Constitution Day 2025

Constitution Day 2025

by Kary Love

1162 words

Do you remember that before July 4, 1776, 99% of the people living in the world and 99% of those who had lived and were dead, had lived as slaves, serfs, peasants or indentured servants, and that only Kings, Emperors and Lords had rights? The abuse by those with power over those with no rights inflamed generations.

Of course over human history many had fought for human rights. That is why history is littered with “Slave Rebellions,” “civil wars,” and speeches and books arguing that all humans should have equal rights to free conscience, free thought, free religion, free speech and to have their views heard and respected by those who claimed the right to “govern.” Over time, a tidal wave supporting human rights emerged among humans as the many suffered the cruelty and arbitrary rule of those unaccountable to the people—Kings and their ilk. Too many suffering for too long and despairing of their children’s’ futures united to demand reform, change and a level playing field for all.

In what I regard as the greatest political legal achievement in history, America threw off the tyranny of “Kings and aristocrats” and established a “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the desire to build a better and more just world, America was a beacon of hope. The Constitution of September 17, 1787 was an imperfect effort to establish a better world with a government subject to the rule of law, wherein the people were represented by the law makers who had a duty to see the will of the people adopted into the nation’s laws. Of course, the Constitution was not perfect at birth and the amendment process was included should it need alteration as issues emerged. Despite its defects, its principles have empowered even those it excluded, as Frederick Douglass, a former slave, learned when he decided that he would seize and use the Constitution as a vehicle to expand rights and the rule of law even to slaves. Others did so for women’s rights and the Constitution morphed into a liberating power for people’s rights. Like the Bible, which even Lucifer quotes in support of his devilish programs, the Constitution is also asserted as a source of power by those determined to retain King-like powers, a nouveau aristocracy, and to undermine the liberties of the people.

The 1787 Constitution was written in secret by the “1% of the day” and represented a retreat from the more universal declarations of human rights expressed in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The perpetual struggle between the interests of the few at the top and of the many below did not end with the Revolution nor the Constitution. The revolutionary generation was appalled by the Constitution and demanded a Bill of Rights protecting the human rights the American Revolution bled and died to achieve be made part of, and enforceable against government, under the “Supreme Law.” 

Faced with an overwhelming reaction against the proposed Constitution, in order to get state conventions to agree to it, the “Federalists” agreed that the first order of business of the Congress once the Constitution was ratified would be to adopt a Bill of Rights demanded by the people. Over 220 amendments were submitted by the States. James Madison primarily whittled those down to the first 10 amendments, adopted in 1791, to appease American Revolutionaries and their families who demanded that the Revolution’s great achievements be written into law. The adoption of the Bill of Rights significantly incorporated the great rights of humanities struggle into the supreme law.

However, despite a Bill of Rights, America suffered under a continued struggle between power and the people. As a result the various interests fought over “representation” because that was where the foundation of power lay under the Constitution. One Amendment submitted early on raised the issue of what representation was needed if the people were truly to have input into how their government mutated and ruled going forward. Making sure sufficient representatives were present to cover the divergent interests of the people was debated and the Congressional Apportionment Amendment was one submitted by the states to ensure representation not be diluted.

The reasons for it were many. As James Madison wrote, in Federalist Paper Number 55:

[F]irst, that so small a number of representatives will be an unsafe depositary of the public interests; secondly, that they will not possess a proper knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous constituents; thirdly, that they will be taken from that class of citizens which will sympathize least with the feelings of the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at a permanent elevation of the few on the depression of the many.

The Congressional Apportionment Amendment suggested one representative for every 30,000 people, eventually increasing to one for every 50,000. This amendment was never ratified. In 1929, the House was frozen by Congress at 435 members, leading to larger districts and a growing number of constituents per representative. Might one suggest that vested interests, adverse to proper “representation” favoring outsize influence or control by the few monied interests found it easier to get their way by a body in which they only had to control 51% of 435 in order to establish “the best government money could buy?”

Today, each representative serves approximately 760,000 constituents, a significant dilution of actual ability of “representatives” to represent the people. One contemplates this dilution of representation is manifested in our current dissatisfaction with our federal government; after all our nation was founded in part on the cry “no taxation without representation,” because unless the people consented to the use of their money by meaningful representative government, the founding generation called such taxation without representation mere “theft.” Meaningful consent by representation was required if taxation was to be just. Today taxation without real representation results in use of tax dollars for purposes most Americans oppose, but that benefit a “select” few.

This Constitution Day Americans ought reflect on the fact that lack of meaningful representation has diluted their status as Americans who self-govern. They ought reflect on the fact the Bill of Rights enshrining their human rights in the supreme law is being diluted by laws passed by unrepresentative Congresses and Executive Orders issued in defiance of the supreme law. 

Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights descends from the heavens to preserve the greatness of America. Both require active support daily by the people in order to live and survive the grasping hands of those who disdain government by the people preferring government by money. The continuation of the great revolution for human rights, equality before law and justice for all, begun at the founding of America, is the duty of every American. To paraphrase JFK’s profound insight: Ask not what the Constitution can do for you, but what you can do for the Constitution. It is yours to abandon or preserve.

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Kary Love, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resisters and many others in court for decades.