Our Founders gave us the mechanism to stay true to and enforce our Constitution: COMMON LAW GRAND JURIES. Here is an article written by Rodger Dowdell of Manatee County, Florida on his research into a method, method long used, to bring our wayward government under the control of the people. The people are responsible for the government because the government exists to serve We The People. In our history, we know how to do this. This article looks into how we did it.
1.
What
is American Exceptionalism?
All human societies throughout history are of only
one design, a pyramid with the rulers at the top and the People at the bottom ,
working for the rulers, be they Kings, Lords, Dictators, etc. Our Founders took
that conventional design and inverted it by putting "We the People"
as the highest ranking Sovereign. Then , below We the People are the
States that the people created. The lowest ranking sovereign created in the
design by our Founders is the Federal Government that the States created, which
our Founders called at the time the General Government. So We the People are
the highest ranking sovereign, the Consentors, and the States and the
Federal Governments are our servants. WE ARE THE KING'S BENCH! ( the
King's Bench was the supreme level tribunal in existence when the Declaration
of Independence was signed and the link to the King as our sovereign was severed).
Another way to think about American Exceptionalism
is to think about the system one minute before our Declaration of Independence
was signed and one minute after it was signed. One minute before signing, the
highest ranking sovereign in the system in America was the King of England. It
is the highest ranking sovereign that decides what is law and what isn't law.
Now think about our situation one minute after declaring independence from the
King. Who now is the highest ranking sovereign in the system? Our a founders could have asked George
Washington to be our King, but instead they decided that the highest ranking
sovereign in this new nation would be We the People. We the People became the
Kings! Furthermore, when we Kings meet as our Common Law Grand Jury, we meet as
the highest ranking court of record in the land. This means that not even the
US Supreme Court can review a decision made by one of our Common Law Grand
Juries.
2. According to our a
Constitution, who has both the authority and the responsibility to decide if an
Act passed by Congress or any action by any government official or entity is Constitutional?
Although most Americans assume the Supreme Court of
the United States owns this responsibility, it does not. Nowhere in Article 3
of our US Constitution , where the Judiciary is defined, is the US Supreme
Court given any authority or responsibility to decide about the
Constitutionality of an Act passed by Congress or rulings or Executive Orders
from the Executive branch, or unconstitutional judicial decisions. In fact, our
Constitution would probably not ever been ratified if the sovereign States knew
an element of the central government, the Supreme Court, would be the arbiter
of disputes between the States and their creation.Only the States and We the
People have both the authority and the responsibility to decide if an Act
of a Congress, an Executive Order, an agency rule or regulation, or judicial
decisions are Constitutional.
3. Who are the parties to the
contract we call our Constitution?
Our Constitution is a contract between 13 fully
sovereign States that, through this contract, created a General Government with
very limited, Enumerated Powers ( Article 1, Section 8). Note that We the People,
the highest ranking sovereign in the system at the time, are not a party to
this contract, and instead are considered beneficiaries of this contract.
4. Who is the highest ranking law
enforcement officer in every County?
Unlike Hollywood scripts, every County Sheriff
outranks the most senior officer from any other agency, including the FBI and
our military leaders, etc.
5. According to our Constitution,
what are the only 5 things that the Federal Government can enter a State to enforce?
The Federal Government is only authorized to enforce
treason, treaty violations, piracy, counterfeiting, and establishing Post Roads
within any States borders. Why do we
have a Federal government with 76 armed divisions coming into the States enforcing
all kinds of Unconstitutional Acts, statutes, Rules, and Regulations?
6. As founded, does the USA have
a Common Law or a Civil Law legal system?
The USA was founded as a Common Law nation.
Progressives have created a separate civil system, referred to as statutes.
Statutes were originally created to tell government workers what to do, but
Progressives have mutated statutes to attempt to make us believe we must obey
and conform to their system of statutes. Instead, we are natural persons, one
of We the People, and not subject to statutes unless we agree voluntarily to be
subject to them.
7. What is the main difference
between Common Law and Civil Law legal systems?
A civil law system is based on the assumption that
elected politicians and unelected bureaucrats are smart, moral, and honest
enough to write a set of laws that will enable a just, productive, and happy
society to flourish. Under a civil law system, the State is the highest ranking
sovereign. In contrast, common law
systems assumes we aren't that smart, moral, and honest and therefore our laws
need to come from observing nature , and therefore called Natural Laws. In our Common Law system, We the People are the
highest ranking sovereigns. Two
principles of Common Law are
1.
For every injury there must be a remedy
2.
For there to be a crime, there must be a victim whose body or property has been
injured and
the
State can not be the victim.
Three important values of Common Law are Justice,
Honor, and Mercy. Justice in Common Law is synonymous with virtue.
8. What is the difference between
a law and a statute?
Under our Common Law system, our laws come from
nature and a few but profoundly common sensical. Statutes come from governments and are
intended to tell the government employees how to do their job. Statutes do not apply to We the People unless
we voluntarily give our permission
9. What is the definition of our
main problem?
Some think our Constitution is faulty and needs some
new Amendments, for example, from an Article 5 convention and then our problems
will be fixed. Although our Constitution isn't perfect, the evidence suggests
it worked really well while it was embraced and enforced. This suggests that
the root cause of our problems does not lie within our Constitution itself. It
therefore defies all logic that by simply adding some new Amendments all of a
sudden our governments will embrace and enforce the newly modified Constitution
when they continually trample on the current version.
10. If our Constitution is ok,
what are root cause(s) of our “out of control” unconstitutional government
behavior?
Simply put, we stopped enforcing our Constitution and
our politicians oaths of office. We lost the main enforcement mechanism that
the Founders designed into our system to decide whether an Act of Congress is
Constitutional or not, the States and We the People. Why did we
lose this critical enforcement mechanism?
In the case of the States, the political leadership generally is only
concerned about accumulating more power and more money while remaining a member
in good standing of the Monolithic Extractive Elite Ruling Class.
Basically, they learned they could gain more money and power by going along
with the Unconstitutional Federal behavior rather than by enforcing our Constitution
to stop it.
In the case of We the People, the Progressives did a
great job cutting out our Constitution from the majority of our educational
processes while burying our Common Law Grand Jury (CLGJ) in 1946 , causing We
the People to frankly fall asleep.
It is simply up to us, We the People , to
wake up and take back our CONSENTORS role, using Common Law Grand Juries
in every one of our 3141 counties to root out corruption and Unconstitutional
behavior. Remember, WE ARE THE KINGS BENCH !
11. What is our current strategy
and why is it doomed to fail?
Federal Government is a broken system with very
strong and very bad incentives in place, and the major root cause is the loss
of the States and We the People as the correction mechanism to hold our
governments to our Constitution, the highest law of the land and simultaneously
hold our politicians accountable to their oaths of office.
Our current strategy is called a “Hero strategy”
which is to say we work hard to elect candidates that make promises but do not
follow through on their promises. How many times have we worked hard to elect
candidates who say all the right things and promise to vote conservatively, swear
an oath to preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution from enemies both
foreign and domestic, and then once in Washington they get captured by the
system and become moderates or even liberals voting for all kinds of
Unconstitutional Acts? This is defined as our Hero Strategy, which is to think
if we work hard enough, we will be able to hire enough “heroes” to go to
Washington and straighten it out. This strategy is not working nor can it work,
simply because the reality is our system of government is a truly broken system
that must be repaired, and the repair MUST be to fix the root causes,
which is the lack of the CONSENTORS acting to keep the Acts of Congress within
Constitutional bounds while holding our politicians accountable to their oaths
of office.
Simply put, our current strategy does not address
the root causes of our problems.
No matter how many heroes we send, we cannot evade
our duty as " CONSENTORS" to repair our system back to its original
design if we want to restore our Constitution. We spend large amounts of energy
and money to get candidates elected only to have them succumb to the existing
incentives and start voting to optimize results for the Monolithic Extractive
Elite Ruling Class.
In his farewell address, George Washington warned us
that this day would come when duty to the political party was more important
than duty to our country.
Summary:
If our Constitution is agreed by all to be the
Supreme Law of the Land, why is it not being enforced? We lost the primary enforcement mechanism originally
designed by our Founders : the States and We the People, THE CONSENTORS : Why ?
Monolithic Extractive Elite Ruling Class buried the Common Law Grand Jury in
1946 by calling it “obsolete” while We the People were not paying attention!
12. History of our Common Law
Grand Jury
Because many of our Founders came from England, the
USA was founded with a Common Law legal system. This is in contrast to the
nations on the European continent, like Germany, France, etc. which adopted a
Civil Law system. Under a civil law legal system, the laws are written by
elected and unelected government officials and the State is considered the
highest ranking Sovereign . The theory is that man's rational and moral
capability is sufficient to develop a complete set of integrated laws for
society to be peaceful and thrive.
By contrast, a Common Law system has as a foundation
Natural Laws, and the theory is that man is neither smart or moral enough so we
need to discover nature's laws and then aim to live in concert with them. In
our Common Law system, We the People are the highest ranking sovereign instead
of the State, and the State is our servant. To learn more about Common Law, please
review the Common Law section of www.nationallibertyalliance.org under the
Judicial Process tag on the left side of the Home page.
As an important part of a Common Law system and the
critical enforcement mechanism for our constitution, the Common Law Grand Jury
(CLGJ) was developed in England well before the USA gained its independence.
The roots of our CLGJ go all the way back to Article 61 of the Magna Carta
written in 1215. The CLGJ had three main purposes:
1.
Protect the common people from unjust charges from Kings, Lords, Prosecutors,
and other people in power.
2.
From evidence either discovered or given to it, investigate who should be
charged for crimes committed and create an indictment or presentment against
the likely criminals, while judging both the facts and the law
3.
Reach into both the elected and unelected governments and root out corruption.
Of course corruption includes any behavior that is repugnant to our
Constitution. For 75 years after the
ratification of our Constitution, the enforcement mechanism of the CLGJ kept
all Federal spending constrained to the Enumerated Powers in Article 1 ,
Section 8.
In the design of the government that our Founders
decided upon, the CLGJ plays a critical role beyond keeping over zealous
prosecutors, politicians, bureaucrats, and judges in check.
Common Law Grand Juries are the
key way for We the People to keep the government centered on our Constitution.
When a government official ignored our Constitution, he or she would likely
face a presentment from the CLGJ, be suspended from office, and have to stand
trial in front of the Petite Jury.
The American version of the Common Law Grand Jury is
so critical to the proper operation of our system of government that it is
included in the 5th Amendment to our Constitution, which says among other
things that " No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand
Jury,..."
In 1992, a critical event happened when US Supreme Court
Justice Scalia writing the majority(6-3) opinion called the CLGJ ...the 4th
branch of our government owned by We the People, a Constitutional fixture fully
independent and separate from the executive, legislative, and judicial
branches.
The CLGJ is made up of 25 persons from We the
People. Together, they have both the authority and the responsibility to
investigate ANY issues that gain their attention. Because it is an investigative
body, a person testifying to the CLGJ cannot bring a lawyer with them. All investigations
and deliberations of the CLGJ are secret, with only the indictments or presentment
voted by the CLGJ becoming public. Only the foreperson, elected by the CLGJ, becomes
known publically as he/she must sign the indictments and presentments. Stiff
jail terms are the penalty for anyone who interferes in any way with the
operations of the CLGJ .
Some of the power of a CLGJ can be quickly
comprehended by understanding two of the simple
principles of Common Law:
1.
For every injury, there must be a remedy
2.
For a crime to have been committed, there must be a victim and the Government
cannot be the victim.
Think for a minute on how many people are rotting
their lives away in our jails without causing an injury to a victim ? The civil
law statute based system has grown into a huge business where even the judges
retirement accounts get portions of the fines we pay.
13. Whatever happened to our
CLGJ?
The Progressives from both parties wanted to
implement a very different design of our government than what our Founders laid
out in our Constitution. As they attempted to make “progress” past our
Constitution, they quickly learned that if the population remained very educated
and aware of the meaning of our Constitution, they stood little chance of
changing our society they way they wanted. So they decided to sever the connection
between We the People and our Constitution. They set about " burying"
our Constitution in the late 1800's and early 1900's by first omitting it from
public education and law schools. Then, in 1946, the Progressives used an
opportunity to rewrite the US Penal Code to attempt to bury our CLGJ by simply
calling our Common Law Grand Jury " obsolete". (see link below)
Instead of having a CLGJ looking over the shoulder
of politicians and making sure they were embracing our Constitution while
accountable to their oaths of office, the Progressives wanted a very different
type of Grand Jury that they could then fully control. We call these Grand
Juries “Puppet Grand Juries” or “Statutes” because they are under the control
of the prosecutors and the judges. This is what today's Grand Juries have
become....”Puppet grand juries” that only consider the evidence that the
Prosecutor wants them to see and typically do only what the prosecutor and
judge wants them to do.
However, our CLGJ is not obsolete because it is
embedded firmly in our 5th Amendment. To make it obsolete, the Constitution
would have to be amended.
Which way forward?
Luckily the Progressives did not get our
Constitution changed. Also, luckily, there is a group of men in NY, lead by
John Darash and Gerard Aprea, who have established the National Liberty Alliance
in order to educate We the People on both the history of our CLGJ and how we
can go about reestablishing them. We are on a mission to bind our government
with the chains of our Constitution!
14. USING OUR CONSTITUTION TO
RESTORE OUR CONSTITUTION
Nullify, Present, Indite
Benefits of reestablishing our Common Law Grand
Juries
Most of the problems we face as a nation have as a
root cause the lack of adherence to our Constitution. The Founders designed a
very effective system that the Progressives modified to their liking. For example,
the Founders wrote a list of Enumerated powers delegated to the federal
government in Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution, yet today most of the
spending and enforcement actions of the Feds are outside these enumerated
powers. Additional behaviors like creating the Federal Reserve Bank and the initiating
of war by the President are clearly Unconstitutional.
How did the Founders expect We the People to
apply corrective action to a government that deviated from the 18 Enumerated
Powers in Article 1, Section 8? They gave us the best tool for the job, the
Common Law Grand Jury.
Additionally, the CLGJ can act as direct Consentors
by deciding that any Act of Congress is defective because it is repugnant to
our Constitution , and therefore null and void from the time of its creation,
with no act needing to be passed to so declare. The CLGJ will then simply
refuse to indict anybody charged with violating such a Act. This means, for
example, that issues like Common Core, Agenda 21, gun control, and Obamacare,
which are clearly unconstitutional simply because guns, education, development,
and health care issues are NOT among the 18 Enumerated Powers granted to our
Federal Government by the Sovereign States, would likely become null and void
as CLGJ refuses to indict anyone charged with violating such unconstitutional
Acts. By the way, grand and petite jury nullification is the primary way we eliminated
Prohibition.
CLGJ can and will likely address both voter fraud
and illegal immigrants wherever found. Because the CLGJ is the highest-level
court of record, the decisions of the CLGJ are not reviewable or appealable
unless the CLGJ decision impinges on someone's rights. Even the US Supreme
Court can not overturn a decision by the CLGJ.
Also, a CLGJ can decide to hold accountable those in
political office to their oath of office, accountable to the Constitution, and
can hold all politicians accountable to their constituents by preventing
politicians from taking campaign money from " special interests " and
lobbyists because that is in fact bribery, an indictable offense.
15. What is a Writ?
A writ is an order that is issued from a court of
superior jurisdiction that commands an inferior tribunal, corporation,
Municipal Corporation, or individual to perform, or refrain from performing, a
particular act, the performance or omission of which is required by law as an
obligation.
16. What is a Writ of Mandamus?
We command. This is a writ which issues from a court
of superior jurisdiction and is directed to a private or municipal corporation,
or any of its officers, or to an executive, administrative, or judicial
officer, or to an inferior court, commanding the performance of a particular
act therein specified, and belonging to his or their public, official, or ministerial
duty, or directing the restoration of the complainant to rights or privileges
of which he has been illegally deprived.
17. What is the difference
between the Constitution for the United States and the Constitution of the
United States? TBD
18. What is corporatism and why does it exist?
Every government organization keeps at least two sets of accounting records. One is shown to the public and the other, referred to as Comprehensive Annual Financial Review (CAFR), is frequently kept hidden from the public. Usually most government organizations have accumulated significant surpluses, reserves, and pension funds (?). For example, Manatee County has $xxx. These funds get invested using professional money managers in various financial instruments including common stocks. This implies that the sum of all government funds invested in common stocks makes governments the biggest shareholders in many companies. This implies when the government asks a corporation to do something or not do something, the business will be highly likely to comply, even if it is unconstitutional.
Every government organization keeps at least two sets of accounting records. One is shown to the public and the other, referred to as Comprehensive Annual Financial Review (CAFR), is frequently kept hidden from the public. Usually most government organizations have accumulated significant surpluses, reserves, and pension funds (?). For example, Manatee County has $xxx. These funds get invested using professional money managers in various financial instruments including common stocks. This implies that the sum of all government funds invested in common stocks makes governments the biggest shareholders in many companies. This implies when the government asks a corporation to do something or not do something, the business will be highly likely to comply, even if it is unconstitutional.
Please consider taking a serious interest and role in
Restoring Our Constitution by reestablishing the primary tool our Founders
designed into our system, our COMMON LAW GRAND JURY !
References
Best overall site explaining history of CLGJ and how
to reestablish a CLGJ in your county:
To see where our Common Law originates, see Article
61 in the Magna Carta at http://
Everyone interested in becoming a jurist needs to
read and understand: download
A book published in 1963 that covers the history of
the Common Law Grand Jury from 1776
through 1941:
The People's Panel book at
Here is a link from a retired lawyer explaining how
the Progressives in 1946 used an opportunity
to rewrite the US Penal Code to announce
unilaterally that Common Law Grand Juries are
considered "obsolete".
Link to US Supreme Court Justice Scalia's 1992
majority (6-3) opinion in US v Williams
Here is a recently posted pretty clear summary of
the key points about Common Law Grand
