Defining Liberty

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🗓️ 2 November 2020

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

The Framers wrote the Constitution to protect the liberty of American citizens. But what exactly did “liberty” mean to them? More importantly, what should it mean to you? Eugene Volokh, professor of constitutional law at UCLA, explores this important issue.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here's something we can all agree on. Liberty is a wonderful thing.
0:04.9	The American Constitution says so, right in the preamble. The framers establish the
0:09.8	Constitution to secure the blessings of liberty. So why doesn't that offer a clear answer to
0:16.3	most of the constitutional questions that face America today? Aren't lawmakers who swear to
0:21.6	uphold the Constitution obliged by their oaths to vote for liberty? The problem is that liberty,
0:27.6	like equality or justice, is a complicated idea that means different things to different people.
0:33.8	Consider, for instance, one simple question. Who do we want liberty from?
0:39.5	Well, we want liberty from a tyrannical government. That's why we have a bill of rights,
0:44.4	and that's why the Constitution was designed to impose powerful constraints on the federal
0:48.4	government and eventually state governments. But we also want liberty from four
0:53.6	intolerance, right? What's the point of having a government that won't oppress us if it can't
0:58.3	protect us from foreign invaders who would oppress us even more? That's why the preamble also says
1:04.0	the Constitution is set up to provide for the common defense. Yet to protect ourselves against
1:09.5	foreign tyranny, we may need to restrict domestic liberty. At the very least, the government has
1:14.9	to impose taxes to pay for the military. Throughout American history, the government has also been
1:19.7	seen as having the power to draft men to fight in wars. That's certainly a restriction on individual
1:25.5	liberty, but it's long been seen as consistent with the Constitution. We can see other examples too.
1:32.8	The Fourth Amendment bans unreasonable searches and seizures. That's a powerful protection for liberty.
1:39.5	But it doesn't ban all searches and seizures. Reasonable ones are allowed. That's in parts of the
1:45.5	law can better protect us from criminals intruding on our liberty. Likewise, the Fifth Amendment provides
1:51.4	the private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. But that means that
1:57.5	sometimes your property can be taken for public use with compensation. However much this limits your
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