American Rule of Law - The American Way

American rule of law is based on the premise that increase in government means decrease in liberty. That being given, the underlying assumption about American rule of law is that limits must be placed on government, since the tendency of government is to grow and grow and grow. Therefore, individual, inalienable rights are officially recognized as being fundamental to our form of government and are enumerated in the Bill of Rights which was added to the Constitution so that as a last resort, people could refer to that document and essentially say to government, "This is where you may not tread. These are our rights as given us by our creator and as officially recognized in this document, the Bill of Rights. Government may not interfere with the following: (see the BoR...)".

Since American Rule of Law is based on immutable principles, some of those being that individuals are the property of no other individual, that they may as sovereign individuals own property (but not other human beings) and keep the fruits of their labor, we see that American rule of law is based on the idea that the individual is sovereign, that the individual is the master of government where such individuals band together and make a body of law to which all agree - inside the framework of the founding documents of the United States, in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

American rule of law is designed such that no individuals may interfere with the life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness of any other individual who has the same inalienable sovereign rights as any other individual. This is why it reads "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. "

This passage from the Declaration of Independence, the document that states the reason why we formed a new government separate from the British Empire, essentially states with this passage that government ends where inalienable individual rights begin. Ergo: government exists to serve, not to rule. That being said, we must wonder why the government has such trouble understanding this. It's all very simple.

American rule of law is based on principles. Those principles are clearly defined in our founding documents. Since they're written and they don't say "If government says so, individuals may claim and/or exercise the following rights, depending on whether the government hasn't countermanded them...", we have a body of law that is fixed - although there are always those (in government) who will try to usurp power and subvert the rule of law (usually in order to grow government, which is usually for personal gain or ascendancy above his/her fellows... We'll cover judicial activism - the creation of law from the judiciary rather than the legislature, later). That body of law being fixed, we know the rules up front, the rules that we've all agreed upon and which have passed the test of Constitutionality (unless you live in Denver, CO).

Of course, we're all aware there are those that say the Constitution should be "malleable" that it should "change to fit with the times". Beware of those who would change our form of goverment to one that exists to rule, where the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are no longer inalienable, where those rights become subject to the whim of those who hold power in government. Our fixed, written American rule of law is diametrically opposed to this fiat rule of law, which has no foundation in any immutable principles, has no constants and is based on documents that give all power to government which may legislate on the fly, excluding the sovereign individual from the process of determining his own destiny.

In the American system of government the people rule over government, using a body of law whereas other forms of government rule over the individuals or subjects under that form of government and such fiat rule may be carried out by the dictates of one individual, the dictates of a small group of people or the will of the masses - who are usually wrong when it comes to any matter of importance, simply because intelligence is rare and stupidity is the second most common "element" in the universe after hydrogen. In American rule of law, everything must fall within the Constitutional framework which limits government and promotes individual liberty.

Now, we get to the crux of this issue. Above, we have a brief explanation of the American Way, American Rule of Law and the principles upon which it is based. Proceeding from the principles that government exists to serve because all people, all individuals are endowed with inalienable rights, we must contrast government based on these principles with any other proposed form of government to ensure that we're not taking a step backward into a form of government whose purpose is to rule, which may or may not recognize or acknowledge individual rights. The best way to make such a comparison is on a point by point basis from the perspective of individual rights.

A comparison: UN Global Government vs. The American Way

Hemispherically dominant people who are stuck using only one hemisphere of their brains are either purely analytical - without context, or they have nothing but context and are unable to reconcile their worldview with the details of reality.

The perpetually illiterate are those who cannot continue to refine the dual cycle of analysis and synthesis to a sufficient level of abstraction where they begin to see things in a transdisciplinary fashion. -- Anonymous

When you depart from natural law, you haven't gotten anywhere... -- Anonymous

Also: see Constitutional Conflict to see how our founding principles are being subverted by our own government.