Andrew P. Napolitano - It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom

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IT IS DANGEROUS TO
BE RIGHT
WHEN THE
GOVERNMENT
IS WRONG

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IT IS DANGEROUS TO
BE RIGHT
WHEN THE
GOVERNMENT
IS WRONG

ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO

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2011 by Andrew P. Napolitano

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Napolitano, Andrew P.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong : the case for personal freedom / by Andrew P. Napolitano.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59555-350-8 (alk. paper)
1. Civil rights--United States. 2. Civil rights--Philosophy. 3. Liberty--Philosophy. 4. Natural law--Philosophy. I. Title.
JC599.U5N25 2011
323.0973--dc23
2011019142

Printed in the United States of America

11 12 13 14 15 QGF 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the people by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate dutiesby leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishmentby maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law and by observing strict economy in every department of the State. Let the government do this: The people will assuredly do the rest .

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong .

VOLTAIRE

Does the government exist to protect our freedoms, or do we exist to serve the government ?

ANONYMOUS

You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe .

PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS

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Contents

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Does the government exist to serve us or to master us? If the government exists to serve us and if freedom is part of our humanity, how can the government take freedom from us? Is human freedom in America a myth, or is it reality?

In all my previous written works, I have emphasized the theme that all human beings possess natural rights as part of our humanity. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we view these rights as gifts from our Creator. This is particularly so if you are an American, and if you mark the founding of this nation at July 4th 1776, as it was then that the Continental Congress promulgated in the Declaration of Independence Jeffersons immortalthough hardly novelwords to the effect that we humans are created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Historians have speculated that Jefferson originally planned to use the concept of property ownership in that iconic litany of human rights, but his fear of addressing slavery in the same document in which he had characterized the long train of abuses visited upon the colonists by the king of England, would have opened the Declaration and its signers to charges of hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, Talmudic and Christian scholars, and renowned skeptics, even atheists and deists, had long held, by Jeffersons time, that the divine right of kings was a myth, that all humans own their own bodies, and that personal freedoms are integral to those bodies. Whether the ultimate source of human freedom is found in theology or biology, freedom exists, freedom is ours by nature, and the long history of the world is really one unceasing, increasing catalogue of the epic battles for personal freedoms against tyranny.

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Stated differently, I have argued in my work at Fox News, as a judge, as a lawyer, as an author, lecturer, and law school professor that our basic human libertiesthought, speech, press, worship, travel, privacy, association, self-defense, bodily integrity, dominion over ownership of property, fairness from the government, and the presumption of liberty at all times under all circumstances and in all conflictsare the essence of humanity.

If you read the Bill of Rightsthe first ten amendments of the Constitutionyou will see that the theme of my other works, and of this book, was pretty much accepted by the Framers. As you will read recounted here, they, like I, were skeptical of Big Government. Some, like Patrick Henry and George Mason, were, like I am, skeptical of all government. The Framers viewed, as do I, the only legitimate role of government as protecting freedom. That connotes protection from force and fraud, but it surely does not connote punishing the politically unorthodox, transferring wealth, regulating personal private behavior, stealing property, or manipulating currency. I suspect that if you actually picked up this book and have read these introductory remarks up to this point, you will generally agree with me: So far so good.

Now the dark part: There is no human liberty, natural or constitutional, expressly guaranteed in the Constitution or traditionally viewed as belonging to all persons, that has not been nullified by the government in America. We are deluding ourselves if we really think that the government thinks that the so-called guarantees of freedoms are truly guarantees. They are not. They have been tolerated by American governments unless and until the governments feel threatened by them. Of course, a guarantee that can be suspended whenever those obligated on the guarantee no longer feel bound by it, is no guarantee whatsoever.

Throughout our history, persons in America have had all natural rights denied by different levels of government, from slavery to abortion, from punishment for speech to theft of property, from denial of due process to invasions of privacy; and the government has prevailed. This book is my sixth book. All have been unhappy discussions about the Constitution and the governments unrestrained willingness to disregard it.

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This book, like its predecessors, tells the stories that generally do not have happy endings. Most of the times freedom loses. But these are arguments that come from my heart as well as my head; and they should resonate in your heart and head.

Every day in many a way, seen and unseen, liberty is lost. It is the purpose of this book to address the seen and the unseen, to argue for the primacy of the individual over the state, and to help foment a reawakening of the natural human thirst for freedom.

Come with me now on a wild ride through the annals of freedom in America; and as you read these pages, ask yourself if, at each turn, we are closer to freedom or slavery, if the majesty of the law really means what it says, and why why it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.