Wherever Law Ends Tyranny Begins

From the Second Treatise of Government (1689), Chapter 18 ("Of Tyranny"). John Locke argued that law is the boundary that separates legitimate government from despotism: a ruler who acts outside the law — using force without right — forfeits the authority of a magistrate and becomes a tyrant in the classical sense. This principle, that no person or institution is above the law, became foundational to constitutionalist political thought and was directly influential on the framers of the American Constitution.