Jacob ​REDACTED

REDACTED
Student
01/19/19
How Does the Constitution Protect Against Tyranny?
The streets of Philadelphia we’re stinky with sewage and the City was broiling. Our nation

-- the United States of America -- came from not-so-glamorous circumstances. The States got

together in seventeen eighty seven to go to the Constitutional Convention to fix the old Articles

of Confederation. Such Government had no Chief Executive, and most of all: had no judicial

system to review the laws passed by Congress. States were independent, but under one nation.

They had declared independence from the tyrant known as King George the Third. Tyranny1 had

ruled over them for nearly a century and a half, but now: they have the opportunity to form a

nation of laws. Tyranny: how can it prevented as to avoid a repeat of King George the Third?

That is what our Founding Fathers thought when they sat down to hammer out our Constitution.

The Constitution protects against any tyranny being instituted over these States mostly

through the principles of Separation of Powers; Checks and Balances; Popular Sovereignty;

Republicanism; Limited Government and Individual Rights.

1
​For our purposes, tyranny is "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the
same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, or whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective". ​See
Federalist Paper No. 59 (Hamilton, 329).

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 One way the Constitution protects against any tyranny being instituted over these States is

by separating the branches of governments and making sure that they all could not gain too much

power.2 "And I hear Americans saying this nowadays, and there's a lot of it going around. They

talk about a dysfunctional government because there's disagreement, and they -- and the framers

would have said, yes, that's exactly the way we set it up. We wanted this to be contradicting

power because the main ill that beset us, as Hamilton said in The Federalist3 [Papers] when he

talked about a separate Senate -- he said, yes, it seems inconvenient, but inasmuch as the main ill

that besets us is an excess of legislation, it won't be so bad."4 This was specifically implemented

in our Constitution by the express delegation of powers and responsibilities by the Founding

Fathers to the respective branches.5 It was also said by the Founding Fathers that “liberty

requires that the three great [branches] of power should be separate and distinct.”6

2
​“We're the power of judgment joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be
exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator. We're it joined to the executive
power, the judge may behave with all the violence of a oppressor." ​See​ Federalist Paper No. 47 (Madison,
332); ; "The entire legislature can perform no judicial act, though by a joint act of two of its branches, the
judges may be removed from their offices, and though one of its branches is possessed of the judicial
power in the last resort."​ Ibid.​ It is clear that the intent of the Founding Fathers was to make sure (1) no
one person had both a executive position and legislative one and (2) that tyranny could not be easily
achieved, if at all.
3
​See​ Federalist Paper No. 62 (Madison).
4
Scalia, Antonin. ​Constitutional Role of Judges.​ C-SPAN. United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. 5
October 2011.
5
​See​ U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. II, cl. I (“​All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”); ​See​ U.S. Const. Art.
II, sec. I, cl. I (“The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States.”; ​See​ U.S. Const.
Art. III, sec. I, cl. I (“The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court.”)
6
​See ​Federalist Paper No. 47 (Madison, 330).

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 For these very reasons, the Supreme Court has struck down delegations of authority from

Congress to the Executive7 if it had no ​intelligible principle.8

Another way the Constitution protects against any tyranny being instituted over these

States is by the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty and Republicanism. “Popular sovereignty is an

important part of a nation’s government. Without it, the rights and liberties of its citizens are not

fully protected by national or international standards.”9 It is clear that Popular Sovereignty and

Republicanism are key to protect ourselves and our prosperity.10 In our Declaration of

Independence, it declares that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers

from the consent of the governed."11 The Founding Fathers, and the people who came after them,

clearly intended for the People to be able to choose their own Representatives as to “provide …

guards for their future security.”12

7
​See Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha,​ 462 U.S. 919 (1983) (struck down the one house
veto of executive actions); ​See Clinton v. City of New York,​ 524 U.S. 417 (1998) (struck down the one
line veto act).
8
“​Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the President is a principle universally recognized as
vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution.” ​See
Mistretta v. United States,​ 488 U.S. 361, 372 (1989) (citing ​Field v. Clark,​ 143 U.S. 649, 692 (1892)),
however the Supreme Court said that “​the separation-of-powers principle, and the nondelegation doctrine
in particular, do not prevent Congress from obtaining the assistance of its coordinate Branches … So long
as Congress ‘shall lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body
authorized to [exercise the delegated authority] is directed to conform, such legislative action is not a
forbidden delegation of legislative power.’” ​Mistretta​, 488 U.S., at 372 (citing ​J.W. Hampton, Jr. & Co. v.
United States​, 276 U. S. 394, 409 (1928)).
9
Khan, Aliya. “Popular Sovereignty.” Indiana University,
https://learningtogive.org/resource/popular-sovereignty. Last accessed January 13th, 2019.
10
For example, the Constitution protects against being denied the right to vote generally speaking. ​See
U.S. Const. amend. XV (on basis of previous servitude); U.S. Const. amend. XIX (on basis of sex); U.S.
Const. amend. XXIV (on basis of ability to pay poll tax); U.S. Const. amend. XXVI (on basis of age).
11
Madison, James. “Declaration of Independence.” National Archives and Records Administration,
www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Last accessed January 16th, 2019.
12
​Ibid.

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 The final way the Constitution protects against any tyranny being instituted over these

States is by Limited Government and Individual Rights. It is a fact that “​all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these

are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These principles have been adopted within our

Constitution.13 Jefferson wrote in a letter to Madison that he “hope[s] … a bill of rights will be

formed to guard the people against the Federal Government” and that “a bill of rights is what the

people are entitled to against every Government on Earth.”14

In conclusion, the Founding Fathers used these principles in the Constitution to prevent

both a tyranny being instituted over these states but also to give the People the rights of which

they were once deprived of. It is essential that one person or group has too much power, as that

may institute a quiet tyranny. This impacts us today because of the political climate we face as a

nation. The Government has repeatedly tried to violate our rights, but we the People, can defend

ourselves with the laws of which this nation has to ensure freedom and never ever again suffer

under a tyranny.15

13
S​ ee​ U.S. Const. amend. I (freedom of speech, press, assembly and right to petition the Government);
Id.​, at amend. III (prohibiting quartering of soldiers within houses without consent of the owner); ​Id.​,
amend. IV (prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures and warrants must be issued upon probable
cause); ​Id.,​ amend. VIII (prohibiting excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment).
14
Jefferson, Thomas. “Letter to James Madison, 20 December 1787.” Founders Online, National
Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0210.
Source: ​The Papers of James Madison​, vol. 10, 27 May 1787–3 March 1788, ed. Robert A. Rutland,
Charles F. Hobson, William M. E. Rachal, and Frederika J. Teute. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1977, pp. 335–339.
15
I’d like to finally conclude this thesis by thanking the Reader for taking the time to read this. Many
citizens lack information about our form of Government and the Constitution, and it is a monument to the
way we live.

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