“The American Constitution . . . is founded on a creed. America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.”
— G. K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America (1922)
This Memorial Day weekend, it is important to remember that soldiers have died to protect America’s unalienable Rights. What are these rights? Paul Ksicinski fights in courts to protect these very rights for you
In deciding what those rights are, I remember these lines by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). After Jesus is arrested and he is brought before Pontius Pilate and these memorable are given:
(Jesus)
I look for truth
And find that I get damned
(Pilate)
But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law?
We both have truths, Are mine the same as yours?
As Americans, we believe certain truths to be unchanging and 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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men..” Declaration of Independence, http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/. Empasis added. Clearly, therefore, the foundation of American government, that government which soldiers have died for, was founded to secure the natural rights of the American people.
“To secure these rights,” proclaims the Declaration of Independence, is the reason that “governments are instituted among men.” John Hancock (in his capacity as president of the Second Continental Congress) and James Madison both considered the Declaration to be, in Madison’s words, “the fundamental Act of Union of these States.” http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.2196/default.asp Reflecting that view, Congress has referred to the Declaration as one of the “The Organic Laws of the United States of America.” placing it in the Revised Statutes of the United States of America (the predecessor to the United States Code). Volume 18 Revised Statutes of the United States as enacted by the 43rd Congress (1873-1875) and published by the Government Printing Office in 1878, p. v, https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=018/llsl018.db&recNum=5 and vi https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=018/llsl018.db&recNum=6 (the four documents that are presented as the cohesive collection of organic laws of the U.S. are (1) The Declaration of Independence; (2) The Article of Confederation; (3) The Northwest Ordinance; and, (4) The Constitution of the United States.)
Similarly, the U.S. Supreme Court has referred to this statement in the Declaration as “evangel of liberty to the people” by which our government secures, but does not grant to us, the unalienable Rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Buthchers’ Union Co. v. Crescent City Co. 111 U.S. 746, 756-57 (1884) (Field, Justice, concurring). “[N]either the Bill of Rights nor the laws of sovereign States create the liberty which the Due Process Clause protects. The relevant constitutional provisions are limitations on the power of the sovereign to infringe on the liberty of the citizen….it is self-evident that all men were endowed by their Creator with liberty as one of the cardinal unalienable rights. It is that basic freedom which the Due Process Clause protects.” Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 230 (1976) (Stevens, Justice, dissenting).
Therefore, “[t]he rights of life and personal liberty are natural rights of man.” United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 553 (1875) The very highest duty our government has to us is to “to protect all persons within their boundaries in the enjoyment of these ‘unalienable rights with which they were endowed by their Creator.’” Id. To secure natural rights is, therefore, why the Constitution was enacted, and to secure natural rights is how the Constitution should be interpreted.
That is the “original intent” of the Founders. It is what Paul Ksicinski believes in and will fight to protect for you in court.