Long-Overdue Constitutional Amendment
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
(written 11/28/2019)
Many people presume that the most memorable sentence from the Declaration of Independence is embodied in the Constitution. It is not, but it should be.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The founding fathers could not agree on including that sentence in the Constitution. To make up for that, they later passed the Bill of Rights, as amendments. But those amendments were far more limited than that one bold statement in the Declaration of Independence. Can we do any better today?
The concepts expressed in that sentence could help guide Supreme Court decisions on important issues. The words would need to be fine-tuned for clarification and to make them consistent with current beliefs and parlance, for instance —
• There is no need to say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
• Subtitute “all citizens” for “all men.”
• Substitute “are equal under the law” rather than “created,” to avoid the religion issue and to clarify the nature of that equality.
• Delete “by their Creator” to avoid the religion issue.
The sentence would then read: “All people are equal under the law. They are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
This sweeping statement would need further clarification. For example,
• modify the right to liberty to allow for punishment for crimes;
• stipulate that one person’s pursuit of happiness should not impinge on the rights of others; and
• define who is a citizen entitled to these inalienable rights.
In this contentious, polarized time, can we find a way to embed that basic statement of rights in our Constitution, for the benefit and protection of future generations?
