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Page Number: 37

2 

UNITED STATES v. RAHIMI 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

text  according  to  its  ordinary  meaning  as  originally
understood.  The text of the Constitution is the “Law of the 
Land.”  Art.  VI.    As  a  general  matter,  the  text  of  the 
Constitution says what it means and means what it says. 
And unless and until it is amended, that text controls. 

In  many  important  provisions,  the  Constitution  is  a 
document  of  majestic  specificity  with  “strikingly  clean 
prose.”  A.  Amar,  America’s  Constitution  xi  (2005).    Two 
Houses  of  Congress.  A  House  elected  every  two  years. 
Senators serve 6-year terms.  Two Senators per State.  A 
State’s  equal  suffrage  in  the  Senate  may  not  be  changed
without  the  State’s  consent.    A  two-thirds  House  vote  to 
expel  a  Member  of  the  House.    The  same  for  the  Senate. 
Appropriations  are  made  by  law.    Bicameralism  and 
presentment.  The  Presidential  veto.  The  Presidential 
pardon.  The President serves a 4-year term.  A maximum 
of two elected terms for a President.  The salary of a sitting 
President may not be increased or decreased.  A vote of a 
majority  of  the  House  and  two-thirds  of  the  Senate  to
remove  a  President.  The  President  nominates  and  the 
Senate confirms principal executive officers.  One Supreme
Court.  Tenure  and  salary  protection  for  Supreme  Court
and  other  federal  judges.  Two-thirds  of  each  House  of 
Congress  together  with  three-fourths  of  the  States  may
amend  the  Constitution.  Congress  meets  at  noon  on 
January 3rd unless otherwise specified by Congress.  The 
District  of  Columbia  votes  in  Presidential  elections.    The 
list goes on.

Those  and  many  other  constitutional  provisions  are 
relatively clear.  And when the “framers of the Constitution 
employed words in their natural sense; and where they are
plain and clear, resort to collateral aids to interpretation is 
unnecessary and cannot be indulged in to narrow or enlarge 
the text.”  McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U. S. 1, 27 (1892). 

Of course, some provisions of the Constitution are broadly
worded  or  vague—to  put  it  in  Madison’s  words,  “more  or