To fully understand the legal foundation of the Constitution and the intent of those who framed it, one must become familiar with the writings of those that engineered the most important legal document in history. It is also important to be well versed in the legal decisions that have been handed down since the Constitution was ratified. When you read these quotes, the extent to which the current United States government has departed from these principles will become glaringly obvious. The only hope for our country is a populace movement that demands a return to these principles as a matter of law, enforced by the people.
“Be not intimidated, therefore, by any terrors, from publishing with the utmost freedom whatever can be warranted by the laws of our country; nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberty by any pretenses of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice. ”
John Adams
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Legal Decisions
Down v. Bidwell, 182 US 244 (1901)
“It will be an evil day for American Liberty if the theory of a government outside supreme law finds lodgement in our constitutional jurisprudence. No higher duty rests upon this Court than to exert its full authority to prevent all violations of the principles of the Constitution.”
Elrod v. Burns, 427 US 347; 6 S. Ct. 2673; 49 L. Ed. 2d (1976)
“Loss of First Amendment Freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.”
Boyd v. United, 116 US 616 at 635 (1885)
Justice Bradley, “It may be that it is the obnoxious thing in the mildest form; but illegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first footing in that way; namely, by silent approaches and slight deviations from legal modes of procedure.….It is the duty of the Courts to be watchful of the Constitutional rights of the Citizens, and against any stealthy encroachments thereon. Their motto should be Obsta Principiis.”
Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 US 155 (1966)
“Constitutional ‘rights’ would be of little value if they could be indirectly denied.”
Mallowy v. Hogan, 378 US 1
“All rights and safeguards contained in the first eight amendments to the federal Constitution are equally applicable.”
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 426, 491; 86 S. Ct. 1603
“Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no ‘rule making’ or legislation which would abrogate them.”
Sherar v. Cullen, 481 F. 2d 946 (1973)
“There can be no sanction or penalty imposed upon one because of his exercise of constitutional rights.”
Simmons v. United States, 390 US 377 (1968)
“The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime”…”a denial of them would be a denial of due process of law.”
Cannon v. Commission on Judicial Qualifications, (1975) 14 Cal. 3d 678, 694
“Acts in excess of judicial authority constitute misconduct, particularly where a judge deliberately disregards the requirements of fairness and due process.”
Olmstad v. United States, (1928) 277 US 438
“Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
Owen v. City of Independence
“The innocent individual who is harmed by an abuse of governmental authority is assured that he will be compensated for his injury.”
US v. Lee, 106 US 196, 220 1 S. Ct. 240, 261, 27 L. Ed 171 (1882)
“No man in this country is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance, with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law and are bound to obey it.”
“It is the only supreme power [Constitution] in our system of government, and every man who, by accepting office participates in its functions, is only the more strongly bound to submit to that supremacy, and to observe the limitations which it imposes on the exercise of the authority which it gives.”
Duncan v. Missouri, 152 US 377, 382 (1894)
“Due process of law and the equal protection of the laws are secured if the laws operate on all alike, and do not subject the individual to an arbitrary exercise of the powers of government.”
Giozza v. Tiernan, 148 US 657, 662 (1893)
“Undoubtedly it (the Fourteenth Amendment) forbids any arbitrary deprivation of life, liberty or property, and secures equal protection to all under like circumstances in the enjoyment of their rights… It is enough that there is no discrimination in favor of one as against another of the same class. And due process of law within the meaning of the [Fifth and Fourteenth] amendment is secured if the laws operate on all alike, and do not subject the individual to an arbitrary exercise of the powers of government.”
Truax v. Corrigan, 257 US 312, 332
“Our whole system of law is predicated on the general fundamental principle of equality of application of the law. ‘All men are equal before the law,’ ‘This is a government of laws and not of men,’ ‘No man is above the law,’ are all maxims showing the spirit in which legislature, executives, and courts are expected to make, execute and apply laws. But the framers and adopters of the [Fourteenth] amendment were not content to depend… upon the spirit of equality which might not be insisted on by local public opinion. They therefore embodied that spirit in a specific guaranty.”
42 USC 1983 - Availability of Equitable Relief Against Judges
“Nowhere was the judiciary given immunity, particularly nowhere in Article III; under our Constitution, if judges were to have immunity, it could only possibly be granted by amendment (and even less possibly by legislative act), as Art. I, Sections 9 & 10, respectively, in fact expressly prohibit such, stating, “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States” and “No state shall…grant any Title of Nobility.” Most of us are certain that Congress itself doesn’t understand the inherent lack of immunity for judges.”
Cooper v. Aaron, 358 US 1, 78 S. Ct. 1401 (1959)
“Any judge who does not comply with his oath to the Constitution of the United States wars against that Constitution and engages in acts of violation of the supreme law of the land. The judge is engaged in acts of treason.”
“The U. S. Supreme Court has stated that “no state legislator or executive or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his undertaking to support it.”
Marbury v. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 180 (1803)
“…the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void, and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
“In declaring what shall be the supreme law of the land, the Constitution itself is first mentioned; and not the laws of the United States generally, but those only which shall be made in pursuance of the Constitution, have that rank.”
“All law (rules and practices) which are repugnant to the Constitution are VOID.”
“Since the 14th Amendment to the Constitution states “No state (jurisdiction) shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the rights, privileges, or immunities of citizens of the United States nor deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,…or equal protection under the law,” this renders judicial immunity unconstitutional.”
Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 US 232, 94 S. Ct. 1683, 1687 (1974)
“The US Supreme Court stated that “when a state officer acts under a state law in a manner violative of the Federal Constitution, he comes into conflict with the superior authority of that Constitution, and he is in that case stripped of his official or representative character and is subjected in his person to the consequences of his individual conduct. The State has no power to impart to him any immunity from responsibility to the supreme authority of the United States.”
United States v. Chadwick, 433 US I at 16 (1976)
“It is deeply distressing that the Department of Justice, whose mission is to protect the constitutional liberties of the people of the United States, should even appear to be seeking to subvert them by extreme and dubious legal argument.”
Elmore v. McCammon (1986) 640 F. Supp. 905
“..the right to file a lawsuit pro se is one of the most important rights under the Constitution and laws.”
Juliard v. Greeman, 110 US 421 (1884)
“Supreme Court Justice Field, “There is no such thing as a power of inherent sovereignty in the government of the United States…In this country, sovereignty resides in the people, and Congress cannot exercise power which they have not, by their Constitution, entrusted to it. All else is withheld.”
Constitutional Quotes
“The judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”
John Adams
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“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
James Madison
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"When People fear their government, there is tyranny. When government fears their people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
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“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
Addressed to King George III, Declaration of Independence
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“Be not intimidated, therefore, by any terrors, from publishing with the utmost freedom whatever can be warranted by the laws of our country; nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberty by any pretenses of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.”
John Adams
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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
US Constitution: Amendment 1
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“It is as much the duty of Government to render prompt justice against itself in favor of citizens as it is to administer the same between private individuals.”
Abraham Lincoln
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“I am for….freedom of the press and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force, and not by reason, the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
John F. Kennedy
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“it is essential that the public be informed concerning the activities of government. “[in] no case shall information be classified in order to conceal violations of federal law, inefficiency, or administrative error, to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency; to restrain competition; or to prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of national security.”
Ronald Reagan
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“Happy is it when the interest in which government has in the preservation of its own power, coincides with a proper distribution of the public burdens, and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression!”
Alexander Hamilton
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“The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.”
John F. Kennedy
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“For too long, judges have allowed the government to hide its mistakes behind claims of national security.”
Barry Siegel
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“The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies.”
John Adams
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Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right…and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.
John Adams
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“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.”
George Washington
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“Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
John Adams
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“Fear is the foundation of most governments.”
John Adams
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“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
John Adams
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“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.“
John Adams
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“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.”
John Adams
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“Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.”
John Adams
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“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
John Adams
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“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“One man with courage is a majority. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. “
Thomas Jefferson
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“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”
Thomas Jefferson
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“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin
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“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”
George Washington
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“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
George Washington
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“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington
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“A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
James Madison
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“A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”
James Madison
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“All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.”
James Madison
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“Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.”
James Madison
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“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
James Madison
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“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
James Madison
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“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
James Madison
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“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
James Madison
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“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”
James Madison
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“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
James Madison
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“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
James Madison
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“The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. “
James Madison
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“The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived. “
James Madison
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“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
James Madison
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“To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”
James Madison
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“We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.”
James Madison
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“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
James Madison
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“Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.”
James Madison
Is it worth the struggle to return our government to a true Constitutional democracy?
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
President Teddy Roosevelt
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We should never forget the most basic principles of our democracy. If we do, it will be to our peril. To guard our freedoms from the encroachment of a voracious government we must be ever vigilant; preventing our busy schedules and the distractions of life from draining our courage and resolve.
The Author