We the People

The Constitution does not begin with a king, a congress, or even the states. It begins with a claim: “We the People of the United States… do ordain and establish this Constitution.” The government that follows is downstream of that sentence. Power is delegated, not inherited.

The Preamble is not a grant of extra powers. Courts treat it as a statement of purpose. Those purposes still name the job: form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.

Read slowly, it is also a correction. The Articles of Confederation had left the union too loose to tax, raise an army, or settle disputes among states. “More perfect” is comparative on purpose — the framers were repairing a government that already existed, not inventing a nation from nothing.