By Missouri Chief Justice Mary R. Russell
18 June 2015
This month, we celebrate the 800th anniversary of a document that many
believe inspired the Declaration of Independence, the United States
Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was in June 1215 that Magna Carta
first pronounced that no one – no matter how powerful – is above the law.
Although I briefly learned about Magna Carta in high school, it wasn’t
until this past fall that I realized the true significance of this Great
Charter, when I had the opportunity to view one of the four remaining
copies of Magna Carta, in person, during a rare exhibit at the Library of
Congress.
Magna Carta was borne from a long feud between King John and land barons in
England. The barons had been quite upset with the king as he arbitrarily
and excessively taxed the barons’ property to pay for his losing military
battles with France. Designed as a contractual peace treaty, the land
barons ultimately persuaded King John to enter into the agreement, which
granted many personal liberties to the barons and other privileged
citizens. King John, however, intended for this document to be repudiated
in short order and, in fact, he went to the Pope, pleading he was under
duress and coercion when he placed his seal on it. The Pope declared Magna
Carta was “null and void of all validity forever.”
Despite their actions, however, history has told a different story. Over
time, Magna Carta has become the most enduring symbol of “the rule of law”
and continues to provide relevance to our lives today.
In addition to incorporating the overarching rule of law, our founding
fathers embedded other legal principles from Magna Carta in the new nation
they were developing. They barred taxation without representation. They
prohibited government from enacting cruel and unusual punishment, from
imposing excessive bail or fines, and from taking private property for
public use without just compensation. They ensured the freedom of religion,
separation of church and state, and freedom from unlawful search or
seizure. They guaranteed the right to trial by a jury of your peers and a
speedy trial. They assured due process of law and equal protection under
the law. They also, I might add, required that judges be trained and
certified, fair and impartial. Magna Carta’s influence also can be seen
throughout our Missouri constitution and laws, too, as well as those of
many states.
American judges also quote Magna Carta in judgments and opinions. The
United States Supreme Court first referenced it in an 1819 opinion and,
today, Supreme Court references to Magna Carta exceed 100. Recently,
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts noted that “our American
experiment has not reached a third of the age of Magna Carta, but we have
given Magna Carta’s core concepts concrete meaning…in our constitutional
framework.”
In one famous case in which Magna Carta was used for its proposition that
no one is above the law, a federal district court denied the delay of Paula
Jones’ sexual-harassment suit against Bill Clinton, writing that “our form
of government … asserts as did the English in Magna Carta and the Petition
of Right that ‘even the sovereign is subject to God and the law.’”
Although struck down so soon in its own day, Magna Carta has truly shaped
the course of human history in our country and other democracies around the
world. Its continuing impact on justice never could had been imagined when
it was sealed 800 years ago as a declaration that no one, not even a king,
is above the law. In retrospect, perhaps the injustice that King John
committed against the land barons illustrates how, sometimes, we first must
suffer injustice before we can appreciate justice.
