# The United States constitution as a suicide pact **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-states-constitution-as-a-suicide-pact/979129 **Category:** Great Debates **Created:** [February 1, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-states-constitution-as-a-suicide-pact/979129 "2023-02-01T00:32:02Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 81
### Author: ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S) #### Post date: [February 3, 2023, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-states-constitution-as-a-suicide-pact/979129/81 "2023-02-03T05:16:36Z")
Aside from habeas corpus, another situation that could apply is when a court rules that a government measure widely seen as necessary for public safety is unconstitutional. For a current event example, California’s recent ban on gun possession for individuals with domestic violence restraining orders was just struck down in federal court. One could say, “the constitution isn’t a suicide pact, it doesn’t prevent the States from exercising police powers necessary to protect public safety, and this law is an exercise of such powers.” In this sense, however, I personally think the Constitution _is_ a suicide pact. I believe so far as legality goes, constitutional protections outweigh practical concerns about public safety. If or when it is necessary to abandon it, it will and should be abandoned - but I won’t condone such abandonment as constitutional, nor as legal _under the constitution_. I say bad laws can make it legal to set the world on fire, or any number of unconscionable things. I say furthermore that public officers (such as judges) who are sworn to uphold the constitution are bound by their oaths to uphold this suicide pact. In my opinion a judge should issue an highly immoral ruling if it is the legally correct one, or should resign (or recuse). My view is not, as I see it, the predominant one. (What the Governor of California _actually_ said yesterday was, “Judge Cory Wilson, Judge James Ho, and Judge Edith Jones. These three zealots are hellbent on a deranged vision of guns for all, leaving government powerless to protect its people.”) ~Max --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-states-constitution-as-a-suicide-pact/979129)._