Would you say that the Declaration is America's first great dissent?

Say yes.

Wow, that's great. I had never thought of that.

We hold these truths to be self-evidence.

That all men.

That all men are created equal.

That they are endowed by their creator.

With certain unalienable. Unalienable, unalienable rights,

that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I'm Anastasia Bowden, a constitutional attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, and I love Supreme

Court dissents.

I love the stories behind them and the spirit of debate. Every dissent is a minority standing up against the majority. It doesn't

technically affect tomorrow's laws, but its words become part of the fabric of our country.

And years later, you can look back and know that someone said

this was wrong and here's why. Now here's my argument to you. The Declaration of Independence

is America's original dissent. In this first season of indescent, we look at the declaration's words, how they were incorporated into our governing document, the Constitution, and how those promises have been shaped, sometimes eviscerated, by Supreme Court decisions.

And then we look at some of the greatest Supreme Court dissents that have stood up for the Declaration's ideas and which provide a roadmap

for restoring the self-evident truths of equality, liberty, and government in service to the people,

not the other way around. But first, let's back up. What did Thomas Jefferson think of the Declaration?

Mangled the text, yeah. Jefferson went to his grave saying they mangled a text.

That's Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author Joseph Ellis. Jefferson thought they had

mangled his text. John Adams, on the other hand. Adams went to his grave thinking Jefferson got

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