Steve Englander

Chief Governance Systems Architect, Founder @UnitedStatesLab 🇺🇸

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

At the foundation of the system are the people themselves. Each person holds sovereignty, not as an isolated ruler issuing commands, but as a participant in a shared political order. Sovereignty at this level is inherent and distributed. It does not originate from any institution. It exists prior to the system and gives rise to it.

From citizen sovereignty emerges the governance system. This system is written, structured, and defined. It specifies how authority is created, how it is exercised, and how it may be improved over time. In the American context, this system is expressed through the U.S. Constitution and its amendment process.

The governance system is not law. It is the framework that makes law possible. It defines offices, powers, procedures, and limits. It establishes how representation is formed, how officials are selected through election or appointment, and how the system itself can be revised. It is the mechanism through which the distributed sovereignty of the people becomes actionable in a coordinated form.

Within the governance system, representation provides the means by which sovereignty is expressed in practice. Citizens do not issue rules individually. Instead, they authorize representatives through elections and other processes defined by the system. These representatives act within defined roles and carry delegated authority.

Representation is the bridge between sovereignty and law. It ensures that the exercise of power remains connected to the people while operating through structured institutions.

Law is created within the governance system through the mechanisms of representation. Legislatures enact statutes. Executives participate in the formation and execution of law as defined by the system. Courts interpret and apply law in particular cases.

Law derives its legitimacy from its origin within this structured process. It is valid when it is produced according to the rules of the governance system. Because it is created within that system, it may also be amended, repealed, or replaced through the same processes.

Law is not the source of authority. It is an expression of authority operating within a defined system.

Rules are the most immediate expressions of law in operation. They guide conduct in specific situations. They include statutes as applied, administrative regulations, and judgments rendered in cases.

Rules originate from the exercise of authority within the system, but their validity depends on their connection to law, and through law, to governance, and through governance, to the sovereign people.

Distinct from all other layers are rights. Rights are inherent to the people and exist prior to the governance system. They are not created by law, and they do not depend on institutional processes for their existence.

Rights define the space within which the entire system operates. The governance system is designed with reference to them. Law is formed within boundaries that reflect them. Rules operate within the limits they establish.

Rights serve as the standard by which the use of power is evaluated. They remain constant as law evolves through the processes of governance.

Citizen Sovereignty provides the source of authority. The Governance System specifies how that authority is structured and exercised. Representation expresses that authority through institutions. Law is produced within those institutions. Rules apply law in concrete situations. Rights define the boundaries within which the entire system operates.

The clarity and durability of the system depend on maintaining the distinctions between these layers and preserving the relationships among them. Because sovereignty resides in the people, citizens are the only participants with an original stake in governance.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@StephenM A thought experiment using an edge case to test the limiting principle of a constitutional interpretation.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@StephenM Reductio ad absurdum

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

The Constitution is the governance specification. Courts are delegated validators charged with interpreting and applying that specification, not rewriting it. When interpretation becomes indistinguishable from amendment, the Judiciary has moved beyond adjudication and into governance. The President's oath is to faithfully execute the Constitution, not to faithfully execute Supreme Court opinions.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@SeanCasten This is the room with the Founders. I love how Franklin, the man who really kicked the whole thing off, is staring at us.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress took the decisive constitutional act. It voted for independence by adopting Richard Henry Lee's resolution that the colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

That was the actual vote of political separation from Great Britain.

In governance terms, July 2 was the act of severance. July 4 was the public instrument of justification, the date Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence explaining why separation was justified.

The Declaration was then engrossed on parchment, and delegates began signing it on August 2, 1776.

That is why John Adams thought July 2 would be celebrated. Writing to Abigail Adams on July 3, he predicted that "The Second Day of July 1776" would become the great American anniversary.

✪ July 2, 1776: Congress declared independence as a legal-political act.

✪ July 4, 1776: Congress adopted the written Declaration explaining that act.

✪ August 2, 1776: Signing of the engrossed Declaration began.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@EndWokeness Endurance

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@jgebbia I love how Franklin, the man who kicked it all off, is staring right at us

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@jgebbia Here's the room with the Founders

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress took the decisive constitutional act. It voted for independence by adopting Richard Henry Lee's resolution that the colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

That was the actual vote of political separation from Great Britain.

In governance terms, July 2 was the act of severance. July 4 was the public instrument of justification, the date Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence explaining why separation was justified.

The Declaration was then engrossed on parchment, and delegates began signing it on August 2, 1776.

That is why John Adams thought July 2 would be celebrated. Writing to Abigail Adams on July 3, he predicted that "The Second Day of July 1776" would become the great American anniversary.

✪ July 2, 1776: Congress declared independence as a legal-political act.

✪ July 4, 1776: Congress adopted the written Declaration explaining that act.

✪ August 2, 1776: Signing of the engrossed Declaration began.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@RapidResponse47 Establish a North American Treaty Organization and retire their brand as a relic of the past. I'm happy to design the logo. Include Greenland.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress took the decisive constitutional act. It voted for independence by adopting Richard Henry Lee's resolution that the colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

That was the actual vote of political separation from Great Britain.

In governance terms, July 2 was the act of severance. July 4 was the public instrument of justification, the date Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence explaining why separation was justified.

The Declaration was then engrossed on parchment, and delegates began signing it on August 2, 1776.

That is why John Adams thought July 2 would be celebrated. Writing to Abigail Adams on July 3, he predicted that "The Second Day of July 1776" would become the great American anniversary.

✪ July 2, 1776: Congress declared independence as a legal-political act.

✪ July 4, 1776: Congress adopted the written Declaration explaining that act.

✪ August 2, 1776: Signing of the engrossed Declaration began.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

The deeper governance failure is upstream. The Library of Congress should be understood as the Library for Congress, a constitutional research arm for legislators who have an oath-bound duty to test the laws they author against the U.S. Constitution before courts ever touch them. Congress needs to rediscover its constitutional authority of validation.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@The_JBS Not if you use zero knowledge proofs properly

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@BillMelugin_ All energy is in the Executive

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@Geiger_Capital The Executive is oath bound to faithfully execute the governance system specified by the U.S. Constitution which guarantees a republican form of government.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@BreannaMorello If the pattern of history holds, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets a lot better

[walacor @walacor]

🏦 Banks need more than backups. They need cryptographically verifiable proof their data is clean, trusted, and defensible. @walacor delivers provable data integrity for critical financial data. https://t.co/LbRSyJiKbk

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@america Both the Supremacy Clause and the Guarantee Clause of the U.S. Constitution say otherwise.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@SaraGonzalesTX The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion...

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@JayDyer I would not want to debate you. This person must be nuts.

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

@mrddmia Disarmed populations suffer the capture of their government by those who turn it against their own people

[Steve Englander @steveenglander]

A letter to his 11 year old daughter Martha "Patsy" Jefferson, written when he left for Annapolis awaiting his diplomatic assignment to France. His wife, Martha, had died over a year earlier...

"My dear Patsy,

After four days journey I arrived here without any accident and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia. The conviction that you would be more improved in the situation I have placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my parting with you, which my love for you has rendered a difficult thing. The acquirements which I hope you will make under the tutors I have provided for you will render you more worthy of my love, and if they cannot increase it they will prevent it's diminution. Consider the good lady who has taken you under her roof, who has undertaken to see that you perform all your exercises, and to admonish you in all those wanderings from what is right or what is clever to which your inexperience would expose you, consider her I say as your mother, as the only person to whom, since the loss with which heaven has been pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure or disapprobation on any occasion will be an immense misfortune which should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded act, think no concession too much to regain her good will. With respect to the distribution of your time the following is what I should approve.

from 8. to 10 o’clock practise music.
from 10. to 1. dance one day and draw another
from 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the next day.
from 3. to 4. read French.
from 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music.
from 5. till bedtime read English, write &c.

Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson and if she approves of it pursue it. As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia cultivate her affections. She has been a valuable friend to you and her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who know her and by nobody on earth more than by me. I expect you will write to me by every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and inclose me your best copy of every lesson in drawing. Write also one letter every week either to your aunt Eppes, your aunt Skipwith, your aunt Carr, or the little lady from whom I now inclose a letter, and always put the letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word consider how it is spelt, and if you do not remember it, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. I have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no distress which this world can now bring on me could equal that of your disappointing my hopes. If you love me then, strive to be good under every situation and to all living creatures, and to acquire those accomplishments which I have put in your power, and which will go far towards ensuring you the warmest love of your affectionate father,

Thomas Jefferson
Annapolis, Nov. 28. 1783"