Monday, December 15, 2008 (originally published in The Detroit News)
Celebrate Bill of Rights' role in America
Michael Warren
In the cacophony of the recession, the plight of the American automobile industry, perpetual state budget woes and the upcoming presidential inauguration, one could easily be excused for forgetting about today's momentous anniversary. Two hundred and seventeen years ago, the United States ratified the Bill of Rights. It continues to play an indispensable role in our constitutional order, and we should take a moment to celebrate its vibrant role in American life.
Although a Bill of Rights had been a key feature of protecting the rights of Englishmen, the Founding Fathers omitted it when they drafted the Constitution in 1787. This oversight generated heated opposition throughout the colonies as the people debated whether to adopt the new Constitution.
Fearful that a newly formed federal government would oppress the people and trample on the states, the Anti-Federalists clamored for the addition of a Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson, writing to James Madison from Paris, wrote that he opposed the adoption of the Constitution without a Bill of Rights. He explained that "a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no government should refuse, or rest on inference."
Although the new Constitution was ratified over the objections of the Anti-Federalists, most ratifiers understood that the addition of a Bill of Rights would be of the highest priority to the newly established federal government. Madison fulfilled that promise by drafting a dozen amendments to the Constitution -- the first 10 of which were adopted quickly and dubbed the Bill of Rights.
The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to guarantee our unalienable rights from infringement by the federal (and with the adoption of the 14th Amendment) and state governments.
The First Amendment protects the freedoms of religion, speech, press, petition, and association; and bars the establishment of religion. The Second Amendment ensures that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, while the Third Amendment prohibits the quartering of troops in peacetime.
The Fourth Amendment bars unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fifth Amendment prohibits placing a criminal defendant in double jeopardy, self-incrimination and the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The same amendment requires that any taking of private property by the government be only for "public use" and with "just compensation."
The Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy and public trial, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to counsel. The Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury trial, while the Eighth prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.
The Ninth Amendment guarantees those rights not otherwise expressly protected in the first eight amendments, while the Tenth reserves all "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it by the States ... to the States respectively, or to the People."
The Constitution expressly protects the unalienable rights of individuals from government oppression. These protections are integrated into the Constitution, the Supreme Court noted, because the Founders "foresaw that troublous times would arise, when rulers and people would become restive under restraint, and seek by sharp and decisive measures to accomplish ends deemed just and proper; and that principles of constitutional liberty would be in peril, unless established by irreparable law. The history of the world had taught them that what was done in the past might be attempted in the future."
The Founders' wisdom is as powerful today as it was in 1791. Billions of people continue to suffer the infringement of their God-given rights because they have no meaningful Bill of Rights to protect them.
As the Declaration of Independence explained, America was founded on the self-evident first principle that all men and women are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; and the Bill of Rights is intended to protect them. In the course of human history, very few people have had the benefit of a Bill of Rights.
Unfortunately, recent studies reveal that our students, public and policy-makers are woefully ignorant of our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. We are fools to think we can keep our rights when we are ignorant of them. Let us use today's anniversary to renew our commitment to the Bill of Rights in education and policymaking. Then we will be worthy of the legacy of freedom the Founders bequeathed to us.
Michael Warren is an Oakland County Circuit Court judge, former member of the State Board of Education and author of "America's Survival Guide" (Mill City Press, 2007) www.americassurvivalguide.com/
The Bill of Rights
Day of Infamy
Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Over 2,000 American servicemen perished, 5 battleships were sunk, and several other ships were damaged or destroyed.
Little did the Japanese (or their allies, the Nazis) realize what they had wrought. The attack in 1941 was begun by Japan, but by 1945 America finished it - by the total unconditional surrender of Japan. The Allies had already defeated Germany when Japan surrendered.
What makes this anniversary - and America's victory - special is not the military triump of the United States. Wars have part and parcel of history for as long as man has been man. No, what is important is the victory of America's First Principles: the rule of law, unalienable rights, equality, the Social Compact, and limited government. These First Principles separated America from Japanese imperialism and fascist Germany, and have been the sparked that have revolutionized societies all over the world.
For more, see americassurvivalguide.com
Freedom
This country was founded by people seeking to steer their own courses. They wanted opportunity without too much meddling by their government.
The basis for America was Freedom.
America was founded by people seeking freedom. Freedom from tyranny; freedom to pursue opportunities; freedom to believe what you want to believe; freedom to speak your mind without repercussion. The government's only job was supposed to be to protect these freedoms. The Constitution was written to define the government's responsibilities. Those responsibilities started out very simple. Our government continues to broaden it's scope which is what seems to be causing most of the problems.
More and more the government imposes itself in our lives under the guise of protecting us from ourselves. The government (both parties are guilty) has grown to parent its citizens rather than merely refereeing disputes to protect freedom. So many of our fellow citizens now demand the government take care of them. The entitlements we now provide would shock our founding fathers.
Our government has become a behemoth that is growing out of control. Each generation of leaders increases the size and scope of this monster and it's reaching a point where we as citizens are struggling to support it. I am so very frustrated with our system and I believe democracy is failing not because it is flawed but because we are not preserving it. Politicians perpetuate class envy, and promise to provide for all of the voter's needs. They claim we can have everything we want without any cost because they will always tax the other guy.
Taxing the other guy is not the answer. Often the other guy is the "Rich", but taxing the rich really increases the burden on the poor for many reasons. The "Rich" are so loosely defined by politicians that probably 60% of people are defined as "Rich" at various times. Another "other guy" frequntly targeted for new taxes are businesses. This might be the worst group to burden with extra taxes since businesses don't pay taxes; they merely raise the price of goods to pass the cost on to the consumer.
Voters need to realize that our growing government is fed by all of us. In addition to all of our current expenses, the rising costs for our health care and the aging of our population will cause government spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to rise substantially. These entitlement programs are choking the United States like pensions and health care benefits have choked many of our indutries over the last few decades. If we don't take action to reduce the size of our government in coming decades, the economy will eventually suffer serious damage.
Trajectory of Government Growth
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address was given by President Lincoln on this day (November 19th) in 1863. The words are as poignant today as they were 145 years ago.
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The Message of Liberty
"Nothing is so galling to a people, not broken in from the birth, as a paternal or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear."
Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"I repeat … that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist."
Benjamin Disraeli
"A people that values it's privileges above its principles soon loses both .Dwight D. Eisenhower
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
Benjamin Franklin
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
Alexander Hamilton
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson
"What more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more ... a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from labor the bread it has earned."
Thomas Jefferson
"We recipients of the boon of liberty have always been ready, when faced with discomfort, to discard any and all first principles of liberty, and, further, to indict those who do not freely join with us in happily arrogating those principles."
David Mamet
"Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
George Washington
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Thomas Jefferson
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine
"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it."
Woodrow Wilson