Citizenship Exam Question 12: What is the "Rule of Law"?

Free Republic ^ | 8/6/2016 | PoconoPundit

[poconopundit]

Yesterday was a day of celebration at my house because my wife of 34 years became an American citizen!

My daughter was at the swearing-in ceremony in Atlanta where 165 immigrants from 65 individual countries took the oath, said the Pledge of Allegiance, and sang the national anthem.

My wife was proud of her accomplishment. She's from Japan and though her conversational English is very good, she worried about the oral exam and spent many, many hours memorizing the 100 possible questions the immigration office could ask from the Civics Test.

As I turned out, answering the 5 or 6 civics questions was the easy part. The hard part was understanding the heavy Southern accent of the woman immigration officer! My wife spent all of her 3 decades in states like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, so the new dialect threw her for a loop.

My wife was the only Japanese in the new citizen group. There were many from Mexico and apparently a few from China.

But it was the grandmother of a new citizen from Bhutan (a country in the Himalayas) who took the cake for the person with the most interesting national costume at the ceremonies.

While glancing at the questions in the exam, I ran across one particular question that I thought would be particularly challenging for future citizens, because it goes against what they are seeing on the nightly news.

The question is: what is the rule of law? And there are four acceptable answers:

• Everyone must obey the law.
• Leaders must obey the law.
• Government must obey the laws.
• No one is above the law.

And yet in the last few weeks we've seen some striking examples of events that go against these civic rules:

• A President was found to have secretly money laundered $400 million and sent it to the terrorist- supporting state of Iran.
• The Democratic nominee for President has been proven to have deliberately broken the law and jeopardized our national security; and
• The head of the FBI has casually bent the law to violate the rule: "No person is above the law".

Let's hope that in 50 years, our ancestors will look back on the election of 2016 and say: that was the time that Americans went to the ballot box in great numbers to restore the rule of law and defend the principles enshrined in the Citizenship Civics Exam.

[PIF]

He’s passing the torch to Hillary and the Clinton Crime family - he know when he’s whooped.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Usurpation Day was January 20, 2009
When all of our elected and appointed officials who had taken oaths to uphold the Constitution failed to do so.
They stood by and watched a man who told us he was born a British subject take the oath of office which he is Constitutionally prohibited from holding.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s at least getting lip service, which has to say something. From that quiz to God’s ears.

[poconopundit]

Hey, HL27, you really know how to make a guy feel good :- )

I'll make sure the new voter gets the message!

[Da Coyote]

She should answer in Spanish.

Immediate pass with dumbulbcrat registration card (already filled out) issued with citizenship papers.

[HarleyLady27]

;0)

[ameribbean expat]

First, congratulations to your wife and your family. Welcome.

Second: Rex sub lege. The king is under the law. It was settled in AD 1215 @ Runnymede. The modern administrative state is a curve ball, ignore it. We will win.

Again, congratulations to your family.

[sanjuanbob]

Welcome to the Greatest Country in the World, on it’s way to becoming the ONLY Greatest Country in the World!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/a-hPCnel0qc

[ntnychik]

Crooked regulators put crooked regulations before crooked judges, who institutionalize the crooked regulations. The certain attack phrase used against non-crooked citizens is “Don’t you believe in the rule of law?”

Guaranteed gotcha every time.

[poconopundit]

Good, ameribbean. I’ll pass the congratulations along, and thanks for the short history lesson. Trump’s gonna hit that curve ball out of the park :- )

[ANKE69]

Congratulations to your wife!! :)
Just curious... what benefits would your wife lose?

[Amendment10]

Congratulations to your wife poconopundit.

Please note that the following information concerning low-information citizens is not directed at your wife.

Regarding the citizenship exam …

Low-information citizens including immigrant citizens, and likewise low-information Freedmen, have all helped to foster today’s unconstitutionally big federal government imo. This is because neither the 14th Amendment or immigrant citizenship exam requires new citizens to know about the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers.

In fact, the following excerpts from Supreme Court case opinions need to be reworded as questions that people taking the citizenship exam must answer correctly in order to become citizens.

• “Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• ”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

[HLPhat]

Great thread - thanks for starting it and congrats to you and your wife.

A Republic is a system of governance constituted by lawful order.

There have been many Republics - but only one USA.

What *purpose* made American government different from the others?

[poconopundit]

Crooked regulations... This is so true. But the regulations violate the over-riding regulation, the Constitution.

Oh, and to complete your point: the Crooked Regulations are ignored or supported by the Crooked Supreme Court Justices.

[poconopundit]

Wow, and I concur that new citizenship exams should include the limitation of powers stuff you talk about. Very important, in fact, largely unknown by the public!

[ex91B10]

Congrats to your wife and to both of you on your 34 years.

[Nifster]

Congratulations to your wife....hope she’s registered and Teump2016

[Rusty0604]

Congratulations to your wife!

[Jim W N]

Well, three out of 36 at least said the word ("Constitution"). America has been deliberately dumbed down by the Lying Leftist Tyrants who want to rule over us. As our Founders warned, a proper education is necessary to keep a firm grip on freedom.

The Rule of Law in the United States is the Supreme Law of the Land, the U.S. Constitution and ONLY those laws that are made IN PURSUANCE THEREOF (Art VI,Cl 2, "The Supremacy Clause" of the U.S. Constitution).

The FIRST meaning of the Rule of Law is that OUR GOVERNMENT is UNDER the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution. THEY are not legally permitted to do whatever they want although that is exactly what Obama has done for 7 1/2 years. It means most of the central government and many if not most of its laws are invalid and illegal because they are not constitutional and not made "in pursuance" or in harmony with, the Constitution.

[Talisker]

Rex sub lege. The king is under the law. It was settled in AD 1215 @ Runnymede. The modern administrative state is a curve ball, ignore it. We will win.

Well said.