PRESERVE INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY

No government authority shall exist to regulate individual activity. No government shall have the authority to impose a penalty of death, bail out corporations, criminalize the use of drugs or other substances, inhibit access to abortion before viability, regulate employment practices, draft into military service, tax individual entities, coerce vaccination or medical treatment, or coerce censorship of any privately controlled mode of communication.

The Ninth Amendment guarantees the protection of individual rights not enumerated to the government. As observed by James Madison, without this specific amendment, it would likely be assumed that any rights not specified might be construed as being in the hands of the “general government.” Hamilton also noted that the enumeration of powers granted to the government weren’t intended to limit the undefined rights of individuals, but to constrain the growth of government power.

Our Administration would, where Presidential authority is clearly legal, end such practices immediately. Where Executive power does not exist, we will work with Congress to enact the necessary legislation to reverse these abuses of authority.

AS PRESIDENT:

• • The death penalty is an aberration of justice; just as no citizen has the right to murder another, no government has the right to murder its citizens. Death is final; an individual exonerated after execution has still been executed. Of nearly 1800 individuals sentenced to death since 1973, 200 have been found wrongly convicted and released. We will immediately end the death penalty at the Federal level and work towards legislation to abolish it at the state level as well.
  • With slightly more than 4% of the world’s population, our nation is responsible for a quarter of the globe’s inmate population. Roughly 44% of Federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug related offenses, while the share of  state and local inmates housed for drug related offenses is 25%. We will deschedule marijuana immediately and work towards the decriminalization of all drugs.
  • We will encourage states to decriminalize abortions. These medical decisions should be left to the individuals and their doctors. Also, encourage alternatives to abortion, such as adoption by easing the regulations that greatly increases the cost of adoption.