The Declaration of Independence created an American nation grounded in the Rule of Law. The founders recognized its importance to ensure that both ordinary people and the privileged are treated to equal justice. This is a part of our history and we should take pride in this principle that has governed us successfully for the last 250 years.
The Declaration of Independence served as an indictment against the despotic King George III and the British Empire. In December, 1761, the King decreed that colonial judges were to serve at the “pleasure of the Crown” and they would be allowed to retain their offices “during good behavior”. The edict stripped the lifetime appointments and allowed the King to remove these officers if either he or Parliament disagreed with their decisions.
This led to a breakdown in the judicial process and the specific closure of Courts in Massachusetts in the mid-1770s. In his autobiography, John Adams relates the story of a chronic debtor who approached him saying, “Oh! Mr. Adams what great Things have you and your colleagues done for Us! We can never be more grateful enough to you. There are no courts of Justice now in the Province, and I hope there never will be another!” Adams is said to have remarked, “Is this the Object of which I have been contending?”
Adams strongly believed in a government of laws and not of men which is why he consistently advocated for a free, structured and independent judiciary. Despite the protestations by the Colonies over his interference with an independent judiciary, George III refused to relent. The Declaration of Independence incorporates and acknowledges the importance of the Rule of Law and after the Preamble indicts the King for his blatant disregard for the Rule of Law.
Contained within the twenty-seven grievances against King George are the following, “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
The Rule of Law was embedded in the minds of Adams, Jefferson and Franklin when they drafted the Declaration of Independence. Admittedly, they acknowledged in their deliberations that the Rule of Law was a fragile concept but powerful in any democracy. In 1803, the United States Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison and Chief Justice John Marshall he wrote that, “The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.”
As recently as 2024, Chief Justice Roberts called on judges and regular citizens to invest themselves in the preservation of constitutional democracy based on the Rule of Law noting that, “President Ronald Reagan used to speak of the Soviet constitution, and he noted that it purported to grant wonderful rights of all sorts to people. But those rights were empty promises, because that system did not have an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law and enforce those rights.”
Today, we must re-commit ourselves to support and respect the Rule of Law and legal authority because its prevents subjective judgments, secures equal justice for all and prevents tyranny and oppression. As a simple example, imagine what daily life would be like if everyone simply ignored traffic laws and signals. We need to constantly keep in mind Franklin’s challenge that, “you have a republic, if you can keep it.” We each have rights and privileges that are accompanied by duties and obligations.
I have always appreciated a quote that I keep in my office pronounced by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who asserted that, “Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions but they are not entitled to their own facts”. From its inceptions, this country has recognized the fundamental principle of the Rule of Law; it is both cherished and revered, and must, at times, be fought for because we are a nation to be governed by law and not by men. Both the bench and bar should accept the Rule of Law and expect that precedents established by case law should control and prior decisions should not simply be disregarded absent some extraordinary circumstances.
Following the Rule of Law establishes confidence in the judicial process and it demonstrates the integrity of our legal system and the self-assurance that the courts will dispense justice freely and even-handedly. If the public stops believing that our legal system is no longer based on the Rule of Law and is not reliable and cases are decided by the personal opinion of a judge unrestrained by precedent, our democracy will fail.
The importance of the Rule of Law is best described by Justice Sandra Day O’Conner who wrote that, “When a judge does what is right according to the law, when a judge decides each case strictly on the merits, when a judge gives every case and every person the same treatment, our courts are what they have always been and must always be . . . fair and free.”
The Rule of Law means that good people follow it because that is what good people do. I have always been fond of old movies and in particular a black and white film made in 1942 entitled “Talk of the Town”. It starred, Ronald Coleman , Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. The premise was that a leftist mill worker, Cary Grant is accused of arson and murder and escapes jail mid-trial. He seeks shelter in a remote cottage owned by his former schoolmate Jean Arthur. He arrives at the same time as Arthur’s summer tenant, distinguished law professor and Supreme Court candidate Ronald Coleman.
The Cary Grant character is seized by an unruly mob intent on lynching him when the Ronald Coleman character grabs a pistol and fires into the air to get the mob’s attention. Coleman gives an impassioned speech about the importance of the law, both in principle and in practice stating that:
His only crime was that he had the courage and spoke his mind. This is your law and your finest possession – it makes you free men in a free country. Why have you come here to destroy it? If you know what’s good for you, take those weapons home and burn them! And then think… think of this country and of the law that makes it what it is. Think of a world crying for this very law! And maybe you’ll understand why you ought to guard it. Why the law has got to be the personal concern of every citizen. To uphold it for your neighbor as well as yourself. Violence against it is one mistake. Another mistake is for any man to look upon the law as just a set of principles. And just so much language printed on fine, heavy paper. Something he recites and then leans back and takes it for granted that justice is automatically being done. Both kinds of men are equally wrong! The law must be engraved in our hearts and practiced every minute to the letter and spirit. It can’t even exist unless we’re willing to go down into the dust and blood and fight a battle every day of our lives to preserve it. For our neighbor as well as yourself.
These eloquent words were spoken over eighty years ago. The Rule of Law was important to John Adams and fundamental to the framers in 1776, it was important in 1942 when Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman wrote the dialog spoken by Ronald Coleman in “Talk of the Town,” and is even more important today on the 250th anniversary of the writing of the Declaration of Independence. In closing the Rule of Law guarantees our right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest and the right to be independent in both our thoughts and actions.
Now is the time to not only celebrate but to acknowledge that we must be faithful stewards and ever vigilant and responsive to attacks on the Rule of Law. If the seeds of distrust and doubt are sowed challenging the Rule of Law our democracy will be weakened. We must recognize that the Rule of Law serves an essential role in our fair and effective judicial system and the best way to avoid tyranny because it protects our individual rights and freedoms.
Hon. Thomas K. Harmon
County Court Judge Fourth Judicial District (Douglas County)
Omaha, Nebraska 68183
President of the Robert M. Spire American Inns of Court
Creighton University School of Law
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