Sept. 17 is the day that we reserve for honoring our Constitution. The day was codified in 1917 when many people rightly feared that the country was losing its appreciation for its merits.
Did you celebrate the day? I’m afraid that many people didn’t. This surely isn’t something that’s taught in schools today. Just like civics classes have long been absent from our nation’s schools, education about our Constitution is also sorely lacking. Yet, it should be the paramount thing that we are teaching our youth. Why? Because the freedom protected by the Constitution is the key to a free and happy life.
I will explain.
We need to step back in time to about 250 years ago, which was a much simpler time in many ways. There were no cars, no paved roads, no computers, no internet, and certainly no cellphones—in fact, there were no telephones at all. Communication mainly happened by people meeting face-to-face and talking to one another.
Some people say that our Founding Fathers predicted it all ... that they knew the government would one day spin out of control and become dictatorial. I say, it wasn’t a prediction, but a result of infliction.
The founding generation came from tyranny. They knew exactly what it was like to suffer under a monarch, one-man rule with an obedient, aristocratic Parliament, where edicts and whims of one person or a select few would upturn lives, cause pain and suffering, and in some cases, result in death.
They knew what it was like to petition the king and have their requests fall on deaf ears. They knew what it was like to work hard to provide for their families, have to pay taxes on their goods and lands, and then watch the “authorities” squander their hard-earned earnings on things that would never benefit them and in some cases would outright hurt them. Their famous cry became, “No taxation without representation!”
The Constitution Was Written to Keep the Government in Check
Something that I often explain when I am giving a speech or a presentation is that our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution to enshrine our rights and then built the government to protect those rights. The government isn’t supposed to control us. We are supposed to control the government. We do that through suffrage (i.e. voting). It was supposed to make the government always responsive to the people. In New York, suffrage is so sacred, our state constitution lists it second only to our Bill of Rights.- The states created the federal government. The federal government didn’t create the states.
- Any power not specifically endowed upon the federal government in the Constitution is reserved for the people or the states.
- The Constitution lays out our three co-equal branches of government and their enumerated powers (legislative branch, judicial branch, and executive branch). The checks and balances set forth in our Constitution are there to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful. This is the separation of powers doctrine. When one branch goes astray, it’s up to the other branches to put that branch back in its place.
Here we are, almost 250 years later, and in many ways, we are living under tyranny. We have executive branches across the nation (and at the federal level) consistently breaching separation of powers (the cornerstone of our free society). When one branch of government usurps the power of the other branches, that is tyranny. And it is We the People who suffer under tyranny.
It’s usurpation of power. Also known as breach of separation of powers. Some call it government overreach. Whichever tag you use, it gets us to the same place: Our Constitution is under attack. As a result, attorneys like me have to then bring lawsuits against the executive branches to get the judicial branches to put the executives back into their lane.
- Our quarantine camp lawsuit was victorious against Hochul’s illegal quarantine regulation, which was struck down as unconstitutional.
- Biden’s EPA (power plant emissions limitations) regulation was struck down as unconstitutional.
- Biden’s OSHA (vaccination or mask/test) regulation was struck down as unconstitutional.
- Biden’s CDC (eviction moratorium) was struck down as unconstitutional.
Our Constitution Is Only as Good as the People It Protects
If the politicians don’t uphold the Constitution, then it becomes useless. If the people don’t require the politicians to follow the Constitution, it’s useless.The Constitution must be upheld. Public servants are supposed to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution when they take office. Ask yourself this: Are my representatives (state and federal), upholding the Constitution? Or are they violating my rights and freedoms, and making my life more difficult and less pleasurable?