Andrew P. Napolitano - Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History

LIES THE
GOVERNMENT
TOLD YOU

Also by Andrew P. Napolitano

Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When
Government Breaks Its Own Laws

The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal
Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the
Supreme Law of the Land

A Nation of Sheep

Dred Scotts Revenge: A Legal History of Race and
Freedom in America

LIES THE
GOVERNMENT
TOLD YOU

Myth, Power, and Deception in American History

by
Andrew P. Napolitano

2010 Andrew P. Napolitano

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Napolitano, Andrew P.
Lies the government told you : myth, power, and deception in American
history / by Andrew P. Napolitano.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59555-266-2
1. Constitutional historyUnited States. 2. United StatesPolitics and
government. I. Title.
KF4550.Z9N369 2010
320.520973dc22

2009051799

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 WC 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated

to the memory of

Senator Barry Morris Goldwater,

who, alone among major party

candidates for President,

promised to shrink the federal government,

and who is the father

the modern American Liberty Movement.

For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone, who is of the truth, hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth?

John 18:37

[M]en are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.

Niccolo Machiavelli,
The Prince

Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

Henry A. Wallace,
Vice President of the United States
(1941 to 1945)

Contents

Lie #2: All Men... Are Endowed by Their Creator
with Certain Inalienable Rights

Lie #5: Congress Shall Make No Law... Abridging
the Freedom of Speech

Lie #6: The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms
Shall Not Be Infringed

Lie #8: The Federal Reserve Shall Be Controlled
by Congress

Lie #13: The Constitution Applies in Good Times and
in Bad Times

Lie #14: Your Boys Are Not Going to Be Sent
into Any Foreign Wars

Lie #16: The Right of the People to Be Secure
in Their Persons, Houses, Papers, and Effects,
Shall Not Be Violated

Foreword
by Congressman Ron Paul

Andrew P. Napolitano is a true rarity among judges and media personalities: He is a passionate defender of liberty who understands that the United States Constitution puts strict limits on federal power. Judge Napolitanos tremendous knowledge of American law, history, and politics, as well as his passion for freedom, shines through in Lies the Government Told You, as he details how throughout American history, politicians and government officials have betrayed the ideals of personal liberty and limited government.

Anyone who knows Judge Napolitano understands that he does not pull his punches or excuse any constitutional violations in order to support any group or political interest. Thus, Lies the Government Told You explains how politicians of both parties have routinely disregarded the constitutional limits on federal power and violated our natural rights.

One of the most important lessons Judge Napolitano teaches is how many shared premises there are by advocates of big government from both the right and the left. For example, Judge Napolitano exposes how both the conservatives war on marijuana and the liberals war on tobacco are manifestations of paternalismthe idea that government has the legitimate authority to stop adults from doing bad things, like smoking substances that politicians and bureaucrats do not approve of. Of course, smoking, whether of marijuana or tobacco, does have negative health consequencesbut respecting the right of individuals to be wrong, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others, is one of the pillars of a free society.

Lies the Government Told You also avoids the all-too-common error of drawing a distinction between personal liberty and economic liberty, and focusing on attacks on one type of freedom while ignoring or even supporting attacks on the other category of liberty. When the freedom movement began in the nineteenth century, supporters of liberty, who were then known as liberals, made no distinctions between government actions that interfered with economic liberties, such as laws infringing upon private contracts, and government actions that restricted personal liberty, such as limits on the freedom of speech. Supporters of liberty were also likely to understand the grave threat posed to liberty and constitutional government by a militaristic foreign policy. Thus, they were also supporters of peace.

However, beginning in the Progressive Era, promoters of big government co-opted the rhetoric of the promoters of freedom, even stealing the label liberal. Whereas liberal once referred to a supporter of freedom, beginning in the Progressive Era, the term liberal began to refer to supporters of the welfare state. The division between supporters of economic and personal freedoms was accelerated by the Cold War, when many supporters of free markets allowed their (justifiable) loathing of communism to lead them to embrace militarism abroad and limitations on personal freedom at home. Thanks to this division between the supporters of personal and economic liberty, it is not uncommon to find opponents of socialized medicine arguing for the Patriot Act, and opponents of gun control arguing for free speech.

Fortunately, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is one of a growing number of Americans who support liberty across the board. Thus, Lies the Government Told You defends all of our freedoms. Readers of this book will find eloquent defenses of private property, the right to keep and bear arms, and attacks on excessive government regulations along with defenses of free speech, and attacks on unconstitutional wars, the drug war, and the Patriot Act.

One chapter of this book that is particularly important to me deals with monetary policy. Anyone who has followed my career knows that exposing and ending the damage done to our prosperity and freedom by the Federal Reserves fiat currency system drives much of what I do. While there is substantial literature explaining the myriad ways the Federal Reserve damages our economy, there is not nearly as much writing that explains how the Federal Reserve System violates the Constitution and ties the Federal Reserve to the general assault on liberty waged by Big Government. This book helps fill that gap.