 when his ships were Jackson’s naval force and mobile artillery reserve against the British. And if you had a point, you didn’t make it..

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