If a Soldier were to disregard the 3rd Amendment, and occupy the house of a Citizen, the people would be outraged. If he were to follow the orders of a superior and execute a prisoner, they would demand his imprisonment. There is clarity in such cases, and the Soldier understands these immoral and unlawful orders may not and can not be carried out. Superiors understand that such orders will not be carried out and do not utter them. They have sworn an Oath, to protect the Constitution, and have learned when orders are Superceded by higher law.
But what of the lesser transgressions? The more ambigious legal conundrums?
The 4th Amendment guarantees the Right of Citizens to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures...."
What if a bureacrat, or law enforcement official is armed with a law which requires him to search persons and documents? What if it is the job of the bureacrat to search the documents, without a Warrant, or to search their persons without cause? To refuse would be cause for termination? Does not the legislation of Congress or the Orders of the President make lawful what the Constitution prohibits?
No, it does not become Constitutional or lawful just because Congress or the President says so, just as it would not become lawful for the Soldier to commit murder just because he was ordered to do so.
The bureacrat knows however that if he refuses an un-Constitutional order, he will be terminated. In most cases, he was hired by the government to do precisely what he is being ordered to do, though also swearing upon employment to uphold the Constitution which prohibits it. The bureacrat knows that behind him are a hundred people willing to accept those orders, for the sake of the high pay, bountiful benefits, and "safety" of a government job.
So, the bureacrat justifies, in his own mind, that the citizenry is paying him to follow the dictates of politicians, despite the Rights enumerated in the Constitution. The politicians praise the bureacrats as "public servants," even as they order them to disregard the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution, to which they have sworn to uphold.
And these abuses are accepted by the People, as recognized by the Founders themselves, in the Declaration of Independence, "that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." They further noted "that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes." In most cases, the people ignore the abuses, because they convince themselves it's only someone else abused, and often "that there's no reason to worry if you're not breaking the law."
History is replete with tyrannical governments, and the bureacrats which supported them, which subjected and are subjecting their people to far greater abuses than are our rulers, but those in power in Washington should take note that Liberty is ingrained in the DNA of the American People, that it is not a generation removed that the People would have stood up against the current dictates of Washington.
In such discussions, politicians will often point to the "will of the people" as justification for legislation which subverts the Supreme Law of the Land, but there is a reason that the Founders established a Republic, rather than a democracy. There is a reason that they established the Bill of Rights as supreme to any popular legislation by the majority of rulers in Washington, or even a Treaty signed by them.
And while the politicians claim to speak in the name of the people, they do so as they see fit, and do what they desire, regardless of the voice of the people. TARP, the UAW bailout, and ObamaCare were all opposed by the People, yet Pelosi, Obama, and Reid pushed it through anyway "so we could see what is in it." Obama claims his re-election means the people want higher taxes and more spending, though neither were on the ballot, and the people elected a House of Representatives that ran against those things.
And there is a reason that the Founders made clear in the 9th Amendment that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and in the 10th, that, "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."
The Constitution clearly delineates the authorities of the THREE (not four) branches of government. Legislative authority, as well as the power of the purse, and taxation lies with Congress. The authority to preside over that government lies with the Executive. The President is given the responsibility of running the day to day business of the government, NOT to rule the day to day lives of the People. The power to judge disputes, of law or property, lies with the judiciary. It clearly states that domestic law is the purview of State governments, while interstate and external policy belongs to the Federal Government.
The erosion of Constitutional principles began nearly as soon as the Founders established it. Alexander Hamilton himself accepted it only reluctantly, as better than the document it replaced. He worked the rest of his life to create a stronger central government, with fewer constraints. Then again, what he really wanted was a monarchy, and he knew it wasn't going to happen. It took centuries to get where we are, and would not be possible if the people themselves understood the Constitution, and the reasons for it.
The biggest blows to the Constitution came in the early 20th Century, a series of Amendments to it, which left the States with no representation in Congress, prohibited the sale of the government's primary source of funding, and established a more lucrative form of taxation. The 16th and 17th Amendments were ratified in 1913, and the 18th in 1933.
Few politicians would seriously challenge the Constitution for decades to come. Instead, Congress, with signature of the President, would use the power of the purse, to co-erce State legislation, such as helmet laws, seat belt laws, and speed limits. Because the Treasury could collect more taxes than it needed to run foreign policy, it held those dollars hostage from States that failed to bend to its will. The States became subservient to Washington, instead of the people.
But there has been no period in American History, when the rulers in Washington have so clearly flaunted their disregard for the Supreme Law of the Land. The POTUS is demanding that Congress give up the power of the purse, while he orders TSA to commit searches of persons, and the IRS to relieve the People of their earnings, if they don't buy things he wants them to buy. Congressmen of the 111th Congress have flat out stated that they will not be constrained by the Constitution, and the President has declared that "it is a flawed and outdated document." The Secretary of Defense (Panetta) flat out told Congress that the Executive Branch not only feels no compulsion to get approval for war (Syria, Libya), but that he doesn't even need (or plan) to tell them about it when he decides to bomb foreign TV stations or commit the Nation's aircraft to war.
And Bureacrats, which would demand imprisonment of a Soldier that followed orders to commit murder, face the situation to refuse un-Constitutional orders and be fired, to quit of their own accord and be replaced, or to carry out those orders, as judiciously as they can. These bureacrats, which can see the moral clarity when thinking of problems of enforcing the dictates for Hitler, Stalin, or Ahdiminijihadist, must justify to themselves that they are "only enforcing the law," as did Troops on all sides in World War II. Their very means of survival, their paycheck and livlihood, is at stake if they refuse. They are not forced to swear allegiance to "the party," but rather co-erced to pay the Union, which will be more than willing to hang out those that fail to pay, and eagerly protect those that follow their party decisions, no matter how lazy and inefficient.
I can honestly say I wouldn't want to be faced with the moral conundrum of a Federal bureacrat. I cannot honestly say how I would decide. I like to believe I'd choose to defend my Oath to the Constitution, but the threat of losing one's livlihood is one helluva threat. It's far easier to see the moral clarity from the outside looking in.
And as to the rulers in Washington, remember that Americans may one day awaken to the reality. I can only hope it will be in time to peaceably elect true Representatives, to turn back the abuses, because if Americans cannot be convinced by speech of their need to protect their Rights of Citizenship, no degree of violence will force them to re-establish those Rights, and those Rights themelves would be placed in jeopardy in a Civil War.
In the meantime, if my article of the promised land of low (State) taxes has you considering a move to the South, remember too that low taxes mean greater Liberty for your neighbor as well, and less government, that it means you can't tell your neighbor what to do on his property. It means the government won't enforce your desire to remove his old junk car, or stop him from target shooting (so long as those bullets are not ending up on your land), or make him buy something. So, if you want big government, go to San Francisco, or New York, or Chicago, where its illegal to own the means to defend yourself, and live on thee hope the Police come in time.
Down here, neighbors help each other and you're responsible for the repercussions of your own actions. Bring your snobbiness and you'll likely end up on your own, isolated and alone in a sea of Liberty. Be a good neighbor, and you'll find the meaning of "neighborly" and "Southern Hospitality." You might be awoken by a chainsaw too early in the morning, only to find the tree that fell across your driveway is just firewood, or kept up too late with legal fireworks on the night we celebrate Independence, but you're likely to be welcomed to the neighborhood with a warm Pecan Pie, and that feared phrase: "You ain't from around here, are ya?"
You may have a millionaire neighbor that wears bib overalls, an unkempt beard, and has a trailer home, but don't judge his intellect by how carefully (and slowly) he chooses his words, or how much grease is on his clothes from working on his own car. Don't judge his education by a lack of ten dollar words. You may one day appreciate his hard-working, traditional values of independence when your own car won't start. Yeah, we can get our own cars on the road down here. We don't have to wait 45 minutes for the tow truck to change the tire.