THE AMERICAN DREAM – June 25, 2014
Larry’s birthday is over. I am still reflecting on my recent intuition that the “American Dream” has usually been more about “money” than “liberty”. There is a part of me that sincerely wants this observation not to be true. My own experience teaches that I must constantly reexamine my perceptions. For example, as a young man in the late sixties I wrote a thesis (which I still have stored away someplace) on why the federal government was better at protecting people’s rights than were state governments. While I think this observation might have been true at that time (during the Warren Court era), it certainly is wrong today. In the nineteen eighties and nineties state supreme courts began interpreting state constitutions in ways that frequently afforded greater protection of constitutional rights than Rehnquist and later Courts found were intended by the framers of the United States Constitution. Looking back, it is apparent why my hypothesis that the federal government would better protect citizen rights was proved wrong. The original seven articles of the United States Constitution seek to preserve liberties through a structure of checks and balances placed on the exercise of governmental power. As previously discussed in this blog these included a.) the separation of powers in the federal government; b.) a federalist government composed of dual and competing sovereigns; and by later amendment c.) oversight of the exercise of governmental powers by juries composed of citizens. The Declaration of Independence authored in 1776 proclaims all men have rights: … Continue Reading