Topic: Law, Matches 48 quotes.

Influence In The Americas

I suppose you brethren will all know, but I will recall it to your attention, that the Constitution of the United States is the basic law for all of the Americas, or Zion, as it has been defined by the Lord.

You brethren from Canada know that, your great British North America Act, in its fundamental principles, is based upon our Constitution, and you know that in the courts of Canada, the reports of our Supreme Court, and our Federal courts generally, are just as persuasive as the decisions of the courts of England, and even more so, where questions of constitutional law and constitutional interpretation are involved.

Now, I am not caring today, for myself, anything at all about a political party tag. So far as I am concerned, I want to know what the man stands for. I want to know if he believes in the Constitution; if he believes in its free institutions; if he believes in its liberties, its freedom. I want to know if he believes in the Bill of Rights. I want to know if he believes in the separation of sovereign power into the three great divisions: the Legislative, the Judicial, the Executive. I want to know if he believes in the mutual independence of these, the one from the other. When I find out these things, then I know who it is who should receive my support, and I care not what his party tag is, because, brethren, if we are to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship as we are worshipping here today, we must have the great guarantees that are set up by our Constitution. There is no other way in which we can secure these guarantees. You may look at the systems all over the world where the principles of our Constitution are not controlling and in force, and you will find there dictatorship, tyranny, oppression, and, in the last analysis, slavery.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1942

Topics: Law; Politics

You brethren also know that from the Rio Grande down to the Horn there is no constitutional government except those that are founded primarily upon our own Constitution. In Mexico the revolutionary party which more than a century and a quarter ago rebelled against the king of Spain and established a republic, copied almost verbatim, and practically overnight, our Constitution, and made it their own. Neither Mexico nor the others to the South interpret their Constitutions as we interpret ours. They have different standards and different canons of interpretation, for their fundamental system is the civil law, while ours is the common law. But the great essentials of that document, the Constitution of the United States, which God Himself inspired, is the law of Zion, the Americas.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1942

Topics: America, Example; Law; US Constitution

The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our Legislature (the Congress). A noiseless course not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness.

[About the number of laws added to the federal register in 1801.]

Source: Thomas Jefferson

Topics: Government, Good; Government, Purpose; Law

Law must be sustained

In a republic, the government has the sovereign right as well as the duty to protect the rights of the individual and to settle civil disputes or disorders by peaceful means. Citizens do not have the right to take the law into their own hands or exercise physical force. The sovereign laws of the state must be sustained, and persons living under those laws must obey them for the good of the whole. In this regard The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes a strong position. One of the fundamental tenets of its faith is clearly stated in these words: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” (Article of Faith 12.)

Those in the world who have a belief in God live under the unusual circumstances of a dual sovereignty. In addition to being subject to the supreme power of the state, they have a fealty to God and a solemn duty to keep the commandments given by him. This idea of divine kingship and a sovereignty runs through all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament.

Source: Elder Howard W. Hunter
General Conference, April 1968

Topics: Christianity; Law; Republic

Power of government derived from will of the people

As you know, the government of the United States is a republic. The genius of this form of government is that the foundation of all law, power, and authority is derived from the will of the people.

Such a government is based upon a written constitution, which provides for three divisions of government: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, each independent of the others, having certain powers within prescribed limitations through a “built in” system of checks and balances, in order that the rights and freedoms of the people may be insured.

The leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have taught its members ever since its organization to honor and respect the Constitution of the United States as well as the men who brought it forth and who were patriots indeed!

Joseph Smith described the constitution as a “heavenly banner,” a “glorious standard.”

Source: Elder ElRay L. Christiansen
General Conference, October 1967

Topics: Law; Republic

Government of Laws

One of our great United States Senators had this to say regarding the laws of the land:

“It is a form of anarchy to say that a person need not comply with a particular statute with which he disagrees. Ours is a government of laws, not men, and our system cannot tolerate the philosophy that obedience to law rests on the personal likes or dislikes of any individual citizen whether he supports or opposes the statute in question.” (Senator Richard Russell of Georgia.)

Source: Elder Thorpe B. Isaacson
General Conference, October 1964

Topics: Government, Forms of; Law

The government of the United States has passed through many crises since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. The one hundred and forty-seven years of our national existence have witnessed times of serious political struggles; periods of social and economic strife and unrest. The World War left the nations of the world with intricate problems. The largest armies of all history had marched to battle, and nations were put to the test of preserving their integrity. Kings and emperors were dethroned; governments were overthrown, and political life came to be anything but the thoughtful study of the science of government. In our own country particularly, laws have been enacted by state legislatures and Congress that have little bearing on the economic and social questions of the day, and as a result, we are lost in a veritable chaos of laws that are never enforced, and which have helped to bring about a disregard for law and order.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Law; War

I now appeal to you and to all other good citizens to unite and help enforce the laws which have been enacted for the regulation of the liquor traffic. I appeal for the election to office in every branch of our government those who live in accordance with the law and those who favor its enforcement. Will you be good citizens and go to the primaries and to the polls and help as best you can to see to it that no one is elected to public office who owes allegiance to the liquor traffic or to any of its allied evils?

Source: Elder Richard R. Lyman
General Conference, October 1935

Topics: Law; Prohibition; Voting

Ten Thousand Commandments

The breakup of the leading integrated companies and the divorce, divestiture, or dissolution of the biggest producers and distributors, whether integrated or not, is a luxury the country cannot afford. Its “great concentrations of economic power” in American industry are more essential to the nation’s defense than its great concentrations of administrative power in Washington.

The new interpretations of the antitrust laws endanger the political structure of the country. They disintegrate the law, making it a respecter of persons, which tends to be no law at all. They upset the balance of power between Congress and the courts, by judicial legislation, which is a usurpation of Congress’ role. Whatever “power” they take away from business organizations will not revert to the people but is automatically being appropriated by government agencies.

Source: Harold Fleming
The Freeman, January 1993, p.18

Topics: Government, Loss of Freedom; Law

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