United States v. United Mine Workers of America

The historic phrase “a government of laws and not of men” epitomizes the distinguishing character of our political society. When John Adams put that phrase into the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights he was not indulging in a rhetorical flourish. He was expressing the aim *308of those who, with him, framed the Declaration of Independence and founded the Republic. “A government of laws and not of men” was the rejection in positive terms of rule by fiat, whether by the fiat of governmental or private power. Every act of government may be challenged by an appeal to law, as finally pronounced by…