I’ve been told that my platform (the Indiana Constitution) is too long to read.
I withheld my anger very nicely. Nobody got hurt.
But my friends, there is no shortcut. And the Indiana Constitution, flawed as it is, is a whole lot shorter than any bill written in the last hundred years. You can’t buy any prescription medicine without seeing a lot more legalistic mumbo jumbo than is contained in the laws that, by the way, protect you.
Sigh.
What follows are excerpts from the Indiana Constitution in red, with my comments in black. This constitution, along with the federal constitution to which the Governor also swears an oath of support, is the law that literally authorizes every aspect and level of government. No law can contravene it, and no politician can legally disobey it. It can be amended, but it is to be obeyed as written. No “interpretations” from the bench. No debating the meaning of the word “is.” No ifs, ands or buts.
Read it yourself. The whole constitution is at www.horningforgovernor.com. Read it in context. You judge.
The Indiana Constitution constitutes the entire platform for the Horning for Governor campaign. It is what, sadly, makes my campaign unique. It shouldn’t be so unique, but I am the only candidate standing for the law. Others advocate continued lawbreaking by politicians. It’s that simple, really.
You see, politicians have no interest in constitutions if you don’t. All constitutions are intended to govern politicians, not you. Just as you’d never expect a bad dog to beg for a leash, you’ll never get politicians to willingly accept limits to their power over you. It’s up to you to restrain their power with this law.
There is no shortcut. No other “solutions” will work. We must govern our government. We must make politicians obey written laws, as written.
Over the past hundred years our politicians have strayed so far from their legal boundaries that our servants have become our masters, and the history of that is well known, and very bad.
In reading the following, keep in mind that our ancestors knew that politics is inherently violent. Nothing related to “government” happens without at least the threat of violence. The IRS doesn’t pass the hat and say “please;” and you could get killed if you resist an arrest for a seatbelt violation. Don’t forget this. It is the reason we have constitutions …and make politicians swear to obey them.
One more note: Lots of people agree with my thoughts on the constitution. Yet I’ve been asked, “but how can we comply with the constitutions after drifting so far away from them?”
I know this is a paradigm shift, but the answer is staring you in the face. If our politicians decide to go to war, then we go to war in a sudden, outrageously expensive fit of violence. It doesn’t matter how much it hurts. So why is it so hard to imagine suddenly doing what is proven to work – proven to promote peace, justice, prosperity and civility?
We can enforce the constitution. It can happen in one Election Day. The first step is to want to.
Should God choose to put me in the Governor’s office, I would put legislators on notice as soon as possible after I take the oath “to support the Constitution of this State, and of the United States.” I will enforce the constitutions as written. No more, no less. No fudging or cheating. No more of that.
ARTICLE 1. Bill of Rights
Section 2. All people shall be secured in the natural right to worship ALMIGHTY GOD, according to the dictates of their own consciences.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
Let us be clear and truthful. The freedom guaranteed in writing here is “to worship ALMIGHTY GOD”; well-understood at the time this was written to be the Judeo-Christian God of Abraham. We have no specified right to worship the sun, a flag, money, basketball, Horus, or politicians. We have no such enumerated constitutional rights.
Read the constitutions (state and federal) and you’ll see that have no enumerated rights to pledge allegiance to a flag, to wash our cars or to play baseball. These are rights nonetheless under our constitutions because, as you’ll see, government has no power over us not specifically granted by written constitutions.
I’ll repeat because this is important. We do have the right to worship statues and such because these rights are not specifically denied. We, the people, own all rights and powers not taken away from us in writing. You’ll see this written more clearly later.
This is a critical point. It is the whole purpose of constitutions to establish the written, guaranteed, absolute limits of political power, not to describe the limits of your rights.
ARTICLE 1. Section 9. No law shall be passed, restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print, freely, on any subject whatever: but for the abuse of that right, every person shall be responsible.
Note that there are no provisos or amendments related to speech in airports, “free speech zones,” or any allowable limitations on our right to speak, write or print freely. All limitations on our freedom to thus communicate are illegal usurpations of our rights.
ARTICLE 1. Section 11. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search or seizure, shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.
Is there anything unclear about this? Ponder to what degree this is flouted daily. A wide variety of officials from IRS, BATF, child and fire protection “services” believe they can kick in your door and/or snoop on you without warrant or probable cause. These government agents are, according to this written law, criminals.
ARTICLE 1. Section 12. All courts shall be open; and every person, for injury done to him in his person, property, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law. Justice shall be administered freely, and without purchase; completely, and without denial; speedily, and without delay.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
A growing number of bureaucracies have their own legislative, executive and judicial powers like the IRS, DCS and, of course “Homeland Security.” These bureaucracies illegally trample this section every minute of every day.
Also note that “Justice shall be administered freely, and without purchase.” The words and meaning are clear. Justice isn’t to be an arms race of money and influence. Justice is to be at least as free as the tuition-free Common Schools in Article 8, which doesn’t guarantee a free education (hence the extra cost to parents for books); it mandates only that tuition is paid out of the public purse. But justice is to be free! It is criminal how we’ve perverted this.
ARTICLE 1. Section 19. In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts.
This section gives citizens the power to judge laws. Judges, you’ll note, are never granted that power over the constitution. Don’t let anyone tell you, as a juror, what you can and can’t do. You, as a juror, have more power over the case at hand, the law, and the facts, than does anyone else in the courtroom.
ARTICLE 1. Section 21. No person’s particular services shall be demanded, without just compensation. No person’s property shall be taken by law, without just compensation; nor, except in case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
There’s a good argument that income tax violates this section (and also the prohibition against forced testimony against yourself). But the “just compensation” clause here is, without any doubt, important when considering eminent domain and tax seizure practices.
ARTICLE 1. Section 22. The privilege of the debtor to enjoy the necessary comforts of life, shall be recognized by wholesome laws, exempting a reasonable amount of property from seizure or sale, for the payment of any debt or liability hereafter contracted: and there shall be no imprisonment for debt, except in case of fraud.
Lots of people do prison time for tax debt though no constitution allows this. An uncountable number of residences are taken for taxes, though no constitution allows this. And beside the aforementioned principle of many citizen rights and few government powers, this section of the Indiana Constitution specifically prohibits such abuse of citizens and their property.
How can there be “just compensation” (Section 21) for taking a home; particularly when the taking itself is illegal? How do we justify taking taxes for the Colts/Pacers/foreign corporations/endless whatevers when people lose their homes and life-time (in prison) to taxation? What a crime!
ARTICLE 1. Section 23. The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.
…So how come so many people and corporations get special privileges and immunities? We use tax policy, in ugly particular, to give special people special deals all the time. We use subsidies and handouts to discriminate between those we favor, and those we do not favor. This is all illegal!
ARTICLE 1. Section 25. No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.
“…except as provided in this Constitution.” This one is absolutely critical, so let’s deconstruct the wording a bit for clarity.
“No law shall be passed…except” means that there cannot, legally, be any law written excepting the proviso of this law, “authority…as provided in this Constitution.” This is an unusual linguistic construction, so I’ll rephrase this in what I think is an accurate summary: For any law to be itself legal, its powers over us must be restrained to only the authority granted by this constitution. Another way to say it could be, No law can be written that depends upon authority not specifically granted by this constitution. Compare this to the federal Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In essence, both laws affirm, once again, that constitutions allow only the powers specifically granted in writing, and deny all others. There is, in other words, no authority outside of what has been authorized by the constitutions, as written.
Constitutions are the written warrants of violent power. If they are to have any effect at all in securing our lives, liberties and property, they are to be obeyed, as written. That is the law. It is law that protects us from tyranny. Breaking that law is a very serious crime.
ARTICLE 1. Section 26. The operation of the laws shall never be suspended, except by the authority of the General Assembly.
This further clarifies the above, again, that the constitution is the law, and remains in effect, whole, unless entirely suspended. Either we have Rule of Law, or we have Rule of Tyrants, in other words. The General Assembly wrote in its authority to become tyrannical, but it must be done legally! In still other words, either you’ve got all your legally guaranteed rights, or you’ve got none of them.
ARTICLE 1. Section 32. The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.
“The people shall have a right to bear arms...” This is unequivocal. No limitations are stated anywhere in this constitution; therefore none are allowed.
ARTICLE 1. Section 37. There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, within the State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
This use of “involuntary servitude” preceded the existence of income tax and even child support rules, so therefore means exactly and literally what it says. There was a time when our founders considered income tax/ garnishment as, in fact, involuntary servitude. After all, one literally submits one’s labor to the state through direct income taxation. Do we need to amend this section? Be careful. As ever-more taxation is forcibly extracted from us (some estimates put the total cost of politics to be over 60% of our GDP), our place in the spectrum between serfdom (where serfs paid one day in seven to their masters) and slavery (total submission) is heading the wrong way fast.
ARTICLE 2. Section 6. Every person shall be disqualified from holding office, during the term for which he may have been elected, who shall have given or offered a bribe, threat, or reward, to procure his election.
Oh my. Special favors are the fuel of the major parties. It’d be hard work to chase down and prosecute all of these criminals. But it would be wholesome fun.
ARTICLE 2. Section 9. No person holding a lucrative office or appointment under the United States or under this State is eligible to a seat in the General Assembly; and no person may hold more than one lucrative office at the same time, except as expressly permitted in this Constitution. Offices in the militia to which there is attached no annual salary shall not be deemed lucrative.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
In other words, you can’t be a member of the General Assembly if you’ve got a side job anywhere in government. However, lots of public school teachers, police and paid fire department employees (government employees) hold office and thus have inherent conflicts of interest related to their power and position. And while Indiana does not mandate an integrated bar (requiring that lawyers be members of a Bar Association), lawyers are agents of government with special privileges and immunities (see Article 7, Section 4).
I’ve said that lawyers are to law what firemen are to fire, and I believe that’s typically true. But it is even more true that lawyer-lawmakers are inherently the “fox guarding the henhouse” when it comes to conflicts of interest and dual office within government.
Voters don’t seem to care; but legally, this is a problem.
ARTICLE 2. Section 10. No person who may hereafter be a collector or holder of public moneys, shall be eligible to any office of trust or profit, until he shall have accounted for, and paid over, according to law, all sums for which he may be liable.
In other words, you can’t benefit from political largesse and hold office. As with Section 9, this section is very problematic. Since government has grown into such a tentacled behemoth, we have lots of officeholders who collect and hold tax money in the form of corporate subsidies/tax privileges/immunities. This creates inherent conflicts of interest, obviously. I wish voters stopped this, but it is also unconstitutional, and Indiana Governors swear an oath to act accordingly.
ARTICLE 3. Section 1. The powers of the Government are divided into three separate departments; the Legislative, the Executive including the Administrative, and the Judicial: and no person, charged with official duties under one of these departments, shall exercise any of the functions of another, except as in this Constitution expressly provided.
Each of the three (only three; no bureaucratic branch) branches therefore has legally limited, unique powers and is divided against the others such that no branch gains too much power. We’ve certainly messed up this one. Our judges and Governors make law, our legislators and judges take executive power, and our Governors don’t execute the constitutions at all. And bureaucracies transcend all branches. As Governor I’d fix this on Day One.
ARTICLE 4. Section 19. An act, except an act for the codification, revision or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject and matters properly connected therewith.
(As Amended November 8, 1960 November 5. 1974).
“An act… shall be confined to one subject…” Do you suppose any legislator, or any Governor, has read this preceding law? Have you read a bill lately? Almost all bills become trundling dreadnaughts laden with unrelated pork, power and privilege such that you can hardly tell what the original law was supposed to do. I would never sign such criminal nonsense into law, nor would I allow enforcement of such lawless law.
ARTICLE 4. Section 20. Every act and joint resolution shall be plainly worded, avoiding, as far as practicable, the use of technical terms.
Ditto much of my preceding comment. “Plainly worded” means understandable without lawyers, decoder rings or judges.
ARTICLE 5. Section 12. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and may call out such forces, to execute the laws, or to suppress insurrection, or to repel invasion.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
This is clearly not as we’ve been taught since the “federal” government stole so much power from states. The Governor has real power! We must keep it on a leash.
ARTICLE 5. Section 16. The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
(As Amended November 6, 1984).
This is what I am all about. I will do Section 16 vigorously, and to the letter, in frustration of the wicked.
ARTICLE 8. Section 1. Knowledge and learning, general diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it should be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific, and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall without charge, and equally open to all.
When this constitution was written, Common Schools were well understood to be the uniform (identical; same quality everywhere) and simple system of education promoted by Horace Mann as the “ladder of opportunity” putting poor kids on the same level as rich kids. Ergo the state, non-local funding of such schools (see below). Only by making identical schools funded equally across rich and poor areas would this make any sense at all given the generally bad nature of political education. Now, as you know, we have a local/state hybrid that’s anything but equal and/or uniform. Rich kids obviously get better schools; only now it’s with poor folks’ tax dollars; and all schools are now run by politicians and unions, making them an international embarrassment.
And perversely, we make parents pay for books, yet we make taxpayers pay for exotic sporting facilities, cafeterias and other non-educational claptrap that’d make Horace Mann spin in his grave.
This is all so terribly criminal, with such grave, lasting consequences, that I’d make righting this wrong a very top priority.
ARTICLE 8. Section 2. The Common School fund shall consist of the Congressional Township fund, and the lands belonging thereto;
The Surplus Revenue fund;
…The Bank Tax fund, and the fund arising from the one hundred and fourteenth section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana;
…Taxes on the property of corporations, that may be assessed by the General Assembly for common school purposes.
No personal property tax allowed.
I’ll repeat.
No personal property taxation is authorized for these Common Schools. There goes half of your property tax bill. But this also refers to a State Bank of Indiana, an artifact of Andrew Jackson’s defeat of the central, national bank. We really should discuss central banking sometime…but not just yet.
ARTICLE 8. Section 3. The principal of the Common School fund shall remain a perpetual fund, which may be increased, but shall never be diminished; and the income thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of Common Schools, and to no other purpose whatever.
There was to be an inviolable trust (Section 7) to pay for all this, and we don’t have one.
ARTICLE 10. Section 1. (a) The General Assembly shall provide, by law, for a uniform and equal rate of property assessment and taxation and shall prescribe regulations to secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, both real and personal. The General Assembly may exempt from property taxation any property in any of the following classes:
This article is awful and should be scrapped. It’s almost unenforceable (uniform and equal rate of property assessment can only be zero), and the “just valuation” clause renders the tax impossible because of the state’s illegal spending. As Governor I could enforce only a property tax rate of zero. Only that would fit the letter of this law.
ARTICLE 10. Section 5. No law shall authorize any debt to be contracted, on behalf of the State, except in the following cases: to meet casual deficits in the revenue; to pay the interest on the State Debt; to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or, if hostilities be threatened, provide for the public defense.
Deficits in revenue are not the same as deficits in desired spending! And bureaucracies do not transcend this law! Most of our government debt is therefore illegal, no matter how it is described. See Article 13.
ARTICLE 11. Section 3. If the General Assembly shall enact a general banking law, such law shall provide for the registry and countersigning, by an officer of State, of all paper credit designed to be circulated as money; and ample collateral security, readily convertible into specie, for the redemption of the same in gold or silver, shall be required; which collateral security shall be under the control of the proper officer or officers of State.
It would require legislation, of course, but I’d love to see a debt-free currency issued in competition/replacement of Federal Reserve Notes. I can only suggest, however, as the Governor has no power to create such an alternative currency.
However, I could insist upon citizens’ right to barter using whatever unit of barter it chooses (such as the “Liberty Dollar” which was illegally banned and stolen in Indiana by our “federal” government agents).
ARTICLE 11. Section 12. The State shall not be a stockholder in any bank; nor shall the credit of the State ever be given, or loaned, in aid of any person, association or corporation; nor shall the State become a stockholder in any corporation or association.
(As amended November 6, 1984).
“…Nor shall the credit of the State ever be given, or loaned, in aid of any person, association or corporation…” Read that a few times until it sinks in that all the credit, perks, loans, subsidies and tax breaks given to foreign corporations, sports teams, mall builders, politicians and the like…are illegal!
ARTICLE 11. Section 13. Corporations, other than banking, shall not be created by special act, but may be formed under general laws.
Most people don’t know that corporations are government (not business) entities created to oppose the inherent accountability of a free market. I make this point because when you hear the phrase “unregulated free market” you’re hearing ignorant blather. Regulations (including licensing) are almost always created to favor the politically connected, not the meek, poor and underserved. It is political regulations, not the lack thereof, that cause havoc and crime.
ARTICLE 13. Section 1. No political or municipal corporation in this State shall ever become indebted, in any manner or for any purpose, to an amount, in the aggregate, exceeding two per centum on the value of the taxable property within such corporation, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and county taxes, previous to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all bonds or obligations, in excess of such amount, given by such corporations, shall be void: Provided, That in time of war, foreign invasion, or other great public calamity, on petition of a majority of the property owners in number and value, within the limits of such corporation, the public authorities in their discretion, may incur obligation necessary for the public protection and defense to such amount as may be requested in such petition.
(As Amended March 14, 1881).
This would be a joke if it weren’t so sad. The phrase, “to an amount, in the aggregate,” apparently has no meaning to the increasing number of bureaucracies, each of whom believe they’re entitled to encumber taxpayers with their own 2% debt load. Well, such obligations are void, and I would be quick to act on this. Day one.
ARTICLE 15. Section 4. Every person elected or appointed to any office under this Constitution, shall, before entering on the duties thereof, take an oath or affirmation, to support the Constitution of this State, and of the United States, and also an oath of office.
“…take an oath or affirmation, to support the Constitution of this State, and of the United States…” I’d be the first Governor to honor this oath in a very, very long time. Please look again at the preceding. The oath is to both state and federal constitutions. This is no typo. It is serious and very important. To the state’s chief Executive, the phrase “to support” does not mean wave pom-poms and throw confetti. It means to defend, enforce, to execute as law.
There’s nothing in the constitution to grant the state any authority over businesses (in licensure, rules, etc.) or individuals (our consumer choices, property, behaviors) that amount to so much cost, hassle and lost liberties as we now endure. You may have been surprised by the detail in matters of school funding or banking policy…but there is no mention at all of DCS or roadblocks or wiretapping. There is a reason for that. Such powers are prohibited by law.
Whatever is not specifically granted is completely denied.
So, when your money is taken for spending never allowed by the preceding constitution, it’s theft. Your rights are taken without any legal basis at all. Most of what government does to us is illegal. That is crime committed against you, the State of Indiana, the nation of the United States of America, and against the ideology and wisdom of our wisest predecessors.
All of that would stop should you choose to enforce the constitutions and Rule of Law for which so many Americans fought and died.
If you choose to vote for any other candidate, you will not get the benefits of law and order under this constitution. That is fact. If you vote for me, you would at least have a chance to live under the constitutions, with the peace, prosperity and liberty proven to follow.
It is your choice. Choose wisely.
Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, et al., and of course Hitler (yes, he was a socialist – that’s why the original salute to the flag was replace by the hand over the heart) slightly tarnished the gleam on this Brave New World Order, but our government is now far more authoritarian than founding-fathers libertarian. Even after repeated, inevitable failures of true socialism, it seems that Chinese Communist Party-style socialism (maybe even under the control of the CCP?) is the direction we’re headed. We are, in other words, more 1984 than 1776.
We Declare 