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No Dictators Declaration

A Call to Protect American Freedoms

The following is the text of the declaration that we are asking elected officials to express their commitment to by signing:

In my office and position as a [Congressperson/Senator], I will live my oath of office to uphold the Constitution by working with other elected officials and the American people to safeguard our democracy against all tyrannical threats to undermine checks and balances and the rule of law. Recognizing the profound impact my actions can have, I make the following commitments to defend constitutional representative democracy, which is foundational to preserving all other American freedoms and rights:

  1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s ability to declare bogus domestic and foreign emergencies to seize power and bypass Congressional legislative authority.
    • The U.S. currently has 42 national emergencies declared, some decades-old. Under emergency powers, a president can claim the authority to divert funds, seize property, and bypass Congress.
  2. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s abuse of his or her power to deploy the military on American soil.
    • Under the outdated and overbroad Insurrection Act, presidents can claim extraordinary powers to deploy troops domestically. Recently, some have called for its invocation to prevent Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights of free expression.
  3. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should prevent the adoption of partisan, personal, and ideological loyalty tests, loyalty oaths, and similar authoritarian measures designed to purge the professional civil service and replace qualified workers with unqualified loyalists to the president.
    • Working for the federal government means working for the American people under the Constitution and the rule of law.
  4. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should ensure that presidents who abuse their powers to commit crimes can be prosecuted like all other people.
    • The founders overthrew a king and wrote a Constitution to enshrine the core American ideal that no person is above the law. We the people must restore the concept that we are all equal before the law.
  5. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s ability to use investigative and prosecutorial decisions and resources to pursue vendettas against disfavored people and groups.
    • The executive branch is employing increasingly creative ways to persecute individuals, civil society organizations, and nonprofits based on their ideologies. We must make certain that the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies do not become instruments of tyranny.

I make a commitment to work with other public officials and the people towards achieving these five critical principles — to strengthen American constitutional democracy and to guard our freedoms for this and all future generations.

[Name]
[Date]
[Position/Title]