The declaration was a statement of agreement to separate from the crown and the reasons why this was necessary. It was not the law in any way shape or form, in particular since there was no independent United States or Constitution for years to come. The Constitution fulfilled parts of concepts detailed in the declaration but it was not law.
The Declaration is an exercise of Natural rights.
Natural rights trump EVERYTHING and every law, created by man. The constitution, as written, is not incompatible with natural rights only the way it has been “interpreted” over the years and the way those interpretations have been woven into the fabric of society.
“The declaration was a statement of agreement to separate from the crown and the reasons why this was necessary. It was not the law in any way shape or form, in particular since there was no independent United States or Constitution for years to come. The Constitution fulfilled parts of concepts detailed in the declaration but it was not law.”
All true, but the Declaration trumps law. It describes “certain inalienable rights”, which may not be set aside with any moral authority. The Declaration is a particular application of natural law to the unique circumstances of the colonies at that time, but the principles are timeless and transcendant.
The Constitution has increasingly become the vehicle for positive law - that which the State decrees is law, is law, period. http://www.yourdictionary.com/law/positive-law http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/positive_law
Positive law is presently being redefined by liberals to mean “what government is mandated to do for you”, or “the creation of additional rights”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_law
Positive law alone is amoral in its premises however. Government is the source of authority, and is unfettered by natural law.
Law schools pump, polish and pimp positive law while they diminish natural law - except as a limited, quaint historical artifact - because positive law is the carte blanche for authoritarians, and natural law is the tyrant’s cage.
This debate was at the heart of the conflict between the Federalists and the Anti-federalists. With hindsight, the Anti-federalists were correct in their pessimistic projections of where the Constitution would go given time. Their insistence on the Bill of Rights is our last remaining bunker from a totalitarian State.
The Constitution and US Code - as corrupted by the Congress and Executive Orders, and perverted by many generations of Supreme Court Justices - is a degenerative disease.
The principles in the Declaration of Independence are the cure. Those principals in the Declaration will endure long after the United States has failed and merged it’s bones with those of Ozymandias.