Opinion: Happy Bill of Rights Day!

On December 15, 1791, the first Ten Amendments to the US Constitution were ratified. They have come to be known as the Bill of Rights.

This is really a misnomer. As Jacob Hornberger has pointed out, it’s really a Bill of Prohibitions. “It doesn’t give people any rights whatsoever,” he wrote. “The people who crafted the Bill of Rights were careful to make certain that the language prohibited the federal government from infringing upon preexisting rights.” [Emphasis mine]

These Amendments are a rejection of any government that does not respect the inherent right of all individuals to live their lives without politicians – or their minions in the military, police, or bureaucracy – standing with a boot on their neck. While not exhaustive – Amendments Nine and Ten addressed this issue – the list is a fist in the face of government, saying “Back off!” The rights celebrated are links in a chain dating back at least to Magna Carta in 1215, an Anglo-American tradition that has (occasionally) held government in check for almost 800 years.

The Bill of Rights – or Prohibitions, if you prefer – was a huge victory for the Anti-Federalists. Concerned that the new government created by the Constitution would have too much power, and might lead to centralized, dictatorial rule, they argued for its rejection without a Bill of Rights. Amendments One through Ten are the concession they received for their spirited (and almost successful) efforts. They stand against any dictatorship that might hope to usurp the people’s freedoms.

But what if the people themselves should grow so pathetic – so helpless and afraid, so spineless and craven – that they reject the ”Blessings of Liberty” and instead wish to hand their birthright over to government officials?

If anyone ever tells you the United States is a “democracy,” ask him or her a simple question: Where in the US Constitution or the Declaration of Independence – its philosophical antecedent – is the word “democracy” ever found? Quick answer: Not once. Never.

Ours is a Republican form of government, one of limited powers. The Constitution rests on pillars that are in fact anti-democratic.

The motive of our Constitution’s Framers was to protect the rights of individuals from government (a thorough rejection of today’s sentimental claptrap about “us” being the government) – be it the rule of one man, or the rule of a mob.

As Jefferson said in his First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1801), “the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression.”

To facilitate this goal, certain obstacles were placed in the path of a tyranny by the majority. For example, the allocation of two Senators to each state regardless of population (and the appointment of Senators by state legislatures, sadly undone by Amendment 17); the Electoral College (which allows a president to be elected without winning the popular vote); co-equal branches of government and the separation of powers; judicial review; and interposition by state governments, or even local officials. Any one of these can thwart the desires of a majority.

Not content with these guarantees alone, a Bill of Rights was added that expressly forbade government to take certain actions or interfere with certain activities of the people – in defiance of the autocrat and the majority.

By expressly forbidding government from stifling free speech, disarming the people, denying them a trial by their peers, or invading their privacy without just cause and a warrant; protecting their freedom against self-incrimination, or “cruel and unusual punishment,” or the quartering of soldiers on their property without the owner’s consent, or the taking of private property “without just compensation” – for these reasons, the first Ten Amendments were added to the Constitution.

Today we celebrate 223 years of undermining oppression, thwarting absolute power, and protecting individual freedom. Happy Bill of Rights Day!