Constitution, Declaration of Independence … what’s the difference?
President Obama was once a professor of Constitutional law (as he said in 2007, “I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.”) So we should be able to take this line from the State of the Union to the bank:
Abroad, America’s greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. The same is true at home. We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we’re all created equal; that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it; if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else.
Unfortunately, the Con-law prof must have read the wrong Cliff’s Notes while cramming the night before the speech.
“The notion that we’re all created equal” is not “enshrined in our Constitution.”
It is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776 (13 years before the Constitution):
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.
The president may have been referring to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, in part:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
But equal protection of the laws is not “the notion that we’re all created equal.”
Sources:
The White House, Jan. 27, 2010
Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address
The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, July 9, 1868
