Civil Disobedience Is An Unjust Law

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“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislation? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” Those words by Henry David Thoreau encapsulate that civil disobedience positively impacts a free society because it promotes protection of natural rights. This is proven with the following syllogism. First, governmental protection of natural rights is essential for a free society. Second, civil disobedience promotes governmental protection of natural rights. Finally, therefore, civil disobedience positively impacts a free society.

First, governmental protection …show more content…

The prompt defines civil disobedience as “the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences.” One can see from this definition that civil disobedience only opposes “unjust” laws. What then, is an unjust law? In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that an unjust law is one that infringes upon natural rights: “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” Since unjust laws infringe upon natural rights, and since civil disobedience opposes unjust laws, civil disobedience promotes governmental protection of natural …show more content…

Using protection of natural rights as the basis for civil disobedience is illustrated with three examples. Martin Luther King, Jr. opposed segregation statutes because they undermined human personality. King’s peaceful opposition promoted protection of the natural right to individual life. Edward Snowden opposed the NSA spying because it undermined the Constitution’s 4th-Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Edward Snowden’s peaceful opposition promoted protection of the natural right to individual liberty. Finally, Americans opposed slavery in the 1800s because it undermined private property rights and freedom. The Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 states the following, "That all those laws which are now in force, admitting the right of slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly null and void; being an audacious usurpation of the Divine prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of nature, a base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact, a complete extinction of all the relations, endearments and obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all the holy commandments; and that therefore they ought instantly to be abrogated." This declaration clearly uses

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