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26 Cath. U. J. L. & Tech 52 (2017-2018)
Enforcing Constitutional Rights through Computer Code

handle is hein.journals/cconsp26 and id is 54 raw text is: ENFORCING CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THROUGH COMPUTER CODE Steven Young Methods of lawmaking and law enforcement have advanced significantly since humans first grouped together in societies.' In the past, laws were passed orally and understood by the small community in which they operated.2 Later, laws were written down, and eventually codified in Constitutions.3 This made it possible for individuals to make legal claims against their government.4 Law is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong and it is requisite to the very essence of a law, that it be made by the supreme power. Today, many recognize the supreme power in a state should be the people, but in many countries, the people do not reign supreme.7 'Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, LL.M in International Law 2016; S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, J.D. 2015; The University of Utah, B.A. 2010. The author is Of Counsel for Blockchain Legal Services and Vice President of Legal Affairs for Planet Alpha Corp. He lives in Cambridge, MA and does his best to stay at the forefront of the wild world of blockchain computing. I See John W. Griggs, TheAnnualAddress: Lawmaking, 20 ANN. Ri1,. A.B.A. 257, 258-59 (1897) (describing the historical underpinnings of lawmaking); see also Robert S. Alexan- der, The History of the Law as an Independent Profession and the Present English System, 19 FoRuM 185, 187 96 (1983) (examining the history of the legal profession). 2 See generally Griggs, supra note 1, at 267 (tracing the history of English law from villages and tribes to English common law of the 19th century). 3 Lloyd Duhaime, The Timetable of World Legal History, DUHAIMEORG (last updated May 3, 2014), http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseumiLawArticle-44/Duhaimes-Timetable- of-World-Legal-History.aspx. 4 David J. Shestokas, U.S. Constitution's First Amendment: Right to Petition for Re- dress of Grievances, DAVID J. SHESTOKAS (July 1, 2013), http://www.shestokas.com/consti- tution-educational-series/us-constitutions-first-amendment-right-to-petition-for-redress-of- grievances/. 5 2 WILLAM BLACKSTONF, COMMENTARIES *44. 6 Id. at *46. 7 See Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor (Nov. 26, 1798), in JEFFERoN: PO- LITICAL WRITNGS, 369 (Joyce Appleby & Terence Ball eds. 1999) (objecting to the laws of the Alien and Sedition Acts because our general government has, in the'tapid course of 9