What would happen if we would require our government employees to be able to pass a written tests where they had to show proof that they understood the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, as well as other matters pertaining to citizenship within this country? Then after these people became employees of the government they would be held accountable both civilly and criminally for actions that violated other people’s constitutional protected rights. No more immunity for people in the government, I believe at that point in time we would start seeing all our government officials doing a better job of protecting all our constitutional rights.
Of course after this opening statement, the first question that comes to my mind is how many legislators and their staff could pass one of these tests? Lets say one not only that included the US citizenship test that must be passed by new citizens immigrating to this country, but also a test that has specific questions about the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States. One that would not put together by politics or politicians but by independent law professors and historians. These questions would be designed to find out if people working in government actually understand that these documents were designed to protect INDIVIDUAL freedoms. Failure to pass these tests would result in a person being unemployable by the government.
For one thing, we’d have a lot less __________ (pick your political party of hatred).
Seriously, though, the Constitution is very concrete in its application. It was never a document to illuminate specific, drill-down laws, but rather to enforce a core-value level of human interaction and dignity for all individuals. Anything that deviates from that interaction and devalues it, and instead incorporates a state-mandated/-supervised scheme is bound to fail, and to create far more havoc than stability. Witness the Registry in action, for instance.