Barnett

The movement claim that the Declaration of Independence functions as super-constitutional law that overrides statutes and constitutional provisions where they conflict is unsupported

The Declaration is foundational political philosophy, not enforceable law that overrides statutes or constitutional provisions. But the natural-law constitutional tradition (Arkes, Jaffa, Sandefur, Barnett) treats the deeper question — whether constitutional interpretation may draw on Declaration principles — seriously, and the question is not foreclosed at the scholarly level. Engaged in good faith rather than dismissed.