Posted on
December 27, 2007 in
My friend Scott Greenfield has tagged me for the Second Annual Lawyers Appreciate Meme, which started at Life at the Bar.
I appreciate the U.S. Constitution.
The Founders knew — from direct experience — that government is a threat to freedom. The saw that government was necessary, though, or at least inevitable. So, rather than leave the form of the government to chance, they created one, making it as weak as they thought it could be while still performing its fundamental duties, and wrote down how it was supposed to work. The Constitution is the leash the Founders put on the beast of Government. (Not a strong enough metaphor . . . .) It’s the pentacle the Founders drew on the floor before summoning the demon of Government.
Not all lawyers appreciate the U.S. Constitution. For every lawyer arguing for an interpretation of the Constitution that would preserve human freedom, there is a lawyer on the other side arguing for an interpretation that would diminish human freedom to the benefit of governmental power.
The meme says I’m supposed to tag three people. So here are three who, I know, appreciate the U.S. Constitution:
Robert Guest (I Was the State)
Why not John Katz?
I was supposed to tag three. Jon appreciates the Constitution — all of it, but most especially the First Amendment — as much as anyone else I know. It didn’t occur to me that Jon was not tagged.