"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are
null and void."
--Marbury vs. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174,
176, (1803)

* * *

"The makers of the Constitution conferred, as against
the government, the Right to be let alone; the most
comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by
civilized men."
--United States Supreme Court Justice Brandeis,
Olmstead v. United States

* * *

"An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights;
it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no
office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though
it had never been passed."
--Norton v. Shelby County, 118 US 425 p. 442

* * *

"Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved,
there can be no rule making or legislation which would
abrogate them."
--Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436 p. 491 (1966)

* * *

Sixteenth AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE Second,
Section 256, page 177:

"The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute,
though having the form and name of law, is in reality
no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any
purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time
of its enactment, and not merely from the date of the
decision so branding it."

"An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is
as inoperative as if it had never passed. Such a statute
leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it
would be had the statute not been enacted. Such an
unconstitutional law is void, the general principles
follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights,
creates no office, bestows no power or authority on
anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts
performed under it..."

"A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid
one."

"An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede
any existing valid law. Indeed, insofar as a statute
runs counter to the fundamental law of the land, it is
superseded thereby."

"No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and
no courts are bound to enforce it."

* * *

It is not the function of our government to keep the
citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the
Citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
--American Communications Association vs. Douds,
339 U.S. 382, 442

"...So long as the people do not care to exercise their
freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so;

For tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote
themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious
and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
--Voltarine de Cleyre