Today, we celebrate the day our Patriot forebears committed their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the notion that the United States of America should dissolve ties with Great Britain and become an independent nation.

They did so with these famous words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men [and Women], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The first of their list of grievances against the King was this: "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Ever since, we have been a nation dedicated to the rule of law.

This July 4th, we are engaged in an election in which that very foundation of our democracy is under siege.

The Republican nominee for president threatens to be a dictator on day one, and we have a rogue Supreme Court that sees the Executive as above the people — or as Justice Sotomayor stated in her dissent to the Trump immunity ruling, “a king above the law.”

Let us never forget these words from the Declaration of Independence, "A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

On this Independence Day, I hope you are able to enjoy precious time with friends and family. But also take a moment to appreciate that our freedoms are not just to be celebrated on this day, they are to be defended every day forward.

Happy 4th of July.