> “The Constitution gives the people rights, and takes them
> away from the government.”
A nit, but a very important one.
The Constitution does not give rights to anyone. Only God can do that.
The Constitution only recognizes the rights endowed to us by our Creator, and promises to constrain the Federal government from imposing or encroaching upon any of those rights.
Yup.
The Constitution is a guarantee that government will protect people’s God given rights. It is not government granting those rights to us. Further it is a limiting document that tells government exactly what powers it has, and that if not explicitly stated, fedgov does not have that granted power, and anything not granted to fedgov, is a power retained by the states and/or the people.
Our constitution basically tells fedgov what it cannot do to us. It is coined today as negative law. This is why the libs hate it so much. They love european style law, which has most of their constitutions and charters that tell you what govt can do to you, and granting privileges to citizens. If no privilege is granted, its not legal. They love this style of tyrannical state law. It is why they cannot stand the declaration or the constitution. They love it when govt tells you what privileges you do or do not have, and the general rule if it is not explicitly mentioned as legal, it is illegal.