Follow The Law

June 10, 2024 | Constitution, Founders, Founding Documents, History, Judicial, Militia

by Nicholas Testaccio

Following “the Laws of the Union” requires integrity, and diligence. We have swayed so far from the rule of law that being honest with ourselves appears to be difficult, at best, and as we go forward, reaching a level that approaches the impossible.

The Constitution is a uniform document, and if every clause is not given its due force or proper execution, the document means nothing. Most will blame corrupt representatives, judges, and agencies while ignoring the fact that it is our responsibility to uphold “the Laws of the Union.” “We the People” are both the author and enforcers of our own laws. We created a Nation, wherein we maintain sovereign authority over the state. Our words, our laws, and our powers are first and foremost in a document, in which we laid out the rule of law.

In 1901, Mr. Justice White, writing for the court, ruled that “The government of the United States was born of the Constitution, and all powers which it enjoys or may exercise must be either derived expressly or by implication from that instrument.” – Downes v Bidwell, 182 U. S. 244

I am a citizen of a Republic, wherein my rights are intended to be unalienable. I am not the subject of a democratic tyranny wherein the majority decides what rights I may or may not have. I am not the subject of men and women whose desires have no regard for what is good, but only for what they covet. To my mind their lust extends beyond the good fortune of others, for even that is the subject of their gain.

“An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” – Norton v Shelby County, 118 US 425

I have learned, over the years of frustration, that the simpler the terms, the more that will be twisted and corrupted from the author’s few succinct words. In the few words quoted from “Norton v Shelby,” it should be construed that acts that violated the principles of the Constitution are void before agents of government attempt to enforce whatever the legislature had in mind.

I, once again, quote the writings of Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper #78; “There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”

Hamilton elaborates on the concepts that Jefferson laid out in our Declaration that prescribes the concept of a Nation, in which, the People retain sovereign powers over the state, and those we elect to protect and enforce that design. A Nation of People, for the first time in history, holds the ultimate authority over those who serve their interests. We have moved so far from that plan that it is almost impossible to convince the majority to act based on the principle “sovereignty, itself, remains with the people, by whom and for whom government exists and acts.”

Failure to comprehend our system is where we will fail to maintain our Republic and fall into a tyranny.

The people of New York have now given us every reason to believe that the Nation is in grave peril. They have given us Alvin Bragg, Letisha James, Kathy Hochul, and a judge of the most contemptible demeanor, judge Juan Merchan. The list goes on, but it should be clear to so many in this country that we have now crossed the Rubican into Civil War. It is cold right now, but it will either fizzle into an all out tyranny run by a mob of the most corrupt and vile people, or it will turn hot when the people see that ‘evil is no longer sufferable.’

We are pushed to the very brink by falsehoods that have become the truth, or at least the truth in the minds of people who are gullible fools. That those who have abandoned reason and logic have placed us in a state of confusion and turmoil. Confusion and turmoil are the definition of Civil War. We no longer know who is in charge, the rule of law, or the zealous mob of “useful idiots.”

A particularly important issue that has come to fruition in the trial and conviction of Donald Trump. In the NYC case brought by Alvin Bragg, Trump was denied the most elementary aspects of our rights, and it was done in collusion with twelve jurors who were selected for their apparent prejudice, in a borough that consistently votes for tyranny. In the end, to assure a conviction, judge Merchan gave instructions to the jury that should have had him impeached.

As a jurist, when giving instructions to the jury, you must be sure that they are given all the facts, including their right and duty to negate the law when it is unjust or unconstitutional. In his “Commentaries On The Constitution”, Justice Story, without expressing any opinion on whether or not the central government had any authority to  “punish[] the licentious of the press” notes a particular aspect of our legal system and jurist prudence; “And the same act authorized the truth to be given in evidence on any such prosecution; and the jury, upon the trial, to determine the law and the fact, as in other cases.”

It should be noted that most who sit in a jury box are ignorant of their duty to protect the rights of the defendant by way of jury nullification if necessary. Jefferson wrote “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its Constitution.” This is such a powerful tool against tyranny that some states have made nullification illegal. A member of a jury could be held for criminal charges if he or she makes such an argument. Yet, in the case of the people who sat in the prosecution of Donald Trump, and in other cases where the foundation of our principles were on trial, ignorance, prejudice, and hate prevailed.                                                     

Once again, a segment of the population proved that they have no regard for what is right or wrong. Another example of how far we have removed ourselves from the principles of liberty adopted in our Founding documents. The core of this nation is being torn apart by men and women whose lust for power is aided by the foolish and the bigoted. This is how Civil Wars start. Who is in charge at this point in time? It is certainly not the rule of law, to which, as free people, we should all subscribe. It is in the hands of the mob, the democracy that was so hated by the Founders that they made the “guarantee [of a] Republican Form of Government” a part of our Constitution, to which the oath of office makes us all accountable. Yet we let the term democracy be bandied about as if we have no respect for the foundation of the United States.

In a time far distant from today, men and women stood up bravely for what they believed to be essential to life, liberty, and freedom from oppression. How can we survive when a nation is so divided? When our neighbors, our fellow citizens employ their prejudice rather than their ability to reconcile what, in a particular matter, might be right or wrong? The mindset of many seems to be that of recklessness and incoherence rather than piety and lucidity.

The courage exhibited by the men on Lexington Greene, to those who placed their neck in jeopardy by signing our Declaration are so far removed from today’s national character as to seem more  myth rather than reality. We must recognize that the attack on our history is a part of a plan to destroy this nation. How else are we to judge what may come if not to consult the past and examine the results.

Our ability to recall, analyze, and then reconcile the missteps of the past has been a keystone of our Republic. With words that shouted a unique idea going forward, our ancestors stepped into the future by correcting the mistakes that every other nation in the world had made, and still make today.

Yes, we  have made many errors, but none more egregious than others, and no man or woman today can lay claim to coming from a family without sin. History is replete with stories of mans inhumanity to man. No tyrant succeeds without the willingness of the population to either execute the horrors or stay silent as the atrocities prevail. As the saying goes, “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

Our campuses, our streets, our legislatures, and even our courts are replete with arrogant, ignorant, and I must say idiots who, without realizing it, dig their own graves. Our original documents are salient proclamations of the theory of a Nation “conceived in Liberty,” with the balance of power placed in the hands of and laid at the feet of “We the People.”

However, the framework for this Nation has been corrupted and denigrated through years of judicial fraud, and the willingness of the people to be led astray. In a lengthy detail of the challenges, foibles, and triumphs of this nation, Murry Rothbard, in his aptly title book “Conceived in Liberty” documents many of the trials and tribulations that faced this Nation.

In what is sometimes excruciating detail, Rothbard explains the beginnings, the strife, failures, and victories that should be no surprise to anyone living today who observes the struggles laid before us.

Rothbard begins by quoting from John Locke’s “Treatise on Government”; “whenever the Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common Refuge, which God hath provided for all Men, against Force and Violence.” This is critical to set the stage for struggles that are ages old.

Whatever the causes that lead to a revolution, or civil war, it is rooted in fundamental attacks on the rights of the people. Continuing from Locke’s “Treatise”, on this point, he writes, “Whensoever therefore the Legislative shall transgress this fundamental Rule of Society; and either by Ambition, Fear, Folly or Corruption, endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other an Absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the People; By this breach of Trust they forfeit the Power, the People had put into their hands, for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty.”

“We the People” have placed trust in our government to act in accordance with the rules we set forth, and the value of our rights. The delegates to the Convention were not so naïve to believe that there would not be those who covet what their neighbor, or even their constituents may own; plot schemes, and to enact laws, beyond the reach of the legislature, which would take from the people. To that end, the legislature would attempt to take the means necessary to prevent the people from enforcing their laws and preventing such usurpations.

No government acts without the acceptance of the people, for the state is nothing more than a fiction that operates by the hands of the people. There can be no executive, legislative, or judicial function unless we give it some form and application. The Founders were not ignorant of this, nor were they dismissive of the fact that greed and avarice are failures of human nature.

The societal convulsions, bigotry, and hatred we see today have been promoted by a cabal of those who seek everything each of us owns. The lust for power is taught to the willing accomplice who now believes themselves to be of virtue, rather than someone compromised by the teachings of those who hate such things as freedom and property rights.

Who is in charge? Who was meant to be in charge, and by what means would we protect the rights of all?

At one end, we have the elites who now make no bones about what they wish to accomplish. A goal that their acolytes fail to recognize. Control of every aspect of our lives. The destruction of private property, except that which they claim as their own. A complete destruction of liberty, and chastisement for those of us who seek nothing more than to be free and live our lives as we see fit, if we do not infringe on the rights of others.

We must comprehend that the rule of law is not the charge, by which this Nation was created, and for which it must flourish. In that context, confusion of control must be cast from the media, the campuses, and the courts that have been compromised.

As we go forward, and confusion, distrust, and propaganda sway the political landscape, we must either come together, or be torn apart. I, for one, cannot see unity in our near future as there are forces that have no regard for truth and the recklessness of the lies they constantly spew.

I have spent years attempting to point my fellow Americans to a solution that presents itself in the foundation of our Nation; one of a sovereign people. To that end I learned that Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 & 16 of the Constitution were critical to saving this Nation. Revitalization of the Militia, the people’s ‘Law Enforcement’ institution was necessary to Saving and Restoring the Republic.

However, I have not been able to convince more than a few that the Institution as defined in history and Law are the solution bequeath to us, that we may thwart, what now appears to be sad ending to this experiment.