OPINION:
Among the fundamental rights secured by our Constitution is the republican guarantee clause (Article IV, Section 4), enforceable by the U.S. government.
Republican government is more than majority rule. Its key purpose is to secure the equal rights of all human beings from “nature and nature’s God,” including property rights. Supreme Court Justices have repeatedly acknowledged this right. In Justice William Patterson’s words, “the right of acquiring and possessing property and having it protected, is one of the natural inherent and unalienable rights of man.”
Socialism is not just an economic theory. It is a form of government at war with constitutional republicanism. Socialism expropriates private property, seizes the offices of government and suppresses freedoms of speech, dissent, press, assembly and religious exercise. Its collective economic plans cannot work without forcing everyone to cooperate. Socialism and diversity are opposites.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposed expropriation of that city’s private food markets and confiscation of New Yorkers’ wealth are exactly the kind of factional threat our Constitution was designed to thwart. Mr. Mamdani’s socialist plan heaps contempt on the founding principles of equality, liberty and the rule of law.
If it’s enacted, the victimized property owners should have no trouble demonstrating to federal courts that socialist property confiscation violates the Constitution’s eminent domain, due process and equal protection clauses. These rights exemplify our basic right to republican government, the whole purpose of which is to secure Americans’ natural rights against public and private tyranny.
DENNIS TETI
Professor of American political thought
Institute of World Politics
Washington
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