House Speaker Johnson says our rights come from God not from government

Newsworthy News -   Speaker Mike Johnson told viewers that “our rights do not come from the government. They come from God himself,” explicitly anchoring his claim in the Declaration of Independence’s “self-evident” truths and describing the document as America’s “birth certificate”. Johnson presented this not as a novelty but as a civic creed that must be fought for and taught to the next generation so they inherit liberty, opportunity, and security . He connected the theme to Abraham Lincoln’s language about a nation “under God” and government “of the people.”

 

Johnson’s framing taps a long-running American debate about whether rights are pre-political, universal claims that government must respect, or legal guarantees that exist only once constitutionally codified. The Declaration asserts that people are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” while the Constitution and subsequent amendments set out enforceable structures and protections. Johnson’s emphasis on origins elevates natural-rights philosophy as a guardrail against government overreach.