President Joe Biden signs executive orders on immigration Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
At LewRockwell.com, Judge Andrew Napolitano asks “What if when government tramples our rights, we alter or abolish it? What if the time to do that is coming? What if that time is here?” He writes (abridged):
What if we all start a return to normal life now that the government says the worst of the pandemic is behind us? What if we all make conscious choices to move about as before or to stay sheltered, based on our own exercise of our own informed free wills and not on the basis of governmental edicts? What if each of us decides if it is healthier to breathe in fresh air from outside or recycled air from under a mask?
What if massive numbers of us make these decisions on our own?
What if the governors’ edicts don’t really carry the force of law? What if governors have assumed the power to tell us how to live from either out of thin air or from unconstitutional and outdated state laws?
What if it is profoundly unconstitutional for a state legislature to give its law-making powers to the state’s governor? What if, when that happens, all the governors’ edicts based on that attempted passage of power are null and void?
What if — as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence — our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable? What if an inalienable right can only be taken away in a free society for violating someone else’s rights, and only after a conviction by a fair jury trial? What if an inalienable right — sometimes called a natural right — cannot morally or constitutionally or legally be taken away by a governmental edict or by legislation or even by a referendum?
What if inalienable rights are integral to each person’s humanity?
What if when government tramples our rights, we alter or abolish it? What if the time to do that is coming? What if that time is here? What if — as Jefferson wrote — when the people fear the government there is tyranny? What if when the government fears the people, there is liberty?
Andrew P. Napolitano], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written nine books on the U.S. Constitution.
