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Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote an op-ed attacking me for a point I made during a Senate hearing about the origin of legal rights. The hearing featured testimony from a witness who claimed that such rights come from the Creator, “not from our laws, not from our governments.” I find that view, which Bishop Barron apparently accepts, deeply disturbing.
Of course, I embrace the view, expressed so clearly in the Declaration of Independence authored by Virginian Thomas Jefferson, that all people are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But I learned well during my time working with Catholic missionaries in Honduras under a military dictatorship that rights are essentially meaningless unless they are protected by law. Later, my 17 years of practice as a civil rights lawyer in Virginia taught me the same basic lesson.
Where does the right to trial by jury come from? The right to bear firearms? Freedom of the press? The right to be free of cruel and unusual punishments? The right to not have your property taken without due process of law? The right to peacefully assemble and petition government for redress of grievances? The right to vote?
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These are not rights clearly laid out in the Bible or other sacred texts. And they aren’t rights accepted in all societies worldwide. But they are rights guaranteed in the United States because they are specifically included in our Constitution and statutes. Jefferson recognized as much in the Declaration, explaining that democratic government is instituted “to secure these rights” for all.
Claiming that all rights come from the Creator and not from laws or government leaves the door wide open for dictators to ignore the law and simply proclaim that they are doing God’s will. That has happened throughout history and it’s happening today in many parts of the world.
We can now agree that slavery violated the right of all to liberty. But the natural right meant nothing until the Civil War and passage of the 13th Amendment outlawed the monstrous institution.
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Unless protected by law, everyday people cannot rest secure that their critical rights will be protected. Claiming that all rights come from the Creator and not from laws or government leaves the door wide open for dictators to ignore the law and simply proclaim that they are doing God’s will. That has happened throughout history and it’s happening today in many parts of the world. It’s one reason why America cast off the British monarchy 250 years ago — we don’t accept a “divine right of kings” to set, change or destroy the rules. And we never should accept such tyranny.
Bishop Barron should thank God that his rights, and the rights of all Americans, are protected by law.
When it comes to the important business of ensuring legal rights, we should all heed the wisdom often attributed to St. Augustine: “Pray as though everything depends upon God. Work as though everything depends upon you.”
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