The Federal Protectionism of Minority Rights in the United States

Thomas Jefferson, in his 1801 First Inaugural Address for President of the United States of America, stated, “All . . . will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect and to violate would be oppression (Inaugural Addresses, 1989).” Jefferson was not alone in this thinking. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and others understood that the unbridled power of the majority, which is the life-blood of a democracy, could be easily used to ignore or degrade the rights of a minority group. The framers of our nation intended for the protection of minority rights over the “tyranny of the majority” to be an ardent duty of the federal government.

James Madison, under the nom de plume Publius, thoughtfully wrote about the balance of majority rule and the protection of minority rights throughout The Federalist, a group of historically important articles published to gain support of the proposed United States Constitution. In Federalist Paper number fifty-one, Madison best explains his concern of the reduction of minority rights: “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest the rights of the minority will be insecure (Hamilton, et al, p. 358)." Madison, like other fellow founders, also warns that there must be a balance to the protection of minority rights. In Federalist Paper number twenty-two, Madison writes, “To give a mi...

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