Constitution Day -- September 17 -- came and passed without fanfare. That is
the day that commemorates the signing of one of the two most important
documents in our nation's history. (The other one, of course, is the
Declaration of Independence, which we celebrate on the Fourth of July.) Even
and especially in the midst of tragedy and crisis, it is critically
important that we remind ourselves of the meaning and purposes of our
Constitution.
When our American ancestors consented to calling into existence the federal
government in 1787, the means by which they did so was the document known as
the Constitution. Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not --
and is not -- a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution
is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and
impede government officials in the exercise of political power.
For example, the Constitution does not grant anyone freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, the right to assemble, or the right to bear arms. In
fact, one searches in vain for any language in our Constitution that grants
any rights to the people whatsoever. (The Constitution can be found in any
World Alamanac and can be accessed on the Internet at the website of the
National Archives and Records Administration, where the original
Constitution and Declaration of Independence are housed: www.nara.gov.)
Instead, recognizing the truth expressed in 1776 in the Declaration of
Independence that people's rights preexist government, the Constitution is
actually a limited grant of enumerated powers to government officials and a
series of restrictions that prohibit government officials from interfering
with the exercise of rights that preexist government.
To put this more clearly, read the First Amendment carefully. You will
notice that it does not give people the right to express their views. It
instead prohibits (the democratically elected) Congress from enacting any
law that interferes with a person's (preexisting) right to express his
views.
That distinction was -- and is -- critical, and it was well understood by
our Founders and our ancestors. They recognized that our rights don't come
from the Constitution; instead the Constitution prohibits government
officials from interfering with fundamental rights that preexist government.
The institution of a government whose powers were few and limited was the
most radical political experiment in history. In fact, that was one of the
things about the United States that amazed people all over the world: the
thought that government officials should not have the general, unlimited
power to do whatever they thought best for the country was a shocking one to
the rest of the world.
Why didn't our ancestors institute a government with general, unlimited
powers to "do the right thing," especially in the midst of a crisis? Because
they knew that governments throughout history had used unlimited political
power to trample and even destroy the rights of the citizenry, especially
during crises and usually with the best of intentions.
Consider the words of the U.S. Supreme Court in Ex Parte Milligan (1866), a
case that arose during our nation's Civil War: "Those great and good men
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 the principles of
constitutional liberty would be in peril, unless established by irrepealable
law. The history of the world had taught them that what was done in the past
might be attempted in the future. The Constitution of the United States is a
law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the
shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all
circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever
invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended
during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads
directly to anarchy or despotism...."
It is perhaps understandable that Americans would forget to celebrate
Constitution Day given the recent tragedy and the current national crisis.
But if we forget our Constitution -- its meaning and its purposes -- we do
so at our peril.
