What Is HeinOnline?
HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
Log In
![handle is hein.journals/regunlwre2025 and id is 1 raw text is:
WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE LAST WORD ON THE
MEANING OF OUR CONSTITUTION
Deion A. Kathawa*
[T]he ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found,
resides in the people alone.
-James Madisont
When one wants to speak of the political laws of the United States,
it is always with the dogma of the sovereignty of the people that one must
begin.
-Alexis de Tocquevillet
In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are
sovereign.
-Donald J. Trump§
Senior Associate, Varnum, Riddering, Schmidt & Howlett LLP; Law Clerk to the
Honorable William C. Griesbach, United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Wisconsin, Green Bay Division, 2022-2023; Law Clerk to the Honorable Brian K. Zahra,
Michigan Supreme Court, 2020-2022; Juris Doctor, cum laude, University of Notre Dame
Law School, 2020; Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, College
of Literature, Science, and the Arts, 2017.
I have many people to thank: my brother, Kevin, for a brief yet inspiring discussion
that served to clarify some of my early thinking about this Article's arguments and themes,
Professor James Duane of Regent University School of Law for encouraging me to submit it
for publication, Justice Zahra for taking time to read a previous draft and provide valuable
feedback, and my lovely wife, Reshmi, for her steadfast love for me and support of all my
endeavors, absent which I would not be where I am today. Finally, I would be remiss if I did
not also express my sincere gratitude to the wonderful staff of PRO TEMPORE, whose excellent
and truly tireless editorial work served to greatly improve the quality of this Article. As ever,
all errors (if any) are, regrettably, my own.
t THE FEDERALIST NO. 46, at 291 (James Madison) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1999).
* 1 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 53 (Harvey C. Mansfield &
Debra Winthrop eds. & trans., Univ. of Chicago Press 2000) (1835).
§ Donald Trump, President of the U.S., Remarks to the 72nd Session of the United
Nations General Assembly (Sept. 19, 2017), https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-
statements/remarks-president-trump-72nd-session-united-nations-general-assembly
[perma.cc/52BB-EKKP].
The purpose of the epigraphs is to drive home the point that belief in the people's
sovereignty is, as the saying goes, as American as apple pie. They further demonstrate that
the reality of this sovereignty lies at the heart of the Nation's self-understanding and has
been present in the minds of its Founders, expositors, and presidents-sources that are
helpful in comprehending the Nation's ethos-throughout its history, even up to the modern
era. See Abraham Lincoln, President of the U.S., Speech at Peoria, Illinois (Oct. 16, 1854),
in 3 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 265-66 (Roy P. Basler ed., 1953),
https://bit.ly/4hvJRNs [perma.cc/N28A-FXAM] (The doctrine of self government [sic] is](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/regunlwre2025&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)