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If anyone can explain this to me, I would appreciate it. I am not trying to judge these people. I simply do not understand how they justify this. Mind you, I am only commenting on the issue of their driving, not their convictions in general.
Your comments are wonderful. However, we perish for a lack of knowledge. We know that we are to be subject to the ruling authorities. From the very beginning of all of this, I have had to try to discern how to obey God and man when their edicts conflict. I have had to come to know the ruling authority to which I must be subject.
In Virginia, the Governor is not king, the Court is not king and the General Assembly is not king. In Virginia, Lex Rex (law is king). In reality, God is King. God is the creator and author of law. Those who founded our government understood this perfectly. It is reflected in the Constitution and the Code of Virginia. We have formed our government to administer law (God’s law), to maintain order among each of us who will naturally tend to factions, and to secure our liberties. The end of government is justice (James Madison, Federalist Papers #51). To administer justice is to promote rights and to vanquish wrongs. Read Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England.
In Virginia, the law is to whom I am subject. Likewise, the law is to whom the magistrate is subject. Under the law of Virginia, you and I are obligated to ensure our servant the magistrate is acting in subjection to the governing authority; namely, the law. Va. Const., Art. 1, §2.
You stated that driving an automobile is merely a privilege and not a common right. Is it? By what authority? By the authority of the opinion of the uneducated majority? To whom should we look? We look to the governing authority - the law.
In Thompson v. Smith, 155 Va. 367 (1940), the Virginia Supreme Court discovered and declared the rule of law in this issue when automobiles still shared the roads with the horse and buggy.
"Citizen's right to travel upon public highways and transport his property thereon in ordinary course of life and business is a common right. The right of a citizen so to do is that which he has under his right to enjoy life and liberty, to acquire property, and to pursue happiness and safety." See Va. Const., Art. 1, §1. The Court went on to say: "Citizen's right to travel upon public highways includes right to use usual conveyances of time, including horse-drawn carriage, or automobile, for ordinary purposes of life and business."
Also - "Citizen's right to travel upon public highway and use usual conveyances in so doing is not mere privilege which city may permit or prohibit at will."
This being so, it is yet self evident that not everyone ought to be able to drive an automobile on the public highways absolutely. Permitting a blind person to move a 3,000 lb object down the road at 50 mph is certainly wrong. Thus, the General Assembly came to the conclusion at some time to enact Code of Virginia, §46.2-300, making it a crime to drive without a license. Yet, since using the conveyance of the time on the public highways is a right, the General Assembly may only regulate the activity applying restrictions upon those who would endanger the health, safety or morals of their neighbors. In fact, the General Assembly has enacted other statutes that define those things that disqualify a citizen from the "right" to drive. Identification with a Social Security Number is not one of those disqualifiers. See what the Court said in the Thompson v. Smith case before the “driving” police power was centralized in the Department of Motor Vehicles:
"City, in regulating, under police power, citizen's right to travel upon public streets, may not arbitrarily or unreasonably prohibit or restrict it, nor permit one, and refuse another of like qualifications, under like conditions, to exercise it."
And - "Cities may regulate exercise of right to drive private automobile on streets by granting, refusing, and revoking permits, but only under rules of general application. Such permits may not be arbitrarily refused or revoked or permitted to be held by some and refused to others of like qualifications, under like circumstances and conditions."
What is my responsibility when the licensing Commissioner, our servant who is subject to the governing authority, violates the law which is king? It is my duty to vanquish, by the swiftest and surest means, the wrong that is being perpetrated by the maleficent public servant. I have a duty to my posterity and to my fellow citizens who may not have the foresight or fortitude to save themselves from wrongful subjugation. How do I do it? In my case, rightfully so, I went to the law.
In Alexandria v. Texas Co., 172 Va. 209 (1939): "A state cannot grant a privilege subject to the agreement that the grantee will surrender a constitutional right, even in those cases where the state has the unqualified power to withhold the grant altogether, and where such a condition is imposed upon the grantee, he may ignore or enjoin the enforcement of the condition without thereby losing the grant."
In Virginia, an act of the General Assembly or of a bureaucrat is not valid if it is contrary to the governing authority – the law. The citizen is not bound to obey, or to subject themselves, to a lawless edict. In fact, see the law of Virginia to determine who is the criminal in this particular instance. (Code of Va., §57-1 & 2) http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+57-1 & §57-2
In my case, I have two courses of action. I can ignore or enjoin the enforcement of the law. To enjoin the enforcement, I need lots of money to pay a lawyer. I tried to take action in the Circuit Court without a lawyer, since I have no money, but Judge Taylor of the Hampton Circuit Court treated me like dirt. He said I was not a lawyer and he would not let me practice law in his court. He refused to let me submit a pleading in writing, to submit documentation of the law, to submit evidence or to call the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles as a witness. He blatantly, and joyously, violated the Virginia Constitution and statute provisions regarding due process. The Circuit Court hearing was a humiliating sham. My only other option is to carry on smartly, exercising the right (not a wrong) to travel the public highways using the conveyance of the time. If I were blind, I would not do it. It would no longer be a "right", but a "wrong".
Was it a “wrong” for Rosa Parks to sit in the front of the bus? Her refusal to tolerate injustice righted many wrongs for future generations. Subjecting yourself to governing men is not necessarily subjecting yourself to the governing authority. In Virginia, we have a higher authority than men. We have also have a higher duty.
We often hear that American men are paying the ultimate price, dying, overseas for our freedom. Yet, it seems that nobody at home is willing to even live to retain our liberty. We tend to partner with lawlessness under the guise of being subject to the ruling authorities. It is not noble, it is complacent. If I am to be accused of being lawless, please, for the sake of hypocrisy, never again praise the names of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry nor sing patriotic songs on July 4th Sunday services. If our land is not the home of the brave, it shall not be the home of the free.
In the King’s service,
David Alan Carmichael
acls@christianliberty.org