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SALT LAKE CITY — Calling the United States Constitution this country's most important export, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the LDS Church defined the Constitution's four great fundamentals and called on the American public to better understand and support it.
"After two centuries, every nation in the world except six have adopted written constitutions, and the United States Constitution was the model for all of them," said Elder Oaks in his keynote address at Friday night's Constitution Day Celebration at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. "Consequently, if we abandon or weaken its fundamental principle, we betray our own national ideals, and we also weaken our global neighbors."
A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 1984, Elder Oaks previously was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, practiced law in Chicago, taught as a professor of law at the University of Chicago, spent nine years as Brigham Young University president and served nearly four years as a justice of the Utah Supreme Court.
His four great fundamental principles of the Constitution: popular sovereignty, division of powers in a federal system, the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers.
Of the first, he said people are the source of government power and sharing a measure of the burdens and responsibilities of governing.
"The government of the United States had to be ultimately responsible to the will of the sovereign people, but it also had to be stable," he said. "Without some government stability against an aroused majority, government could not give individuals or minorities protection against overreaching by the ruling majority."
Division of powers in a federal system divides government powers between the nation and state, limiting national powers and giving residuary powers to the state and local governments, which are most responsive to the people.
He cited the national Equal Rights Amendment proposed three decades ago and the possibility of federal courts decreeing that a state law on marriage is invalid under the U.S. Constitution as examples of having the potential to adversely affect the dominance of state law.
"Whatever the merits of current controversies over the laws of marriage and child adoption and the like, let us not forget that if the decisions of federal courts can override the actions of state lawmakers on this subject, we have suffered a significant constitutional reallocation of lawmaking power from the lawmaking branch to the judicial branch and from the states to the federal government."
Of the Bill of Rights, Elder Oaks underscored the First Amendment. "I maintain that in our nation's founding and in our constitutional order, religious freedom, and the freedoms of speech and press associated with it in the First Amendment, are the motivating and dominating civil liberties and civil rights."
He added: "Unpopular minority religions are especially dependent upon a constitutional guarantee of free exercise of religion. ... The importance of that guarantee should make us ever diligent to defend it. And it is in need of being defended. In my lifetime, I have seen a significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion in our public life, and I believe that the vitality of religious freedom is in danger of being weakened accordingly."
Elder Oaks said the checks and balances of separated powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches help preserve independence from each other, with each fulfilling its own duties and needing to refrain from exercising the functions of the others. He had specific warnings for the judiciary.
"The courts must limit themselves to interpreting the Constitution and the laws and not stray into the legislative function of law-making. In contrast, we are all aware that in our day the actions of courts on major issues of public policy receive great attention in the media and are frequently represented and understood as the actions of those who make laws rather than those who merely interpret them."
As to the widespread dissatisfaction that courts are legislating from the bench rather than interpreting the law, Elder Oaks said "this reveals a widespread feeling that the courts are revising the moral and cultural life of the nation by making policy determinations that should be made by lawmakers in the elected branches."
He cautioned against the "politicization of state judiciaries" and judicial activism.
"In my opinion, the judicial lawmaking that has been legitimately criticized as judicial activism concerns the interpretation of state and federal constitutions. This kind of judicial action is not reversible by the popularly elected lawmakers and cannot be changed by the sovereign people, except in those unusual circumstances in which a constitutional amendment is feasible. If such judicial action sets aside laws enacted or approved by a direct vote of the people, it offends two fundamentals: separation of powers and popular sovereignty."
e-mail: taylor@desnews.com
Constitution Day
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice and law professor, outlined four major fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution and a citizen's responsibilities.
Constitutional Fundamentals
1. Popular sovereignty
2. Division of powers in a federal system
3. Bill of Rights
4. Separation of powers
Citizen Responsibilities
1. Understand the Constitution
2. Support the law
3. Practice civic virtue
4. Maintain civility in political discourse
5. Promote patriotism
To Our Dear Mia Maids
Dear Girls,
I am so excited to be called to be your new advisor. I love Young Women and I already love you...even though I don’t know you well yet. I can’t wait to get to know you and become good friends. My hope for our class is that we will be a unified group of girls that really love and care for each other and help each other through all the things in life.
This is a special time in your life to develop yourself and understand the divine nature and purpose you have. I love the values in the Young Women program because they are eternal principles that will go with you all your life. When I earned my medallion as a leader ( they didn’t have the program when I was your age), I was thrilled to be a part of something so grand. I had many good young women leaders who helped me along the path and I hope I can do that for you.
Sister Hoffmann and I wanted to give these notebooks so you could save handouts, quotes, stories, letters, or whatever we may talk about or do in our class . Then you can look at it periodically and remember all the things you have learned. I think it will be a strength to you in your life. I loved to look back at things my teachers taught me and the fun things I did as a young women. We will give you lots of things to keep and you can add your own whenever you want.
I want you to know you can call, text, facebook, twitter, link me in, email, blog...whatever me anytime. And I know Sister Hoffmann feels the same way. Although I am much older than you, I am hip to the scene with all this social networking :) ...I didn’t want to get left in the dust. My Lindsay helped figure it out a few years ago when she was a teenager. I know it is the language you speak. I want to help you however I can.
I love the gospel and I know the most important thing you can do in this life is gain a testimony and strive to follow the savior.
Love, Sister Romans
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Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism.
Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness
of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart
concerning things divine." --Gordon B. Hinckley
Dear Young Women!
What a wonderful time in your life you are in right now! I am so grateful to be able to be a small part of it. I have prayed many times for you and love you already! I have also been thinking a lot of my own teenage years, which wasn’t too long ago, and my experiences.
Looking back, I realize what comfort and strength I found in knowing that I am a daughter of a loving God. When those days came where it seemed as though the world had turned its back on me, I knew that through the power of prayer I always had a listening ear waiting to hear me and my complaints. I have such a strong testimony of that knowledge.
Our modern-day prophets have great hope, love and confidence in your abilities. They said:
“You are a beloved daughter of Heavenly Father, prepared to come to the earth at this particular time for a sacred and glorious purpose. You have the noble calling to use your strength and influence for good. Your loving Heavenly Father has blessed you with talents and abilities that will help you fulfill your divine mission. Through personal prayer, scripture study, obedience to the commandments, and service to others, you can develop these gifts.”
-The First Presidency (YW Personal Progress)
I also know what strength each of you hold and the reality of your goodness. I am constantly uplifted and strengthened by your good example. How important and amazing it is that each of us can know we are a daughter of God, loved and known individually to our Father in Heaven.
I am grateful for the young women’s program which has helped to teach me this truth. As your leader, I pray for your success and happiness and am here to be your cheerleader all along the way! I am so excited to learn together and to have some fun!
I love you!
♥Brooke Hoffmann
