Contributed to TheBrennerBrief.com by David R. Young

If you go searching for your rights in the Bill of Rights, you won’t find them.

The Bill of rights wasn’t written to inform you of your rights. It was written about and addresses the formation of the Federal Government. It is a notification of limitations imposed upon the Federal Government emphasizing it may not impinge upon your natural rights.

Perhaps for brevity sake it was called the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Protecting the People’s Rights would be more apt. But, even more accurately The Bill of Federal Government Restrictions. And back to a shortened version we get the Bill of Restrictions. Call it what you may, but ensure people in government understand its purpose, that it applies to them and is enforced by you.

If you are looking for a document that shapes, describes or outlines your rights, you can find one in the most unlikely, but appropriate place. Before the United Nations deteriorated into its current state, way back at its very first session, it sponsored the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was written in 1947 under the direction of Eleanor Roosevelt. If you want a document which lists your rights, this one is recommended.

Ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may have been the only crowning achievement of the U.N. If it had simply taken this document as its mission, promoted and enforced it perhaps we would have a better world.

The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not intend to ‘create’ rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.  Former Supreme Court Justice, William J. Brennan, Jr.

The First 10 Amendments are not directed at you as an individual, but to the power of the Federal Government. It restricts the Federal Government from interfering with the States and the people. It says; keep your hands off religion, free speech and the Press. The Federal Government cannot interfere with your rights to peaceably assemble and may never restrict the people’s rights to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. All of that is covered in just the First Amendment. It doesn’t grant your right to religious beliefs, free speech, etc. These rights were already yours, recognized as inherent rights as a member of humanity.

When addressing any point of the Bill of “Rights” never use it to defend your rights, as they need no defense. Use your voice to enforce Government Restrictions as they are laid down in this document. The Constitution forms this government and authorizes what power it does have. Those whose say it is no longer relevant, lie — plain and simple – sometimes out of ignorance, but more often to obtain the power they need from you to take away your freedoms.  They can only do it with your permission.

No matter what “law” has been passed by any Congress, no matter what “judgment” has been pronounced by any court and no matter what enforcement has ever been authorized by any Administration, if these acts violated or overstepped the restrictions laid down in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, they were unlawful, injudicious and unauthorized.

It is time that such arbitrary laws, judgments and executive orders are struck from the books of the Federal Government. When we speak of limiting the size of government, we are talking about the eradication of arbitrary additions to and violations of, the Constitution and its First 10 Amendments. All additional amendments should be measured only against these original documents for their validity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights should also be used to ensure that no one’s rights are trampled in the process.

Let’s communicate and instill these demands in our future elected officials. We don’t need more Federal Laws.  We need to sweep away the arbitrary and destructive laws which violate the Constitution and infringe upon our freedoms. Only then will our country have a chance to become what the Founding Fathers envisioned it might someday be.

This is our duty as Americans. This is what we are arguing over and what we are willing to fight and die for.  Government of, by and for the People is only possible if we each do our part to enforce the Bill of Restrictions on the Federal Government.