July 4th celebrations are a time for recalling the birth and exceptionalism of our great nation. The United States of America has remained a unique global experiment in which Enlightenment-era principles (political, social, economic, scientific, philosophical and legal) have been deployed to successfully promote and defend our natural rights-based individualism and freedoms, especially private property. This 4th of July is particularly noteworthy, because it is both the 239th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independenceand the 800th year since the signing of the English Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta strongly influenced the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights. Its significance to Americans lies primarily in its guarantee to "We the People" of certain rights and its binding of an oppressive sovereign (government at all levels) to the rule of law. These documents together memorialize the Founding Fathers' distrust of concentrated political power and confidence that representative government, the idea of a supreme law and independent judicial review can serve as indispensable counterweights to tyranny.
