• Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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    6 hours ago

    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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

    The Constitution of the US of frickin A

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        3 hours ago

        The preamble is part of the Constitution.

        As to being a legal document, it’s not only a legal document (which the supreme Court uses as the final legal authority), but

        The Constitution of the United States of America is the foundational legal document of the U.S. federal system.

        https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America

        The fact that I am being downloaded and you are being upvoted says something about why we’re having so much difficulty combating this administration’s excesses.

        You are slightly wrong in every point.

        • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          The preamble to the Constitution is NOT the same as the preamble to the declaration of Independence. They were completely separate documents written more than a decade apart.

          in fact:

          The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document.[44]: 92  George Mason’s draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson’s words.[44]: 90 [21]: 165–167  “In none of these documents”, wrote Pauline Maier, “is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men’s minds as a classic statement of American political principles.”[21]: 167