Thomas Paine, quoted on the same page, had put it a different way, in Common Sense: “In America, the law is king.” Even the most powerful can’t place themselves above it, the weakest are never beneath its protection, and no corrupt institution is too big to fail. So that’s what a principle is, Noah thought, as though he were pondering the word for the very first time. It’s not a guideline, or a suggestion, or one of many weighty factors to be parsed in a complex intellectual song-and-dance. It’s a cornerstone in the foundation, the bedrock that a great structure is built upon.
