Eight Hundred Years on … the Magna Carta for Our Time

By TLB Contributor: Robin Koerner

June 15th 2015 marked exactly 800 years since the sealing of the Magna Carta by King John, in an English meadow called Runnymeade.

The Magna Carta is widely regarded as the document that marked the beginning of the Anglo tradition of constitutional liberty that would eventually lead to the writing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

The writers of the U.S. Constitution wished to preserve the natural rights they already held, including those truly fundamental rights that were first provided by the Magna Carta.

As Hatton Sumners, a former Congressman (D) from Texas, rightly said, “A straight road runs from Runnymede to Philadelphia. Our Constitution came up from a self-governing people.”

In true celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, and the liberty upon which the United States was founded, it seems appropriate to demand the return of our inherent rights as human beings, and remind the government that it works for The People, rather than the other way around.

Accordingly, I’m inviting “We The People” to support this non-partisan and non-ideological demand for the return of all our basic freedoms – a demand made in the spirit of our nation’s Declaration of Independence that both recalls and insists that the only justification for our government is to protect our Life, our Liberty and our Pursuit of Happiness. (I’m posting it at www.MagnaCarta.US where you can lend your weight to it.) Given the aim of keeping it focused only on what unites Americans – a basic desire for liberty and justice for all – what would you add?

Whereas our Rights, enumerated in our Constitution, have been won with blood against tyrants for one thousand years;

Whereas that to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;

Whereas whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it;

Whereas, when a long train of abuses and usurpation’s evinces a design to reduce those Rights, it is the Right, it is the duty, of the People to throw off such Government;

Whereas, under the Patriot Act and other legislation, even free speech has been criminalized and security of personal property is denied;

Whereas, under the National Defense Authorization Act and other legislation, the privacy of the People is violated daily;

Whereas, under the aforesaid legislation, the basic Rights of due process and habeas corpus have been abrogated, even to the extent that the government asserts an unnatural privilege to kill American citizens;

Whereas our police have been turned into a domestic paramilitary force, directed against those who pay them and whom they serve;

Whereas our sons and daughters have been sent to die in wars not fought to protect our nation from immediate threats, all in the name of the People, but often without our consent, or even the consent of those who represent us;

Whereas the People are criminalized by a tax code so complex that no one can possibly comply with complete accuracy and are therefore liable to punishment;

Whereas millions of Americans languish in prison cells for so-called “crimes” that did no harm to anyone in either person or property;

Whereas our political system has been corrupted by a political duopoly of Republican and Democratic parties that has legislated to deny fair access to the political process by those who do not promote the agendas of either of those two parties;

Whereas those same parties empower themselves at the expense of the People by gerrymandering to ensure that most elections are foregone conclusions without any possibility of unseating the incumbent;

Whereas institutions of the Federal government, such as the Central Bank, transfer the wealth of the People to selected entities without specific authorization by the People or their Representatives;

Whereas unelected executive agents make rules with the force of law without the approval of the People or their Representatives;

Whereas it has become the habit of our Presidents to collapse the necessary divide between the Legislature and the Executive by using executive orders not in support of legitimate executive duties but by directing the aforesaid executive agencies to enforce against the People rules that have not been established in law;

Whereas our politicians accept money from entities that, not being People, have no democratic standing, and create legislation in the interest of those entities despite harm done to the People;

Whereas our entire political system has become a means of imposing the world view of some of the People on others using the force of government, rather than a means of protecting our Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, which is the government’s only function and justification;

Whereas the final protection of our liberties – the right of jury nullification by which a jury may judge not only a defendant but also unjust legislation by which he is convicted – is hidden from the People;

Whereas each Representative has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and not the narrow interests of any organization – political, economic or cultural;

Whereas almost all Representatives are in violation of their oath and therefore wield delegated power without legitimacy;

Therefore, We the People, in whom all power resides, revoke that delegation of power, and demand, consistent with the duty of the People, made explicit in our Declaration of Independence, the following.

All laws that seek to limit those Rights of the People that are codified in the Bill of Rights shall be repealed. In particular, the Patriot Act, National Defense Authorization Act Sections 10.21 and 10.22, and the Federal Restricted Buildings and Ground Improvement Act shall be repealed.

Where it is necessary for covert operations to be conducted in defense of our nation, those operations shall be governed according to principles that are publicly known and set in Law. And those servants of the People who are tasked with covert operations shall be individually criminally liable for failing to act according to said principles. A body with the sole mandate of protecting the natural Rights of the People shall be established with access to all information held by the government about People on whom no warrant has been served and who have not been charged with a crime. That body shall have the power to investigate the procedures used by our covert agents and shall be given authority to publicize their findings and initiate terminations when violations are found.

The Federal government shall not require from State or local law enforcement agencies shared jurisdiction for any reasons whatsoever, including but not limited to, the receiving of resources, such as military equipment and manpower.

No government agent shall threaten lethal force against any U.S. citizen except in response to an imminent threat of the unlawful use of force against human life.

No American shall be held criminally responsible for any tax that cannot be calculated by an individual with a typical high school education. The individual tax return shall not exceed one page in length. Income tax shall not be garnered from salaries paid by employers except with the consent of the payer or when the payer has been found guilty of tax evasion. No American shall have to divulge the whereabouts of any of his assets, within or outside the country, unless he has been found criminally guilty of tax evasion or other property crime. All contrary legislation shall be repealed or amended.

No action without an identifiable victim shall be a Federal crime. Accordingly, no American shall be incarcerated for actions that do not violate the natural Rights of another. All contrary legislation shall be repealed.

To debates held between candidates or their representatives for public consumption shall be invited all candidates of any or no party who are on the ballot and have the theoretical (rather than statistical) possibility of winning the election in relation to which the debate is being held.

No person who has been voted to political office with the official or financial support of any party shall be allowed to directly participate in redistricting. Redistricting shall be conducted by a politically independent body in each state, according to a method that shall be published and opened for public consultation. No information about historical voting patterns may be used in the process of redistricting. Redistricting with the purpose of giving a political party an electoral advantage shall be a criminal offense.

The country’s central bank shall be audited. All transactions shall be publicized within one year of their being made.

The Constitutional authority of Congress to make legislation shall not be given in any form to any agency under executive control. Should any such agency seek to impose a rule that shall in any way limit the actions of any of the People, they must submit that rule to Congress for a vote. It shall become enforceable only when it becomes law.

The President shall sign no executive order for a purpose other than enabling him to conduct the affairs of his office. He shall claim no authority to abrogate or change any legislation passed by the People’s representatives. All powers and authorities possessed by the President, any other officer or employee of the Federal Government, or any executive agency, as a result of any declaration of National Emergency, of which more than 30 are concurrently in effect, shall be terminated within 90 days, unless each House of Congress shall meet to vote on a joint resolution to renew the emergency. All future National Emergencies will automatically terminate within 90 days without Congressional joint resolution and will not be eligible for renewal by the President without said resolution. The legally required condition for such Emergencies, that there be “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security”, will be applied with its intended strict definition: any pro forma application of these words will nullify the National Emergency created.

Only American citizens can vote. Organizations, including but not limited to corporations, charities and unions, are not citizens and cannot vote. Only citizens who may vote for a candidate or ballot initiative may contribute material resources to that candidate, his or her campaign or any political organizations that seek to affect the outcome of an election involving that candidate or a vote concerning the initiative.

All legislation passed by Congress shall specify that part of the Constitution that authorizes the legislation. The Commerce, General Welfare, Necessary and Proper and Tax and Spending Clauses shall be applied only in their original meaning.

Juries in Federal criminal cases shall be informed of their right to nullify the law under which the defendant is being tried; that is to say that a jury will be informed of their duty to find a defendant not guilty if the legislation under which he would otherwise be convicted is contrary to natural justice and common law. There shall be no garnishment of assets by any Federal authority or agency from anyone who has not been found guilty of a crime.

Fraud is a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain. Accordingly, Federal representatives shall be personally and criminally liable for failing to honor their oaths of office.

To Which End, We the People declare that those in office who purport to represent us no longer do, and shall not be deemed to do so until they consent to the demands herein, and express their sincere intention to use their political office to fulfill these demands. Until then, we leave our political servants with the words of a former President as they consider the weight of their responsibility and the precarious position of our nation.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy.

Should those who borrow the power of the People continue to use it against the People’s Rights, whose protection is the only justification for the delegation of said Power, We the People shall hold them entirely responsible for the consequences.

Witness Our Hands, this fifteenth day of June, in the year 2015.

To support or comment on this Magna Carta for our country and our time, visit MagnaCarta.US.

Why not send this to your representatives and invite them to lend their weight to it, and/ or to your local media to celebrate the Magna Carta – and our shared legacy of liberty and justice for all that arose from it?