In “The Once and Future King,” T.H. White’s masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend, Merlyn exclaims to young Arthur “Might does not make right! Right makes right!”
It’s a view that the civilized world has long held.
Merlyn is teaching Arthur to reject outright the barbarian notion that superior strength or power gives one the right to rule, control or impose one’s own will on others. Unfortunately, it’s a worldview that still guides brutal totalitarian regimes.
In 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carta. It’s hard to imagine a more significant historical document. The Magna Carta ensured that the life, liberty and/or property of free subjects of the king could not arbitrarily be taken away. Instead, the law of the land had to be honored.
The rule of law, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the principle whereby all members of a society (including those in government) are considered equally subject to publicly disclosed legal codes and processes.”
In other words, the law must be followed, and no one is above the law. The rule of law is a critical, fundamental principle of our constitutional republic.
Earlier this month, when asked in an interview if there were any limits on his presidential power, our current president responded: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a more troubling statement. We should all be deeply rattled by this assertion.
And just days earlier, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, said this to journalist Jake Tapper:
“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”
In other words, according to Miller, ours is a world that must be governed not by the rule of law but by the law of the jungle.
Which world do we want to live in? Which principle do we choose to uphold — might makes right or the rule of law? Because we can’t have it both ways. One cancels out the other.
These two fundamentally different worldviews will take us in two drastically different directions — and only one of those directions leads to “liberty and justice for all.”
According to the conservative nonprofit organization American Heritage Education Foundation:
“Rule of Law is the principle that all humans, including those in power, are subject to the law. No one is above the law. The law is impartial or applies equally to everyone. Rule of law is not based on fallible, changing rulers but on a constant set of laws or a constitution.”
In his retirement speech in 2023, General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reminded all those who serve this country of this important truth:
“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution.”
King Arthur’s fabled round table was a potent symbol of his vision of equality and justice before the law. These are the same ideals upon which our great nation was founded and the only ones by which it will endure.