Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinSE
The Bill or Rights is a part of the constitution, and the Declaration of Independence has no legal weight, which is what I said.
You can believe in a "natural" source of rights if you want. I don't care, but the nature has nothing to do with government. Pushing for that leads to theocracy and theocracy never ends well.
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First, I apologize because I don't know how to do a multi quote in this forum.
The Bill of Rights is a stand alone document, a separate addition to the Constitution. Three of our Framers refused to sign the Constitution that they helped to write because Rights were not written into it. There was a reason for that which was many of our Framers didn't want to write them directly into the Constitution as it might be construed that those listed were the only rights we have as citizens. The compromise was to write another document. 17 Amendments were proposed to the House of Representatives which were sent to the Senate. The Senate rewrote them and reduced the number to 12 and sent them to the State Legislatures. As we know, 10 were approved by the States and adopted as our Bill of Rights. In 1976, one of the remaining two was approved which allowed Congress to give itself a raise.
People also misunderstand the numbering. The rights were not created in order of importance. The First Amendment as we know it was originally #3 and #4:
#3: Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, nor shall the rights of conscience be infringed.
#4: The freedom of speech, and of the press, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and consult for their common good, and to apply to the government for redress of grievances, shall not be infringed.
What we now know as the Second Amendment was originally #5.
#5: A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.
Our Federal Courts absolutely look at intent in our laws and they consider the Declaration of Independence to understand that original intent. With that said, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, where as the Declaration is not law. It does help establish intent, however.