&gt; My rights existed prior to the Bill of Rights and the government<p>&quot;Existed&quot; in what sense!? Are they deducible by pure reason? Were they written on stone tablets?<p>Seriously though, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence may refer to the idea of natural rights, but in my opinion this is due to the prevailing state of philosophy and political theory at the time, and doesn&#x27;t bind Americans to forever understand their own rights in terms of &quot;prior&quot; natural rights that are &quot;later&quot; secured by the government.