The Gifts of Our Constitution Are Not Guaranteed and Must be Protected
The United States is the only nation in the world that is founded on an idea—a shared belief. That idea, the American Dream and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that underpin it, are enshrined in our Constitution. Today, on Constitution Day, we should all take a moment to appreciate the uniqueness of America’s heritage and the rights the Constitution provides. That includes our American system of free enterprise, a system where individuals—and businesses—are free from excessive government interference and have the right to use their resources to create, innovate, and grow.
Our founders were all too familiar with how easily economic liberties could be cast aside by a powerful government or the whims of a majority. To ensure they were passed to posterity, they enshrined these principles into our Constitution and defended them with the most durable framework for the protection of individual and economic liberty. This is perhaps best described in the Federalist Papers no. 51, where James Madison wrote, “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
The core economic freedoms we enjoy as individual consumers, employees, and entrepreneurs are based on the Constitution—and preserving the sanctity of our Constitution is central to preserving those rights.
The Fifth Amendment protects our right to personal property. The Patent and Copyright Clause protects the fruits of our creativity and intellect. The Equal Protection Clause ensures we are not discriminated against. The Due Process Clause guarantees we have recourse if we feel that those or any other rights were violated.
Anytime a company has confidence that its home state contracts will be honored nationwide, it has the Contract Clause to thank. When a company wins a judicial battle, it can trust that it will be respected in all 50 states thanks to the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
Many of these provisions were wholly unique and unprecedented at the time, and together they established the free enterprise system that contributes to what makes our country lead the world. It ignited an economic revolution that brought the single greatest leap in human welfare and prosperity in history.
The genius of our founders was also in their ability to foresee how this system would be threatened.
It’s easy to forget that most people throughout history never enjoyed individual economic liberties. Government oversaw every aspect of their economies. Their vocations were chosen for them. Their belongings could be seized at any moment. Still today, many around the world live this way. It’s even easier to forget that our own liberties are not guaranteed to continue forever.
That’s why the founders armed these liberties with protection through an independent judiciary, which Alexander Hamilton called “peculiarly essential” in enforcing the Constitution’s limitations on government power and majority rule.
To be truly independent, these courts must make decisions free from political influence or the passions of the moment. Businesses and individuals alike have relied on this to keep our economy free and fair for two centuries.
Today, the independent judiciary is under attack. Political debates are raging over how to transform the Supreme Court or utilize the justice system to bypass the legislative process, engineer economic outcomes, and even roll back capitalism entirely. Our founders would be appalled.
There is no requirement, of course, that we agree with the decisions made by Congress or the courts. But when we become frustrated, the way to push back is through the system itself, not by overthrowing it. That, we believe, is the greatest innovation of our founders—they created a system capable of improving itself over time, as long as we respect and cherish its core tenets.
Many modern proposals trample those tenets. When we hear about efforts to change the judiciary or empower unelected federal agencies, it’s important to see these for what they are: proposals to undermine the system that has created the prosperity Americans enjoy and expect today.
The United States led the world in realizing the true potential of economic liberty. Our Constitution was the soil that the American Dream grew out of, along with all of the innovations and progress we’ve experienced as a result. Today is an opportunity to honor that constitutional legacy, celebrate the daily freedoms it enables, and most importantly, recommit ourselves to fighting for its preservation.
Harold H. Kim is executive vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.