October 10, 2017 — You heard it in your high school civics class: America has “a government of laws and not of men.” The rule of law is the basis of the constitutional order erected by the Founders. “A government with unpredictable and arbitrary laws poisons the blessings of liberty itself.” The first axiom is from John Adams, the second is from James Madison. Their sentiments were universal in the founding generation and ought to continue today. Checks and balances have no teeth when our leaders can disregard the laws and rule according to their whims.
I said that the rule of law should still be the foundation of our politics. Unfortunately, that certainly does not mean it is not threatened. There is no more flagrant violation of this principle of our government than the repeated abuse of the Antiquities Act in the designation of national monuments.
Passed in 1906 authorizing the president to protect “antiquities,” or objects of historic interest under imminent threat, the plain language of the law requires that all designations be “confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
The act is not difficult to understand. It is not ambiguous. Any honest reading reveals that it was created to protect “landmarks,” “structures,” and “objects” – not vast swaths of land.