Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.

  One of the fundamentals of rule of law, what separates it from all totalitarian states, is that if a law places a restriction on the citizen, there is a corresponding limitation on the power of the state. You do not have absolute freedom, and the government does not have absolute power. Simplest example: murder is illegal, but you can't be punished for a murder without the due process of a trial which requires presentation of evidence. The police have the power to gather that evidence, but they must go through the courts to have the right to do so -- by which I mean, they have to present a coherent argument to obtain a search warrant, they can't randomly kick in doors because they have nothing else better to do. Within the incredibly wide range established by those parameters, many abuses still exist. Example, Abraham Lincoln was the only US President to exercised dictatorial powers, that was during the crisis of the Civil War. After that War, additional restraints which put ...