A Government of Laws, Not of Men

The Law Is King

In January 1776, months before independence was declared, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense put the idea in terms every colonist could repeat.

Four years later, John Adams wrote the principle into the Massachusetts Constitution, the oldest written constitution still in use in the world. Its declaration of rights explains why the powers of government are separated: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.

An Oath to a Document

In a monarchy, officials swore loyalty to the king. Under the Constitution, every senator, representative, state legislator, executive officer and judge, federal and state, is bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution itself. The President’s oath, written into Article II, is to preserve, protect and defend it.

The loyalty runs to the law, not to a person. Article VI adds that no religious test shall ever be required for any public office, so the law asks one allegiance of its officials and only one.

Rules That Bind Power

The rule of law means more than having laws. It means the government follows rules it cannot rewrite after the fact. The original Constitution, before any amendment, included several of these protections.

1. No bill of attainder: the legislature cannot declare a specific person guilty and punish them without a trial.
2. No ex post facto law: no one can be punished for an act that was legal when they did it.
3. Habeas corpus: a person held by the government can demand that a court review whether the detention is lawful, and the privilege may only be suspended in rebellion or invasion.

The Fifth Amendment then promised that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. That idea reaches back to Magna Carta in 1215, which promised that no free man would be punished except by the lawful judgment of his peers or the law of the land.

The Amendment Door

The founders knew they had not written a perfect document. So they wrote the way to change it into the document itself.

Under Article V, an amendment can be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or by a convention called at the request of two-thirds of the states. It becomes part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify it. The bar is high on purpose: the most important law should change only with broad and lasting agreement.

The door has been used twenty-seven times. It ended slavery, guaranteed equal protection, extended the vote to women and to eighteen-year-olds, and changed how senators are chosen. Each time, the people used the founders’ own process to make the plan better.

Your Part in the Plan

A government of laws needs people who know the laws. Not every detail, but the design: where power comes from, how it is divided, what rights are written down and how they can be defended.

That is why Demojura exists. The founders wrote the law for the people who live under it. Understanding it should not require a law degree, and finding help with it should not require a maze. The plan was always meant to be yours.