The Constitution Is Illegitimate; Therefore All Government and Its Laws Are Criminal and Immoral

by Gary D. Barnett
March 11, 2024

“And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract—the Constitution—made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, sealed, delivered, witnessed, or acknowledged; and which few persons, compared with the whole number that are claimed to be bound by it, have ever read, or even seen, or ever will read, or see.”

~ Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority

There is but one legitimate law, and that is natural law, which is simply all the inherent rights of man at birth to his free life. No laws by any man over another, and no laws assumed by any group of others calling itself government, and no government proclamations, are justifiable or right, and cannot exist except in a state of tyranny. Therefore, all government is illegitimate and criminal, and any and every ‘law’ dictated by any State is immediately reprehensible, immoral, and without justification. In order for freedom to exist, rule and arbitrary political laws cannot. Aggressive behavior (offensive force) negates freedom, while natural law protects it.

Non-aggression is critical, but self-defense against any ruling State is mandatory, as those who choose to rule, will always seek power and control over their subjects. Government has no right to any property, as its only method of securing that property is theft. Since one’s own mind and body are his private and personal property, government has no say in how one lives, or how much one earns. Government has no right to any property, and therefore has no right to steal or regulate one cent by taxation, whether from income, property tax, or any other tax of any kind. No country (government) has any right whatsoever to legislate its ‘definition’ of morality, for government is itself a completely immoral system, with no legitimate authority whatsoever.

It is imperative here as well to completely obliterate the idea that any federal “Bill of Rights” has any authority over any individual or independent state, or can in any way define and bestow any rights of man. Government, whether federal or state, cannot under any circumstances, give or take any natural right that already exists for the individual. Even the thought of such, is not only contradictory and entirely hypocritical to the legitimacy of natural rights, but rests on the asinine assumption that government has a claim on what are called ‘citizens.’ That designation is also illegitimate, because to accept it, is an admission that government owns you. The term ‘citizen’ is offensive immediately, as simply being born in any particular geographic location does not give any State the right to claim you as a subject of that State.

The false reasoning claimed by the so-called ‘founders,’ in their efforts to build a powerful and controlling central state of government, was to sell it as seeking freedom for individuals, when in fact, the exact opposite was sought. The idiotic notion of bestowing rights that already existed, has been propagandized as legitimate to the brainwashed population ever since that time. What has been taught about this country’s beginning was all a lie. Had these supposed ‘founders’ really wanted a free society of individuals, as they claimed, they would have dismantled all government, instead of massively increasing its power. They had no right to delegate, regulate, restrict, or define the rights of others. Their agenda was to create an incredibly powerful central government to enhance their own wealth, property, and power; nothing more. As Lysander Spooner so correctly stated:

“No man can delegate, or give to another, any right of arbitrary dominion over himself; for that would be giving himself away as a slave. And this no one can do. Any contract to do so is necessarily an absurd one, and has no validity. To call such a contract a “constitution,” or by any other high-sounding name, does not alter its character as an absurd and void contract.”

“No man can delegate, or give to another, any right of arbitrary dominion over a third person; for that would imply a right in the first person, not only to make the third person his slave, but also a right to dispose of him as a slave to still other persons. Any contract to do this is necessarily a criminal one, and therefore invalid. To call such a contract a “constitution” does not at all lessen its criminality, or add to its validity.”

All government ‘laws,’ are criminal and illegitimate in that they assume the power to grant or take rights from another individual, to allow or restrict the individual, or to fully control the thought and actions (slavery) of the sovereign individual. This is always wrong, since all legitimate rights are natural, so how can any individual, state, or nation, presume to declare or mandate the rights of others? As previously mentioned, this can only occur in a state of tyranny; the antithesis of freedom that the illegitimate state pretends to protect.

Concerning “law,” Spooner again has this exactly correct. The very idea of law rests only with the individual among men, begins and ends only with the natural rights of men, and therefore, there is no value or validity whatsoever with any laws arbitrarily constructed by government.

“The true and general meaning of it, is that natural, permanent, unalterable principle, which governs any particular thing or class of things. The principle is strictly a natural one; and the term applies to every natural principle, whether mental, moral or physical. Thus we speak of the laws of mind; meaning thereby those natural, universal and necessary principles, according to which mind acts, or by which it is governed. We speak too of the moral law; which is merely an universal principle of moral obligation, that arises out of the nature of men, and their relations to each other, and to other things—and is consequently as unalterable as the nature of men. And it is solely because it is unalterable in its nature, and universal in its application, that it is denominated law. If it were changeable, partial or arbitrary, it would be no law. Thus we speak of physical laws; of the laws, for instance, that govern the solar system; of the laws of motion, the laws of gravitation, the laws of light, &c., &c.—Also the laws that govern the vegetable and animal kingdoms, in all their various departments: among which laws may be named, for example, the one that like produces like. Unless the operation of this principle were uniform, universal and necessary, it would be no law.

Law, then, applied to any object or thing whatever, signifies a natural, unalterable, universal principle, governing such object or thing. Any rule, not existing in the nature of things, or that is not permanent, universal and inflexible in its application, is no law, according to any correct definition of the term law.

What, then, is that natural, universal, impartial and inflexible principle, which, under all circumstances, necessarily fixes, determines, defines and governs the civil rights of men? Those rights of person, property, &c., which one human being has, as against other human beings?

I shall define it to be simply the rule, principle, obligation or requirement of natural justice.

This rule, principle, obligation or requirement of natural justice, has its origin in the natural rights of individuals, results necessarily from them, keeps them ever in view as its end and purpose, secures their enjoyment, and forbids their violation. It also secures all those acquisitions of property, privilege and claim, which men have a natural right to make by labor and contract.”

You own yourself, your mind, and your body. You therefore own all that you produce. No other, or any collective entity, has any right to alter this natural state of all men. To do so is criminal, and relies on aggressive force, which for purposes here, is violent harm at the hands of any and every government and governing system. No piece of parchment, no arrogant or ‘authoritarian’ rule or law, no unlawfully mandated license requirement of any kind, and no false declaration of rights or independence can change this fact. The only predominant law is that which is natural, and not assumed by rule, and none other is worthy of consideration.

Because of this reality, negation, non-compliance, mass disobedience, and self-defensive force concerning government when necessary, is the only way to achieve peace, harmony, and freedom. Anything less can only lead to mass enslavement.

“A man’s natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime; whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, or by millions calling themselves a government.”

~ Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority

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Cover image credit: Angela_Yuriko_Smith