[paulsy]

"they are not the law of the land"

Some things precede law and work as a structural adjunct to achieving stasis.

[Military family member]

That's true, but let's not delude ourselves into think the prose and poetry of Jefferson's word grants us rights in and of themselves. The Declaration simply gave us the right to ultimately create the Constitution. As someone else recently said or wrote:

If the "pursuit of happiness" were law, every druggie in the country would have used it in court.