Elder Oaks Upholds Constitution
The United States Constitution is a singular document whose fundamental principles must be understood, valued, and protected, said Elder Dallin H. Oaks in an address given at the Constitution Day celebration held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square on September 17, 2010.
Those fundamental principles include popular sovereignty, division of powers in a federal system, a bill of rights that includes a clause protecting religious freedom, and separation of powers to provide checks and balances, Elder Oaks said.
Elder Oaks stressed that his remarks were focused on the “long view” and were not an endorsement or condemnation of actions or specific proposals on current issues.
The celebration was sponsored by the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics and America’s Freedom Alliance and also featured patriotic choral music.
Elder Oaks’s interest in and understanding of the Constitution are products of a legal career that included time as a professor of law and a Utah Supreme Court justice.
To read the entire address, click here.
