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What Does “Defending the Constitution” Really Mean? (www.liberalcurrents.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Seventeen years ago, I sat in a nondescript basement office with Sharon from personnel, filling out paperwork for my new job as an attorney for the trial court. Sharon turned to me and told me I needed to take the oath of office.

Startled, I raised my hand and repeated the solemn words.

I swore to support and defend the Constitutions of the United States and California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to those documents, in words prescribed by the California Constitution. (Cal. Const. art. XX, § 3.) A second paragraph of the California oath referring to advocating the overthrow of the government by force or violence or other unlawful means was omitted, because it had been found to impermissibly infringe on the First Amendment. (Vogel v. Los Angeles Cnty., 68 Cal. 2d 18, 26, 434 P.2d 961, 964 (1967).)

The oath I took in 2008 began to carry new weight after the 2024 elections and their aftermath. Did the oath I swore require me to do anything outside the parameters of my employment? Was I required to defend the Constitution with my words, my time, my money, or even my life?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It is and has always been a flawed document. Never having the power Americans are so proud of.

It never enshrined the principals of the declaration of independence.

And has never protected the right of anybody who is actually challenged.

Every group ever oppressed has found only changing the document allowed them any protection from an abusive government.

And any US government that wants to abuse has found ways around the document. Even when changed. Without an agreement on enforcment independent of party politics. It is worthless.

A 2 second look at US abusive history proves it protects only those in power.

3/5 human

Us citizens in concentration camps due to race.

Just 50 years of body autonomy wipped out as soon those who opposed it gain power.

The first step has to be to stop thinking of the constitution as some protection for rights. And instead to ensure leaders at every level are only selected if they support them.

If the US cannot get behind that simple principal. It has no claim to protect rights. Any more then the rest of the world dose.