While speaking with Sen. Ted Cruz (R) on the Verdict podcast, Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out the Second Amendment “assumes the right, it doesn’t grant a right.” Thomas said this while making the overarching point the source of rights is God not government; that our rights pre-existed our U.S. government and even the U.S. itself.
He said, “It matters if you think the government is the primary granter of rights and you receive rights and benefits from the government, versus you have the rights and the government receives its authority from you.” Thomas stressed that we must remember that our rights “that are antecedent, that are transcendent,” and pointed to Justice Antonin Scalia’s writings “on the structure of the constitution…[which is] a safeguard on these rights that you have.”
