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23 Cumb. L. Rev. 155 (1992-1993)
Curbing the Abuse and Seduction of Power: Are Term Limits the Answer

handle is hein.journals/cumlr23 and id is 165 raw text is: PANEL V

CURBING THE ABUSE AND SEDUCTION OF POWER:
ARE TERM IJMITS THE ANSWER?
EDWIN MEESE 1II*
We have a challenge in this panel to continue the high
level of dialogue and discussion that has characterized this
conference. I think perhaps we have succeeded, not only in
the topic that we have before us but also in the very distin-
guished panel that I have the privilege of chairing here this
afternoon. The topic is Curbing the Abuse and Seduction of
Power: Are Term Limits the Answer? To discuss this question,
we have Charles Kesler from Claremont McKenna College and
Brad Reynolds and David Ifshin, two prominent attorneys in
Washington, D.C., who have had considerable experience on
opposite sides of the political spectrum. Also on the panel are
Walter Berns, who some of us think of as the modern James
Madison and who is certainly one of the experts on the
Constitution, and Michael Malbin, who is quite a scholar,
particularly on this subject of term limits.
Interestingly enough, at the time that the Constitution was
debated and was being formulated in that summer in Philadel-
phia in 1787, Madison's notes reflect that the Convention had
high hopes for the Congress. Indeed, George Mason, in
speaking about Congress, said that this body was to be the
grand depository of the democratic principle of the govern-
ment. According to Mason, the Congress was, so to speak, to
be America's House of Commons. He said that the Congress
ought to know and to sympathize with every part of the
community and ought, therefore, to be taken not only from
different parts of the whole republic but also from different
districts of the larger members of the republic so that different
interests and views could be represented in that body.
Interestingly enough, today, as you have heard from other
panels and from your own conversations with people in the
community, I suspect that the prevailing feeling about the
Congress is best expressed by that famous phrase from the
New York Surrogate's Court which says that no man's life,
property or liberty are safe while the legislature is in session.
* Moderator. Seventy-fifth United States Attorney General and Fellow, The Heritage
Foundation.

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