Judge Andrew Napolitano Constitutional Law Lecture
Posted on November 12, 2009
by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook
Judge Andrew Napolitano announced on the Glenn Beck Show this week that he is planning to do a Constitutional Law seminar on Fox News. I see this as the next avenue of Tea Parties: We begin to talk about the U.S. Constitution, and what liberty really consists of, in detail, and we keep talking about it.
Thomas Jefferson said:
“… God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed.
The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.
If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
That is an awesome quotation – an awesome thought.
Napolitano is the author of a wonderfully informative book, Constitutional Chaos. I’m looking forward to the lecture or lectures as a way to get the conversation started.
Not everyone is anxious to hear the Judge’s ideas, however. It would be naive to think Liberals would be interested in the U.S. Constitution. I found one Liberal site admitting they are “more than a little queasy” at some of the issues Napolitano addressed yesterday:
Freedom of choice and control over your own body will be lost.
More of your hard earned dollars will be at the disposal and tender mercies of federal bureaucrats. It was not intended to be this way.
We can vote the bums out of their cushy federal office
…we can persuade the state governments to defy the Feds in areas like health care where the Constitution gives the federal government zero authority.
We can ask our state legislatures to threaten to amend the Constitution to abolish the income tax, to return the selection of US senators to state legislatures and to nullify, to nullify! all the laws that Congress has written that are not based on the Constitution.
But there is one thing we can’t do. Just sit back and take it.”
Napolitano has been laying out our politically incorrect abuse of the US Constitution for a very long time. Here’s a snippet from the introduction to his book Constitutional Chaos:
What’s at Stake in America Today
I, myself, am a strong and fervent believer in Natural Law. The only valid laws are those grounded in a pursuit of goodness. Anything else – like taking property from Person A and giving it to Person B, like silencing an unpopular minority, like interfering with freedom of worship – is an unjust law, and, theoretically, need not be obeyed. St. Thomas Aquinas said only just laws impose an obligation of obedience, because unjust laws are not within the power of the government to enact; and only laws that seek goodness are just. This is the essence of Natural Law. No government may enact laws interfering with our freedoms no matter how popular the enactment.
The positivist would say since the government gives freedom, the government can take it away. The Natural Law says only God gives freedom and the government can only take it away as a punishment for violating the Natural Law, and then only through due process.
To a positivist, the government’s goal is to bring about the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people. Under the Natural Law, the only legitimate goal of government is to secure liberty, which is the freedom to obey one’s own free will and conscience, rather than the free wills or consciences of others.
The problem today in America – the greatest and gravest threat to personal freedom in this country – is that the positivists are carrying the day. Under their sway, the government violates the law while busily passing more legislation to abridge our liberties.
If we wish to survive the near future with our rights intact, we need to understand the size and scope of the threat. We must also understand its true identity: a government that breaks its own laws. ~ Constitutional Chaos, Judge Andrew Napolitan
About Natural Law, new President George Washington said:
The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; …the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained…”
» Filed Under 10th Amendment, 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Bill Of Rights, Congress, Constitution, Education, Founding Fathers, Fox News, Government, History, House, News, Political Correctness, President, Property Rights, Representative Government, Senate, State Government, State Sovereignty, States Rights, Supreme Court, U.S. Constitution, Video
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4 Responses to “Judge Andrew Napolitano Constitutional Law Lecture”
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I posted a three part video by Judge Napolitano explaining basic constitutional rights if you want to stop on by. He is worth listening to, should be mandatory for citizenship.
When was/is the lecture taking place–the one he mentioned on the Glenn Beck show? I cannot find a time anywhere.
This will be a great program from Judge Napolitano. I’m anxious to watch. I’ve learned a lot about the founding fathers and the original documents through this election cycle, far more than I ever learned in school, and have enjoyed gaining the knowledge.
It would also be great if we, as a people, could promote the instruction of constitutional matters in our school system that really targets how our system was designed to protect our freedoms, along with the reasons it was so important to the founders. Our programs would have to be geared more to techniques that can effectively reach students of our current times, but governmental issues and studies are severely lacking, resulting in an uninformed and ignorant process of electing leaders. We are seeing the critical importance of selecting those people whom we can TRUST to stand firm and act boldly in the jobs they are hired to perform.
Not only should there be a course on the constitution but also in conjunction with
the Federalist Paper to explain the true meanings in the constitution. Only then can
can you see how the constitution has been
abused.