Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public policy matters. Any expressions of opinion are those of the author. We welcome responses to the views presented here. To join the debate, please email us at [email protected].
As Wayne says, the question of money is always a hot topic. How money fits into our Constitutional order and the powers of the government is an issue going back to the American founding. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, famously wrote of "the rage for paper money...or any other improper or wicked project." Daniel Webster, a big backer of the Second Bank of the United States, nonetheless pronounced, "Most unquestionably there is no legal tender and there can be no legal tender in this country, under the authority of this government or any other, but gold and silver." But now we have Federal Reserve pure paper notes which declare themselves "legal tender for all debts," no money made of gold or silver at all, and a Fed formally committed to perpetual inflation. How ideas of money and the related Constitutional theories changed and go right on is being debated now in different forms. We'll have a lively panel, I think.
This panel will be held at the 2019 National Lawyers Convention and live streamed on our website. We hope you join us for the conversation.
