Our nation and its history, to a degree that is both remarkable and unique in the world, is based upon two documents, neither long nor complex. The first is the Declaration of Independence, whose 250th anniversary we will celebrate next year. The second is the Constitution of the United States, the oldest written constitution in the world and one that has served as our charter of government from the 18th century to today with few changes.
Yet, despite their importance, and while many Americans are familiar with bits and pieces of both documents, most Americans are largely unfamiliar and uneducated about the documents as a whole, let alone their history, nuances and changing import over time. Most of us are familiar with the beautiful first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “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.” But did you know that this sentence was commonplace for the time, a virtual repeat of a similar sentence in the Virginia Declaration of Rights drafted two months earlier by George Mason, not Thomas Jefferson — and part of the founders’ late 18th century belief system?
What made the declaration noteworthy and exciting at the time was its proclamation of independence. Hence its title. Over time, however, independence receded in importance as a fact of life no longer noteworthy, while the working out of the meaning that “all men are created equal with unalienable rights” became the central challenge for the new republic, through the Civil War and even down to the present.
While the Declaration of Independence is an important historical and cultural document, mastery of it is not essential to citizenship. But the Constitution is a very different kind of document because it is operational; it is our bylaws, our framework, our charter of government and civil liberties. How the courts and the other branches of government interpret the Constitution has great consequence for each one of us. And yet, sad to say, with the decline of civics education in our schools and elsewhere, most Americans have little understanding of the Constitution or our democratic form of government.
The polls on what Americans know about the basics of the Constitution are always shocking and disturbing. The yearly Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey found that as of 2024, most Americans did not know that freedom of religion and of the press were a part of the First Amendment. Only 65%ericans could name all three of the branches of government and 15 per15% not name any. This degree of ignorance only tells part of the story because, despite its plain and elegant language, there is much of the Constitution that can only be understood by careful study of its text, structure and history. For example, does freedom of the “press” refer to the printing press or to journalists in general? If it refers to journalists, does it cover new media such as bloggers? These are interesting and important questions, but most Americans will not have considered them.
One aspect of our constitutional system bears particular attention because it is so critical yet so poorly understood. The Constitution seeks to preserve judicial independence by assuring judges that they cannot be removed from office absent misconduct and that their compensation cannot be reduced while they serve in office. What is the reason for these protections? It is so judges can decide cases without fear that they will be fired or impoverished if the powers that be do not agree with their decisions. These protections shield the judge, but the ultimate intended beneficiary is the society. We must have impartial judges who will decide cases fairly as between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, and the individual and the government. This is how we preserve our civil rights and freedoms. But it is also how we foster and protect our social and economic arrangements and undertakings. Quite simply, judicial independence — by which we mean fair and impartial judges and courts — is essential to a successful, free and prosperous democracy. As the framers of the Constitution understood, and as social scientists have confirmed, it is impossible to have the rule of law without fair and impartial — independent — judges.
A number of important principles follow from the central importance of judicial independence. First, our judges are not “politicians in robes.” They are not beholden to the political branches, and we have every right to expect them to follow the law to the best of their ability. In my experience of having served for nearly 17 years as a United States district judge, this is exactly what our judges try to do. They are not partisan or political.
Second, we all must follow the rulings of our courts, whether or not we agree with any particular ruling. We rely on judges to do their jobs. When we do not agree, we may criticize or appeal. But we cannot defy the rulings of duly constituted courts and independent judges. That is the way to chaos and defeats the whole purpose of a free and fair judicial branch, itself a critical foundation of the rule of law.
Third, it is not at all appropriate to attempt to punish or intimidate judges because of their decisions by threatening them or family members, or by threatening to punish the courts for decisions by taking away needed resources, or, in the case of the United States Supreme Court, by threatening it with court packing — expanding the number of justices and filling those seats with new justices who are pre-committed to overturning certain past decisions.
Over time, independence receded in importance as a fact of life no longer noteworthy, while the working out of the meaning that “all men are created equal with unalienable rights” became the central challenge.
To study the Constitution and its long history, as well as its interpretation by the courts, is not just a duty and an academic exercise. I believe such study and understanding becomes an emotional commitment to our constitutional structure and freedoms, to our country, leading to a deeper appreciation of the hard-won liberty that we have and that must always be protected and never taken for granted. One of our great judges of the last century, with the wonderful name Learned Hand, put this so well in a famous talk he gave in 1944, during the World War, called the “Spirit of Liberty.” He told us that the Constitution and the courts cannot by themselves guarantee us our freedom: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”
To protect and defend that spirit of liberty, to instill it in ourselves and future generations, we must understand what we have and what past generations accomplished. Widespread misunderstanding and ignorance of our constitutional system degrades and ultimately imperils our democracy and our dedication to it. We must teach and discuss and seek to understand and thereby foster that essential spirit of liberty. Let us begin.
This story appears in the July/August 2025 issue of DeseretMagazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.