The unanimous Declaration of people deeply aggrieved in the United States of America today.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to denounce and rise up against a ruler usurping his power and hijacking their democracy, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that the resisters should declare the causes which impel their dissent.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed… with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted…, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. When a ruler evinces a design to relegate the people under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government.
The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, his object being authoritarianism and tyranny. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
President Donald J. Trump has refused his assent to laws… wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has declared war on Iran even though only Congress has that power. His missiles are killing innocent civilians and school children. American soldiers are returning home in coffins.
He has laid claim to Greenland, Venezuela, Canada, and the Panama Canal.
He is attempting to federalize elections, to personally control them, to disenfranchise many millions of voters, to predetermine the results and make voting merely performative.
He has illegally and unconstitutionally imposed tariffs in violation of Congress’, not his, power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” Repeatedly he has illegally impounded funds approved by Congress.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature(s), deploying federal forces, the national guard and ICE in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and Washinton, D.C. over the objections of their mayors and governors. Those troops and ICE agents have executed citizens and non-citizens alike.
He has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to station troops, establish armed federal control and silence freedom of speech in cities with Democratic mayors. All this in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal armed forces from enforcing domestic criminal laws.
He has obstructed the administration of justice by disobeying judicial orders; deporting persons without due process or any process to horrifying prisons and to countries with which they have no connection; selling pardons and commutations; appointing unqualified ideologues to the bench and political sycophants to the Department of Justice and using criminal law as a tool of political vengeance.
And by compelling bribes disguised as legal settlements; discriminating against the most vulnerable among us; and transforming the promise of “Equal Justice Under Law” into a cruel hoax.
He claimed that six honored veterans, members of Congress, should be executed for accurately explaining in a video that our laws permit, indeed require, members of the military to refuse illegal orders.
He has asserted plenary power to use American military might. He has extrajudicially executed hundreds of persons in boats not at war with the United States. He shares responsibility for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, men, woman and children, in Gaza. After the operation in Venezuela, he stated that the only restraint is “my own morality, my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me…”
He has made judges dependent on his will alone. A judge rules against him at their peril. Likewise, he has commandeered law firms and seized significant control of public and private colleges and universities, museums and cultural centers and broadcast networks. He has silenced his critics and had many fired. He has plastered his name and visage across public buildings.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. His gutting of environmental protections will result in death, starvation, mass migration and conflict. As will his decapitation of USAID. His assault on Obamacare, Medicaid and SNAP will have catastrophic consequences.
He is at this time transporting large (military forces)… to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy… totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and pardoned 1,600 persons who invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempted coup; imposed a racist version of American history on our public schools; and purged diversity from the federal government.
He has enriched himself and his family by billions of dollars, shredding the emoluments clause. He admires and emulates dictators and recently stated, “I run the country. I run the world.”
But a president marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
For the support of this Declaration and a rebirth of freedom, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. March 28, 2026 is the next day of mass protest. No Kings.
Bill Newman is a Northampton-based civil rights attorney. Italicized words above are from the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.