2026-08-01 · originalism
Lysander Spooner: Unconstitutional Statutes Are Void
An officer who attempts to enforce an unconstitutional statute acts without legal authority and may be resisted like any other trespasser. His commission is no protection.
Lysander Spooner stated the principle with characteristic clarity:
“An officer of the government is an officer of the law only when he is proceeding according to law. The moment he steps beyond the law, he, like other men, forfeits its protection, and may be resisted like any other trespasser. An unconstitutional statute is no law, in the view of the constitution. It is void, and confers no authority on any one; and whoever attempts to execute it, does so at his peril. His holding a commission is no legal protection for him.”
The logic is straightforward and unforgiving.
An unconstitutional statute is not law. It is a nullity. Because it is a nullity, it confers no authority on the officer who attempts to execute it. The officer who proceeds under it has stepped outside the law. At that moment he loses the special protection that attaches to lawful authority and stands in the same position as any other private wrongdoer.
This is not a call to disorder. It is a statement about the nature of lawful power under a written constitution. Power is limited by the instrument that creates it. Acts beyond that instrument are void. Those who attempt to enforce void acts do so at their own peril.
The principle has direct application to modern gun control. Statutes and regulations that infringe the right to keep and bear arms — a right the Constitution expressly protects — are void. Officers, agents, and officials who enforce them are not “just doing their job.” They are acting without constitutional authority.
Spooner’s formulation remains one of the cleanest statements of the duty (and the risk) that attaches to every person who holds a commission under the Constitution.