The Hierarchy of American Political Authority

Excerpt* from American Popular Sovereignty @2019 by Randall E. White.

“America is not an imperial power. We are a revolutionary power.

We broke off from an imperial power.”

—Steve Bannon [1]

The great American constitutional scholar, Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., explains the hierarchy of political authority in American government in Chapter One of The Sword and Sovereignty. On page 54, he asserts

“We the People are the final authorities on the meaning of the Constitution.” [2]

As part of his lengthy discourse of the matter, on page 56, Dr. Vieira quotes the famous eighteenth century jurist, Sir William Blackstone, in support. Blackstone observed that society at large is a higher legal authority than any magistrate vested with powers originally delegated by that society,

“For, as Blackstone pointed out, ‘whenever a question arises between the society at large and any magistrate vested with powers originally delegated by that society, it must be decided by the voice of the society itself: there is not upon earth any other tribunal to resort to.’” [3]

Blackstone authored the famous Commentaries on the Laws of England, which was an influential treatise on the common law of England that America’s Founding Fathers studied and kept in their personal libraries along with the writings of John Locke, Adam Smith, and other highly influential leaders during the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment (also called the Age of Reason) was a period in Europe during the late 1600s and early 1700s when many writers and thinkers began to question established beliefs, such as the authority of kings or of the Church, in favor of reason and scientific proof. The European Enlightenment formed the philosophical basis for the American Enlightenment, which was a period of intellectual ferment in the thirteen American colonies that led to the American Revolution and the creation of the American Republic.

Dr. Vieira’s scholarly work explains and supports the following conclusions: We the People are the sovereign authority. We stand above the Congress because we are the creators of the Congress via the Constitution. Congress stands above the Supreme Court because Congress has the power to stipulate how the Judges are to interpret the laws. The present-day doctrine of “judicial supremacy” asserting that the Supreme Court is the ultimate judge of “what the law is”, is nonsense! We the People are the ultimate public authority in America, not congressional despots or judicial oligarchs. Despot means ruler with absolute power. Oligarchy means rule by the few.

This statement is made with the proviso that America is historically a Christian nation comprised primarily of European immigrants who shared the foundational belief that God or “the Creator of All That Is”, is the source of We the People’s sovereign authority to govern ourselves. George Mason, who principally authored The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which later served as the primary template for writing America’s Declaration of Independence and the United States Bill of Rights, plainly asserted,

“The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.” [4]

In accordance with the basic principles of American popular sovereignty, including our English common law roots, the hierarchy of political authority in America exists from the top down to the bottom, in the following order:

We the People (the citizens collectively, as a sovereign body politic possessing plenary public powers, are the top authority)
The Public Will (the citizens’ collective desires and objectives in all public matters)
Public Policy (the course or principles of action dictated by the citizens’ public will)
Public Charters (the formal, written legal documents through which the citizens formally create their governmental institutions and offices, establish jurisdiction, declare civil rights, et cetera) [5]
Public Laws (the codified legal standards for conduct precipitated by public policy conforming to the citizens’ public will)
Public Institutions and Offices (inhabited by public representatives delegated the known legal duty to uphold, defend and protect the public weal, which means the wellbeing of society, in conformity with the citizens’ public will)
Elected and Appointed Public Representatives (having the duty to perform the functions of their defined jobs in support of the public weal, in conformity with their oath of office and the citizens’ public will)

We the People are the top authority in our system of government. Our elected and appointed public representatives are the bottom authority. Our public representatives are our public servants. We delegate to our public servants the duty to observe, obey, uphold, and serve our public will, our public policy, our public charters, our public laws, our public institutions and our public offices for the purpose of serving and protecting our public weal.

In America, it is an honor and a privilege to serve society in a public capacity. When governmental entities or public representatives violate the public trust through official misconduct by acting against or outside of their publicly delegated authority and purpose, they automatically lose any statutory immunity from criminal prosecution or civil suit for damages corresponding to their limited sovereignty. The following chapters in Section I explain these concepts and terms.

[1] The Oxford Union. [OxfordUnion] (2018, November 16). Steve Bannon Full Address and Q&A at Oxford Union. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtOw-xyMo8

[2] Vieira, E. (2012). Chapter 1, The constitutional principles of “the Militia of the several States” must be derived from the pre-constitutional Militia statutes of the American Colonies and independent States. The Sword and Sovereignty: The Constitutional Principles of “the Militia of the several States” (CD ROM ed., First, pp. 54-57). Front Royal, VA: House of a Thousand Suns.

[3] Blackstone, W. (1765-1769). Book 1, Rights of Persons; Chapter 3, Of the King, and His Title. Commentaries on the Laws of England (Vol. 1, at p. 212). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

[4] George Mason made the statement as part of his argument in court asserting natural human rights coming from God, including to freedom and justice, in the case Robin v. Hardaway (Virginia, 1772), while acting as an attorney representing descendants of Indians fighting against slavery.

[5] Public charters are referred to by different names, including national, federal or state “constitution”, “municipal charter”, “public corporation” or “municipal corporation”.

*Re-posting permission given by the author.

Sovereignty – What is it? How do you get it?

Why does it matter that we understand the Constitution? Here we learn that We the People have powers that are being usurped by the globalist infiltrators that are destroying our Republic. We now have an empire with a global standing army and not a Militia in one single state. Ever wonder how the globalists, and their lap-dog bankers, got rid of the Militia System in violation of the U.S. Constitution?

EDWIN VIEIRA on Destruction of the Militia

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