[clue-talk] The War On...?

[Jed S. Baer]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:56:50 -0700
Don Collier wrote:

> In my opinion, every American has a duty to obey the law now matter how 
> unjust that we feel it is.  There are ways to make your voice heard 
> other than breaking the law.  We cant pick and choose which laws that we
> wish to obey.
> 
> When you find those documents I would be interested in reading them.

Well, with a bit of help, I wound up at Marbury v Madison (1803)
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=5&page=137

Now that's worth reading, and there are some interesting quotes in there
regarding status of law with regards to the Constitution. It's not long.
You can find interesting sections by searching the text for "repugnant"

It seems to me, though IANMP (Matthew Porter), that Marbury is reflected
in the work which, once I got its name, I've found mentioned all over the
place. "Sixteenth American Jurisprudence, Second Edition" from which, in
Section 177 (quoted by Jeff Cooper --
http://www.dvc.org.uk/~johnny/jeff/jeff2_4.html ) we find:

[quote]
"The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having
formed in nature of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void and
ineffective for any purpose, since unconstitutionality dates from the time
of its enactment and not merely from the date of decision so branding it.
An unconstitutional law in legal contemplation is as inoperative as if it
had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports
to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted."

"Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that
it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no
power or authority on anyone, affords no protection and justifies no acts
performed under it."

"No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound
to enforce it."
[/quote]

Now in practice we can see, for example, where that got Rick Stanley.

jed
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