Rob Natelson on states defending their citizens from aliens

 Wonderful, generous scholar Rob Natelson, In “Understanding the Constitution: How States May Respond to Illegal Immagration”, The Epoch Times, shockingly used the phrase “enemies of the human race”, attributed to Emer de Vattel (d. 1767). I wanted to know more and discovered Vattel may have been defending Christian political philosophy, whether he was a believer or not. See https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/understanding-the-constitution-how-states-may-respond-to-illegal-immigration-part-iii-5561877 and consider reading the series.

Comment I posted on Epoch Times

           Lawyers and judges seem fixated on copyright and attribution. There’s bad and good. The bad is it shields them from false imposition on the public. The good is they may aid understanding by the civic faction, We the People of the United States. The bad is that not every citizen is civic. By “civic” I mean reliably responsible to the good rather than the bad in human connections and transactions. Quoting, Vattel’s 1758 phrase “exterminated wherever they are seized” without mentioning U.S. due process is not good.

            I think Natelson means well yet in human being (verb) cannot perform to the good without considering fellow citizens, including the gullible. I appreciate Natelson’s open scholarship and enlightenment to me.

But I suspected Emer de Vattel’s harshness and wondered if it was christian. In a civic rather than religious culture, statutory justice seeks to correct dissidents to the good, reform individuals who tolerate the bad, constrain habitual bad actors, and terminate evil rebels.

Believers don’t realize it, but the church, by extolling the Christ, suppresses Jesus’ civic influence, which can be found in public dialogues reported in the Holy Bible. For example, Jesus told Pilate that rather than to be king, he came to witness to the truth (John 18:37). I think in each generation, civic people reflect Jesus, some without citing Jesus’ political philosophy.

            Thanks to Natelson’s light, I located Vattel’s The Law of Nations and found another quote: “. . . all nations have a right to enter into a league against such a people, to repress them, and to treat them as the common enemies of the human race. The christian nations would be no less justifiable in forming a confederacy against the states of Barbary . . .” Vattel may not have been a Christian yet wrote in its defense.

            With that, I searched for parallel thought in the Bible and found 1 Thessalonians 2:14-17, Complete Jewish Bible, “. . . you suffered the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Judeans who both killed the Lord Yeshua and the prophets, and chased us out too. They are displeasing God and opposing all mankind . . .”. Paul seems a founder of anti-Semitism. Paul’s antithesis, James, seems a Semite. I question “Complete Jewish Bible”: it could be “Compete Hebrew Bible”, in order to aid Semitism to its people.

            In my eighth decade, I appreciate chemical engineering education for imposing on me the edict: Make certain equipment you specify cannot blow up or threaten the public. Law schools may and can teach a similar thought: make certain nothing you express misleads the republic. Civic success is impossible without intention to the good.

Continuing to ponder, I posted opinion about free expression on Facebook, as follows:

Today, into the year 2024, U.S. lessons on free speech recall Louisiana’s excellence. Its Declaration of Rights includes “Section 7. No law shall curtail or restrain the freedom of speech or of the press. Every person may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on any subject, but is responsible for abuse of that freedom.” The U.S. Amendment I should do so well.

Louisiana subtly turns freedom, traditional political-fantasy, into responsibility: the impossible into the possible. Some lawyers and judges, for example Donald Trump accusers, are experiencing Louisiana wisdom as I write.

In actual reality, freedom is impossible, because the laws of physics control the consequences of human choice. The person who chooses not to earn their bread eats whatever the public offers. Law that does not pursue statutory justice invites ruin. The person who claims to be theGod better not get cut and bleed. Congress claims its freedom of religion with no humility to theGod.

U.S. responsible independence rests with the civic faction, We the People of the United States. But not every citizen is civic. By “civic” I mean reliably responsible to the good rather than the bad in human connections and transactions. The U.S. constitutional republic is losing to democracy, because many citizens fancy freedom rather than independence. Tradition imposes freedom’s chimera each Independence Day: our God and our government will take care of you.

In my ninth decade, I appreciate chemical engineering education for imposing on me the edict: Make certain equipment you specify cannot blow up or threaten the public. Law schools may and can teach a similar thought: make certain nothing you express misleads the republic.

Success is impossible without the intention to take responsibility to the good rather than the bad in every choice. Freedom is no substitute for independence. 

#USpreambler

Copyright©2024 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.