Dear Editor:

The radical Right and their Supreme Court justices claim the high ground in American jurisprudence by being “originalists.” They assert that they, and they alone, understand the intentions of our Founding Fathers and base their legal and political decisions on this assumed insight. Fair enough.

Having forgotten most of what I learned in high school civics class, I took my $1,000 President Donald J. Trump Signature Edition Bible out of its $14.99 God Bless the USA gift bag and re-read the Declaration of Independence.

Using the “originalist” lens, here are some unequivocal assertions that I discovered: Every person is entitled to the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; We have the right to throw off any government that seeks to subordinate us to absolute despotism; We must remove any tyrant who refuses his assent to laws established for the common good; No ruler may obstruct the laws for naturalization of foreigners and the encouragement of immigration to the United States; Our judges must not be dependent upon the will of an autocrat; Our leader may not create a multitude of new offices or send officers to harass our people; He may not keep standing armies without the consent of our legislatures; He may not deprive us of the right to trial by jury or deport us to foreign lands without due process; By inciting domestic insurrection, he must be removed as head of state.

The current majorities in Congress and the Supreme Court would do well to read these foundational principles literally and to exercise their constitutional powers accordingly. To that end, I am sending President Donald J. Trump, autocratic master of all three branches of our government, a free copy of our Declaration, autographed by the 78,463,763 Americans who did not vote for him in 2024.

Bill Hammond

Boothbay