1.2 Law & US Government

WHO? All of us.

WHAT? We are all non-state actors.

WHEN? All the time.

WHERE? We are all subject to the laws in the country where we reside, even as a guest.

WHY? We are all non-state actors because we are subject to the laws where we reside.

In Topic 1.1 we noted that homeland security arose from the unprecedented threat of domestic catastrophic destruction wrought by non-state actors. Obviously it would be helpful to know what we mean by a “non-state actor”. The best way to approach this is to explain the difference between a “state” and “non-state” actor. Quite simply, a “state actor” is any country recognized by the United Nations. At present, the UN recognizes 195 countries. We’ll take a look at Law and International Relations in Topic 1.3. Obviously the United States is a recognized member of the United Nations, after all, we helped found it in 1945. That does not make the US subservient to the UN. On the contrary. The United States is a sovereign and independent country subject to its own laws, the same as all the 195 countries recognized by the UN. Sovereignty means exactly that; the US is subject to its own laws and not those of anybody else. The supreme law of the United States, the one that establishes our form of government is the Constitution. Ratified in 1789, the Constitution created a Federal system to govern the collective interests of the individual States, you know, “provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare…”, etc… Having won their independence from Britain in 1783, the States themselves were considered sovereign nations, and were only loosely bound together by the Articles of Confederation, the first government of the United States. Although the Articles of Confederation had served the States through the Revolutionary War, it proved unworkable afterwards because it did not provide a mechanism for compromise. The Constitution bound the States more closely together as they agreed to give up some of their sovereignty in exchange for a system of government that accommodates compromise. The Constitution accommodates compromise through a three-part system of government in which no one part can become too powerful, or allow the majority to tyrannize the minority. Of course, those three parts of government are the Legislative headed by Congress, Executive headed by the President, and Judicial headed by the Supreme Court. The Federal government only has the authorities given to it by the States. If not sovereign, States remain individual entities governed by their own laws, bound by their own Constitutions. That’s right. Each State is governed by its own Constitution providing a system of government for counties and municipalities to work together for the common good of State citizens. Counties and municipalities, that is cities, towns, and villages, are also governed by their own laws mostly designed to promote the health and welfare of its citizens. So, if you’ve been following us, you can see that every US citizen is bound by at least three and possibly four sets of laws: Municipal, County, State, and Federal. Here’s the important thing: these laws are not overlapping but interlocking. They don’t resemble a layer of blankets so much as they resemble a patchwork quilt. Each set of laws has its own jurisdiction. This means that the City Mayor DOES NOT work for the County Commissioner, who DOES NOT work for the State Governor, who DOES NOT work for the President of the United States. On the other hand, THEY are ALL answerable to their constituents, the citizens of the City, County, and State who elected them to office. We are ALL citizens subject to the laws of the presiding jurisdictions where we live. As citizens subject to law, we are NOT sovereign entities. We are not nations. We are ALL non-state actors.