«Government by default»

BY

Vine DELORIA, Jr. *

The United States Constitution represents a unique experiment in human efforts to devise a government. It is the product of a time in world history when men no longer trusted their institutions to do them justice and sought instead a means of protecting their persons and property from arbitrary and whimsical seizure. The bundle of sovereign powers which usually accrue to a nation was distributed on a topical and functional basis first between the constituent states and the national government and then among three branches of the national government. All powers not specifically granted to the national government were reserved to the states and the people respectively. Within the national government a system of checks and balances was devised which would pit legislative, and judicial branches against each other in certain fundamental ways so as to prevent any single branch from dominating the course and substance of government.

The Constitution provided a means whereby minorities could be protected from the zealous acts of an aggressive majority and the Bill of Rights preserved certain fundamental civil liberties to the citizens which the federal government could not violate. Unfortunately, of these fundamental rights was dependent upon the constant vigilance of the individual citizen and did not vest in the minorities themselves. The minorities were not, however, racial, cultural or reli-

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