Citizen
Founder's Club Member
pkbites;1973402[B said:]You are aware that the DoI is not a legal document and has no force of law, correct?
[/B]
I am positive that NYPD made some stops that were unreasonable and unconstitutional. Which is why, as I posted above, each case has to be judged individually, on it's merits (or lack of). To declare all stop and frisk as illegal is rubbish.
Has no force of law? Heh, heh, heh. Oh, yes it does, even though government will go a long, long way to avoid admitting it.
Two angles to this.
The first few lines of the second paragraph are discussing natural law, the law of human nature. Government violates those laws at its own risk just as surely as an engineer violates the laws of physics at his own risk when designing a bridge.
And, the entire legitimacy of every state government since July 5, 1776 depends on that second paragraph. The second paragraph contains the justifications for the break from England. If the philosophical justifications in the second paragraph are not valid, then the revolution itself was not legitimate and England is still the rightful government of this country; if that second paragraph is wrong, every state government since the revolution is illegitimate, as is the federal government created by those states.
The only way the revolution was legitimate is if that second paragraph is legitimate. And, since that time, the only way state and national governments could remain legitimate is if they adhered to those principles.
So, you're right. The DoI has no force of law. It is superior to law. Statutes and regulations and state coercion and threats are petty things by comparison.
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