I have added a sample “Declaration of Rights” that might serve as a model for a future such bill of rights for the United States.  The “Sample Declaration” can be found in the Reading Room for your reading pleasure.  I attempted to address all the failures of our current government regarding the protection and advancement of our rights and liberties, which is why the document is so long.  This is what we the people have coming to us, though, and have had coming for some time, even if it’s been denied.  Only collective mass political action can make it real.

This is a sample declaration of rights that includes all the minimum of rights that ought to be presumed by democratic peoples today.  The document is extensive, because the list of rights and liberties denied by the United States to its citizens is extensive.  The extent of our explicit rights and duties are derived from the means by which human freedom – our sole, original right – encounters the changing conditions of specific societies.  The social union has to account for changes in, say, the technological basis of the society that it unites.  What I’m saying is, we have to put “no killer robots” in our constitutions.  That’s the world we live in.

Language found in the Declaration has been taken from many sources, primarily the many international conventions on human rights, other national constitutions, and existing laws expanding constitutional rights and liberties.  The section on “The Rights of Victims of Crime,” for example, is taken from existing “victims’ rights” legislation found in many US state constitutions.  Also, the material concerning law enforcement has been inspired by the work of conservative Jon Roland, of the Constitution Society.  Finally, I have used the phrase “Public Power” as a stand-in for the totality of various governments in the Union, whether federal, state, or local.  All of these governments have the responsibility for executing these rights, so I used a term that would not distinguish between them.