Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

by Elie Mystal

Who is supposed to stop the state from using its power illegitimately? Well, “the law” is supposed to stop it. I’m not allowed to violently resist illegitimate state action, because the law is supposed to prohibit and punish such illegitimate uses of state power. If a police officer tries to pull me over illegitimately, I’m not supposed to rev my engine and lead the officer on a high-speed chase through town. I’m supposed to pull over, get the guy’s badge number, and then go to court and get the guy fired and be paid damages for my trouble. I’m not allowed to punch a cop who is trying to kill me, because the other cops are supposed to show up and stop their buddy from illegitimately using his monopoly of violence against me. That’s what living in a “nation of laws” is supposed to mean: I don’t have to fight the state, and I don’t have to wait for God to raise me up in the afterlife, because I can sue the pants off the state right now. I’ll take my mansion up front, thank you very much. But the Supreme Court has functionally eviscerated my right to go to court and make the offending officers buy me a house.