The Fourth Branch and Power

The Fourth Branch and Power

The Constitution of the United States is divided into parts that include the Preamble, Articles with Sections, and Amendments, the first ten of which constitute the Bill of Rights.  There is a total of 27 Amendments to the Constitution.

The various articles in the constitution specifically identify three branches of our form of government, namely the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and when we speak of these branches we speak of a separation of power.  What we seem to overlook is a fourth branch of the government that is not separated out specifically as an individual article, but serves as the underpinning of the entire Constitution and each amendment in the Bill of Rights.

Article I of the Constitution spells out the establishment of the legislative responsibilities by government and creates a Congress composed of Senators and Representatives.

Article II of the Constitution spells out the establishment and duties of the executive branch of government, namely the President of the United States.

Article III of the Constitution creates a judicial branch and specifies the duties of this branch of government.

Article IV relates to the States, giving the states full faith and credit, and outlines privileges and immunities given to states as well as outlining the framework for extradition of fugitives.  Additionally, the process for admitting states to the Union is provided as well as guaranteeing states a republican form of government and protection against invasion.

Article V outlines the amendment process, while Article VI spells out the legal status of the Constitution, and Article VII sets forth the ratification process of the Constitution.

When we speak of the Constitution, especially the first three articles, again, we look at our form of government in terms of a separation of powers.  Congress, the legislative branch of our government enacts laws while the executive branch is responsible for enforcing those laws.  Finally, the judicial branch determines the constitutionality of those laws when its constitutionality or its application has been called into question.  Each of the three branches has given to it the power to regulate or moderate the other.

What is often overlooked in our review of the Constitution is the Fourth Branch of government; the power that is not and should not be separated from the other three branches.  I speak of We the People.

The Constitution begins with a preamble that spells out exactly where the other three branches of government derive their power. 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In these few words, one short sentence, the framers of the Constitution identified the source from which authority is given to the other three branches of the government to function and the purpose of our government.  The source that “ordained” and established the Constitution was We the People.

Evidence of this Branch of Government and its power is not limited to the Preamble.  For example, Article I, Section 2 states that “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states….”

Other evidences of this Fourth Branch and Power of our government follow.

Article I, Section 3 initially gave the power of the states to elect senators, but this article was amended by Amendment XVII, and provides for two senators from each state that are “elected by the people thereof,...”

Article IV, Section 2 states: “The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.”

Article V of the Constitution provides for amendments to be adopted by three-fourths of the state legislatures or conventions.  Of course, state legislatures and conventions are selected by We the People.

If the Preamble is one bookend to the Constitution, then the Amendments, beginning with the Bill of Rights is the other bookend.  Clearly, the Bill of Rights reserves rights to the people.

Amendment I provides for the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom to peaceably assemble, and equally important the ability to petition the government for redress of grievances.  Amendment II, as everyone should know is the right to bear arms.  The Third Amendment is one that we take for granted and we seem to overlook, but spells out the superlative position of the person over the government and provides that troops cannot be quartered in homes during peace time.  This particular amendment introduces the concept of a “man’s home being his castle”.  The castle doctrine has as its origin the British concept that even the king’s (King of England) army cannot enter the owner’s home without the owner’s consent.

The Fourth Amendment further establishes the sanctity of the Castle Doctrine by protecting people from unwarranted intrusions into their persons, houses, papers, and effects.  This amendment is followed up with the Fifth Amendment that prescribes the manner in which the government must hold people to answer for alleged crimes.  The Sixth and Seventh Amendments give further protections to people when accused of criminal or civil wrongs and the Eighth Amendment protects people from the government use of cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments specifically reserve rights to the people that are not granted to the United States or limited to the individual States.

While the Fifteenth Amendment is a Reconstruction Era Amendment, it clearly states that the right of the Citizens (aka people) to vote shall not be denied or abridged.  This, of course, is followed by the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right of citizens to vote regardless of sex.

Clearly, the framers of the Constitution saw the People of the United States as an equal, even exceptional branch of the government endowed with power and ultimately responsible for the functioning of our government.  And, whereas the Constitution sets up a separation of powers of the other three branches of government, the only separation of power of the People from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches is the list of protections and guarantees provided to the People.

The United States Constitution is the law of the land and came about by our declaration of independence from England.  In part, that Declaration of Independence states the following.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security….”

I draw particular attention to concepts enumerated in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence as they serve as the philosophical background for the Constitution.

1.      All men are created equal.

2.      We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that include

a.       Life,

b.      Liberty,

c.       The pursuit of Happiness.

3.      That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That declaration goes on to describe the right of the people to abolish a government and reestablish a new government, but cautions that “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.”

I call on all Americans to step up to the plate and accept the responsibility of the Fourth Branch of The United States Government and to not abrogate that power to any singular person, office, or other branch of government.  Ours is a sacred obligation as acknowledged in our Declaration of Independence, given to us by Creator.  We the People have a responsibility to live up to the expectations of our Founding Fathers.