3/01 The King Is Above The Law?

The King Is Above the Law?
by
Larry Pratt

The English Civil War of the 17th Century produced a flood of refugees from royal tyranny that ballooned the colonization of America.

Those that remained in Britain thought they put an end to government run amuck by executing King Charles I. But after a brief respite, his kids were back on the throne and the same old dictatorship came with them.

Finally in 1689 the Stuart kings were given the boot and William and Mary of Orange were invited to ascend the throne — after signing a Bill of Rights that among other things protected the right to keep and bear arms.

The kings had believed that they were the law. Whatever they said was law. They did not believe that they were accountable to anyone. They called this doctrine the divine right of kings, but the doctrine is actually contrary to the teaching of the Bible.

A Scottish theologian, Samuel Rutherford, wrote a book entitled Lex Rex. Rutherford was so hated by the monarchy they wanted to burn him at the stake. Having been uncooperative with royal tyrants during his life, Rutherford’s last act of defiance was seen as dying before he could be burned. Not to be deterred by his death, the crown ordered his bones dug up and burned along with his books.

Makes you want to read a book that had a bunch of tyrants so upset, doesn’t it? If it does, the book is still in print by that title. It is nothing more than two Latin words that mean The Law Is King. Rutherford laid down an historical and Biblical foundation for limiting the power of government and holding the government accountable to the people when proper limits were exceeded — especially when limits were violated repeatedly over time.

Well, the old divine right of kings theory (or Rex Lex) is alive and well in the U.S. Federal Government. It has raised its tyrannical head in the case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The feds have taken the same position as the British government following the Boston Massacre — their agents are immune from prosecution.

The case involves the Boundary County, Idaho prosecutor’s attempt to press charges against Lon Horiuchi, the FBI agent who shot Randy Weaver’s wife in the head while she was holding a baby in her arms on Ruby Ridge in 1992.

The lawyer for Horiuchi, the Solicitor General, Seth Waxman, told the justices that it did not matter whether Vicki Weaver’s death was the result of excessive force. “These federal law enforcement officials are privileged to do what would otherwise be unlawful if done by a private citizen. It is a fundamental function of our government.”

In other words, Horiuchi’s defense is that he was simply following orders. That defense resulted in the execution of numerous Nazis following the Nuremberg trials following World War II.

What a dark day that a mere 45 years after seeking the death of murderous government agents, the American government has taken the Nazi position in defense of its own murderous agents.