Thursday, January 21, 2016

Ending The Constitutional Charade

Eric Raymond recently pointed out that while amending the Consitution is possible, reducing or removing the freedoms of which it speaks is impossible:

An underappreciated fact about U.S. Constitutional law is that it recognizes sources of authority prior to the U.S. Constitution itself. It is settled law that the Bill of Rights, in particular, does not confer rights, it only recognizes “natural rights” which pre-exist the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and which – this is the key point – cannot be abolished by amending the Constitution.

Well, yes, but something I have not really thought of, mainly because I figure the idiots will just do whatever it is they want to do.

Amendment of the Constitution cannot abolish a right that was not granted by the Constitution in the first place.

Okay. So, I can follow this. The big question is, how many Americans can? If there are enough Americans who can follow it, then lets call that second Convention as fast as possible. Whatever the delegates do, the Federal government will no longer be able to incrementally creep forward on destroying our freedoms.

To my mind anything that did not solidify our freedoms would solidify the opposition, and destablize the existing order. One hopes for peaceful decentralization, but barring that, a clear understanding of what is going on among as many people as possible would be helpful.

No comments: