You have the right to travel about freely in America without undue hindrance, harassment or restrictions by government. You have the right to travel about via the most common method of transportation within your means. Yet, you have allowed the government to usurp those rights with a prior restraint rule. The rule is that you get a driver's license from a government agency. To do this you must prove, in advance, that you are qualified to exercise your rights as a citizen by taking certain tests. The test will, supposedly, permit a civil servant to determine if you are an unsafe driver. (See Chapter 11 - Licenses - “Get Out of Jail Free” Card)A rule usually demands action on your part. The Constitution specifically forbids prior restraint and if the driver's license were a mandatory law, it would do just that—prohibit you from driving until you proved yourself worthy. When you VOLUNTEERED, by applying for a driver's license, you agreed to give the rule the force of law.
Rules or regulations, to be enforced as law, must have your agreement. Most rules are not passed by Congress or a state legislature. The rules are made by bureaucrats. The Constitution does not make provisions for anyone to pass laws except the Legislative Branch of government. The Administrative Branch and the Judicial Branch can pass all the rules they want regarding their own actions, but they have no authority to foist rules off as laws and then compel the citizens to obey them. They can, however, attempt to intimidate or bribe you to accept their rules as valid laws.
Sometimes the bribe is subtle and loaded with tricks. Sometimes it is obvious and reeks of Threats and Intimidation (T&I). You can go through ten kinds of hell fighting with an agency of government which is trying to enforce voluntary compliance with rules. Their purpose is that you must be Made to Volunteer or their bureaucracy will be without power. If they cannot exercise a power over you, then others may follow your lead and soon the bureaucrats will be out of a job.
One of the prerequisites our government has for recognizing the validity of a foreign government is that the government in power must display an ability to control the citizens. That is the official position of our Department of State. If that is how our government feels about recognizing dictators, why should it hesitate to apply the same standards for our own bureaucracy?
If the bureaucrats cannot keep you in line, they are out of work. Period. Now you know what motivates the bureaucrats in their efforts to seduce and intimidate you to voluntarily surrender your rights and abide by their regulations.
It is not easy to fight against the rules and still avoid being caught in the web of voluntary entrapment. It takes some thought and caution on your part.
If you receive a letter from the city, the driver's license department, zoning board or any other agency of the government do not take the implied threats literally. Do not make the mistake of initiating court action or negotiations. You may think the letter is threatening to violate your rights, but rest assured that it has been carefully worded to make you BELIEVE, but unable to prove, such a threat has been made.
If you receive a certified letter or an official notice has been published notifying you that a “court” action has been instituted, then you must do something:
Write a brief note stating: “I will not VOLUNTARILY permit anyone to usurp or change my rights, nor am I designating anyone to be a binding arbitrator in any disputes of rights or equity. If anyone has a Constitutionally valid claim, they must follow the Law, according to the Constitution, and I will remain an Involuntary Litigant in any such action.”
Show this to your lawyer, pointing out to him that this is your position regarding the matter and you want him to represent you, but he must be certain that no action is taken which might be construed to grant authority to the court. When retaining counsel, remember that lawyers are officers of the court and subject to its rules of procedure. Following such procedures can result in your being considered to have “volunteered for the rules” and subsequent binding decisions by an arbitrator instead of a judge in a court of law.
To avoid giving anyone the mistaken impression that you are submitting to or granting the court authority in the matter, you or your attorney must preface all responses, remarks and appearances with the qualification that this is a “Special Appearance” or a “Special Response” to the action before the court. Remember, if you ask permission for anything you imply authority to deny permission. Some courts and even your own lawyer may attempt to panic you into making a voluntary commitment or agreement. NEVER INITIATE COURT ACTION when some official sounding agency appears to be threatening you. Look over any implied threat and make sure that it is real. If the letter says “do this and comply with such and such within 10 days or appropriate legal action will be taken,” you may be the recipient of a meaningless threat. If you initiate an action with the courts to stop them from taking “appropriate legal action” you will lose. You cannot stop any government agency from doing its duty. Appropriate legal action is the duty of every government agency. If the implied threat is not “appropriate” (within the scope of governmental authority) then no lawful action can be taken. By initiating a fight in the courts, you will give it authority to rule and since you are in court VOLUNTARILY, the rules can be enforced as LAW.
The legal maxim “VOLENTI NON FIT INJURIA” can apply in all such cases. If you volunteer, you cannot claim injury as a result of your voluntary act. If you are not FORCED into court via a summons, you are volunteering and the court gets the entire question or case to rule on.
When you voluntarily enter into those stoic chambers known as the “Halls of Justice,” you agree to abide by the rules of the court. Among those innumerable rules is one which permits the judge to rule for PUBLIC GOOD just as if he was ruling for PUBLIC USE. You have agreed to abide by the court's decision. Since you are in court voluntarily, your interests will be considered secondary to those of society.
If you can think of something that the law requires you to do, you will find that it is a rule. If you are prohibited from doing something, most likely it is a valid law!
If you were in the Armed Forces, you might remember being advised early in boot camp “Don't Volunteer for Anything!” That was sage advice from your drill sergeant. From that time on, you were often selected for undesirable duties by a process which included a REQUEST for volunteers —- then an authoritative finger pointed at you and indicated you were “volunteering for duty.” Didn't your drill instructor warn you not to volunteer? When that finger pointed your way and you obediently got up or stepped forward, you volunteered!
You can volunteer by serving on a committee and supposedly finding solutions to problems the community faces. Most of us feel honored when the government asks us for our opinion. But such commissions, boards, committees or panels are often nothing more than a subtle ruse to trick the public into going along with some government program which might otherwise encounter troublesome resistance. They also help shield the real culprits who are trying to get us to voluntarily surrender our rights.
Phil Cogswell, as associate editor for The Oregonian, put it very well when he wrote: “A lot of what's called public participation in local decision-making is really an effort to lower the stakes for the people who are supposed to do something. Public involvement makes a decision seem like a shared responsibility, but often the apparent community consensus is only an illusion. Blue-Ribbon panels shield the decision-maker more than they protect the public.” Most government programs now REQUIRE a “Citizen Advisory Committee” (or some similar sounding name) in order to protect the bureaucrats behind the scenes.
When you take any action, no matter how innocent it may appear, you are giving your consent and volunteering. Despite protection for accused criminals via the famous Miranda Decision, those rights do not apply to individuals when they have not been charged with a crime.
Under the MIRANDA VS. ARIZONA ruling, a criminal suspect cannot make a confession unless he has been forewarned of his rights and it is the responsibility of government to ascertain that the person is making the confession intelligently and VOLUNTARILY. On the civil side, if you are not charged with a crime and the government is trying to violate your rights by tricking you into volunteering, the courts will take the opposite tack and permit the government to swindle you into volunteering without a warning or advising you of your legal rights. If you owned property along a river bank and the water was constantly eroding your shore and carrying away your property, what would you do?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and rules emphatically imply you can do nothing without first getting EPA approval. The moment you apply for “permission” to put some rocks along your bank to stop the erosion, you open a Pandora's Box which could result in complete loss of your property.
Remember: When you ask for permission, you imply that the agency has authority and you volunteer to go along with their rules. One of their rules is that you must submit a plan, complete with an environmental impact study. That study could cost you thousands of dollars in engineering and research fees and take several months to complete. By the time EPA gives its approval, half of your land could be down stream and the cost of the impact reports greater than the value of the remaining property.
If, however, you just DO IT without asking permission, what can the EPA do? Chances are they will not do a thing except demand explanations or that forms be filled out. Filling out such forms could again subject you to the jurisdiction of the EPA rules and regulations.
The EPA, if it was so disposed, might conduct its own environmental impact study on your little project, at their own expense. If they felt they could actually prove you did some specific damage to the environment, they could file a lawsuit (Due Process) and get a court order to have you restore the area to its pre-project condition. The possibilities of this happening are almost zilch and zero.
Don't ask for permission —- they may say no! It is your property and you have a right to take any reasonable action to protect it. Do not let any power seeker convince you otherwise.