Rights vs. laws

The Declaration of Independence declares that each man has natural rights that emanate from God. Natural rights are declared in the Declaration of Independence to be “unalienable,” meaning these rights cannot be separated from the individual. By establishing a republic, our Founding Fathers declared “unalienable” rights for each individual that cannot be altered by civil laws.

The government of the United States was created by the Constitution, which transferred 17 limited powers to the national government of the new “Republic.” The Founding Fathers added a common law attachment to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, which further clarified and limited the intended powers of government.

Man’s laws are known as civil law, from the Latin root word civilus, meaning citizen. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary states, “the civil law is what a people establishes for itself.” In a democracy there is no such thing as a natural right also know as God-given right, since laws can be passed to control, limit or eliminate anything. In a democracy there are “civil rights” established by civil law which are, legally speaking, civil privileges granted by man’s government.

Yet today government can and does pass laws as it pleases without limitation and control. The laws of government now clearly override the natural rights of American individuals. America is no longer a republic — it is a democracy.