Intro: Why Should I Care?

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 How's knowing about this help me? (INTRO ARTICLE)

             With life so busy and plenty for us to already worry about, even if one believes the Constitution may be a good thing, why should it have our attention?  All of us could use more empowerment in our lives and Liberty creates more empowerment. That is what we seek to provide by helping you understand the most important principles of our Constitution and how they are relevant to you and even help empower you in your life.

Liberty begins in the individual and the home. It is greater than Freedom, which is just merely the lack of bondage. Liberty is an empowerment you receive when pursuing timeless principles. God has worked over thousands of years to teach and prepare mankind for our Constitution.  By the year 1215 England compacted the Magna Carta which inspired the modern concept of The Rule of Law. Despite this, it still wasn’t a good enough framework to protect the rights of the people. After more colonization of America, war broke out and colonists wanted independence.

 After eight years under the articles of confederation agreement amongst the states they decided they needed something better. While there was an elected congress, what the general government could do was too constricted to prosper. Just as examples, they couldn’t raise taxes resulting in borrowing from other countries,they couldn’t raise an army for defense.  Great Britain was still a threat and they knew they needed a stronger country to stand the test of time,  so they elected delegates to deliberate a new form of government (The Constitution). 

They wanted to unite the states in some kind of union but not have too large of a  general government. They knew government was a necessary evil because we need order and protection of our rights but the primary goal was to allow self governing as much as possible. The answer was to have: Popular Sovereignty with personal responsibility, Checks and Balances, Federalism & Decentralization (Power distributed between a limited general government and the statesf), A Republic (representative) form of government.

The two most important clauses from the Constitution that sum up these ideas are the ninth and tenth amendments. Thomas Jefferson said the entire Constitution rests on the cornerstone of the Tenth Amendment.  The tenth amendment says  

 “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  

             The federal government isn’t free to do as it pleases so long as the Constitution doesn’t outlaw it, but instead are bound by "few and defined powers" as Madison put it. These powers are listed in Article 1 section 8. The states created the federal government and so the 10th amendment reminds that anything not specifically delegated is power reserved to the states and the people. The balance in power is splitting power of the federal government into three branches (Legislative, Executive, Judicial). They can each check each other but this rarely happens and so the ultimate check is the states which reserve more power than the federal government. The supremacy clause of the Constitution is often misconstrued to try to say everything the federal government does is supreme. But this is a false notion. The  Supremacy clause means the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and any laws made in pursuant of those few powers and in harmony with the constitution, are federal laws across all the states.

The 9th amendment is the other greatest clause of the Constitution. The 9th amendment says

 “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” There is sovereignty amongst all the people and the people are the ultimate and final authority. We elect representatives to make laws (within the bounds of the Constitution) but we are not mere subjects meant to serve the government. The 9th amendment comunicates that any rights mentioned like in the Bill Of Rights, is not meant as an enumeration list of what our rights are. They are just further declaratory statements and additional restrictive clauses to the government. We retain all rights, which are natural in us endowed by our creator not given to us by government nor granted to us by the Constitution. 

The 9th amendment also communicates that nothing can be “construed”or  be interpreted in a way that could disparage the rights of the people.  The greatest tool we have is the people understanding these principles and exercising noncompliance to illegitimate laws, as well as pressuring our states to exercise anti commandeering. 

We are given the Constitution to safeguard Liberty which is God’s plan for us.. He created us not just as free agents with agency but in the big picture he desires something greater for us as we inherit the Kingdom of God. The Constitution helps prepare us to be a people that will build Zion. .