The political theory announced in the Declaration of Independence can be summed up by the proposition I mentioned above: First come rights then comes government. According to this view:
- The rights of individuals do not originate with any government, but preexist its formation.
- The equal protection of these rights is both the purpose and first duty of government.
- Even after government is formed, these rights provide a standard by which its performance is measured, and in extreme cases, its systemic failure to protect rights – or its systemic violation of rights – can justify its alteration or abolition.
- At least some of these rights are so fundamental that they are “inalienable,” meaning they are so intimately connected to one’s nature as a human being that they cannot be transferred to another even if one consents to do so.
-Prof. Randy Barnett (Georgetown Law, author, writer, speaker)
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
