Civil disobedience in the modern United States is morally justified.

1 - Government Abandonment of Constitutional Restraints "But when a long train of abuses and usurptions, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." --Declaration of Independence The Federal Government was limited under the Constitution to about 20 areas enumerated powers or areas under Article 1, Section 8. This is further cemented by the fact that in the 10th amendment to the Constitution that powers not delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the States and ultimately the people. Government has adopted a severe misconstruction that the preamble, a general statement as opposed to an actual power, using the phrase "to promote the general welfare" has essentially been adopted as an unlimited power to to tax, spend, and intrude into every sphere of life. It destroys the concept of Federalism and bypasses the constitutional process of amending the Constitution. Power under the Commerce Clause that involved the trade or movement goods by gainful activity among the states (interstate commerce) has been stretched to unlimited proportions allowing regulation of any economic activity and further argued by the Obama Administration that all individuals can be mandated to purchase health insurance or face a penalty. The power of Congress to declare war has been subverted, when for example, President Obama engaged in an illegal bombing campaign without Congressional consent. The First Amendment prohibition of the establishment of religion and the free exercise of religion has been grossly distorted to deny the latter by claiming it is the former but not without outrageous and politically correct exceptions such as a California school requiring students become "Muslim" for a two weeks reciting the Shahada among other things as part of world history "curriculum." The Second Amendment has been continually assaulted and infringed with opponents supporting government power actually cite the government's massive standing army and the ability of it's nuclear arsenal as a reason why citizens should abandon their right to even the defense afforded by small arms. The abuse and abandonment of the Constitution goes far beyond these examples and are manifest. Doesn't the show government disobedience? 2 - Government Tyranny & Abuse "When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil." --Thomas Jefferson There are numerous examples of government tyranny; government has made it illegal to collect rain water on your own property, giving a tour of our nation's capital without a license is criminal, commercial air travel requires you to submit to groping by federal agents, what type of toilet we can buy, what fuel grade we use in our vehicles, the light bulbs we use, what our children may eat for lunch, mandated boxes to record data in automobiles, NSA interception and recording of electronic communication, exercise control over the education of our children, and many other intrusions into the lives of it's citizens. The Federal Register contains over 80,000 pages of regulations and American businesses alone face almost $2 trillion in costly regulations. There are over 73,000 pages in the federal tax code requiring Americans to spend 6 billion hours filing and billions in cost to comply and no American could hope to ever read and understand. The federal government through the Bureau of Land Management owns one-eighth of the country's land mass. America has the largest prison population in the world. It is more than equipped in terms of an $800 billion military not including the various agencies, agents, and other assets that make it one of the most fearsome foes in all of human history. 3 - Redress & Voting "All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it." --Henry David Thoreau There are three aspects that I can quickly propose that demonstrate voting is inadequate, even futile, to affect change. 1) We have a Two Party System, which is a fairly large limitation on the choice (one or the other) who are selected by a caucus of loyal partisans and when both parties are essentially committed to ever increasing expansions of the size, scope, and intrusion of government. 2) Consider the millions of people who are employed by the government and have a vested interest in perpetuating it's growth, the millions employed under government contract, the millions of people vested through social and welfare programs, and the billions of dollars in programs and grants with the ability and willingness of politicans to affect more is a huge financial incentive and a corrupting influence on the voters. 3) Time and again, the Judicial Branch has demonstrated a willingness to impose law and policy by fiat even developing a discipline that advocates judicial activism and lawmaking. Also, it is worth noting that our current immigration debate further demonstrates how Government willingly bypasses the wishes of an overwhelming majority of Americans while the two parties essentially are handing away citizenship through amnesty proposals to millions of illegals in violation of our own laws despite a clear path to citizenship through naturalization all the while they are entitled to free emergency room visits, free coverage under medicaid, there kids can freely attend schools, they can receive free food benefits, apply for federal housing, and those are just some of the examples. All of this encouraged and coordinated by Mexico and other Latin American countries to rid themselves of their poorest and most uneducated thus alleviating them of economic and social problems with the added benefits of money being sent back into their countries to relatives, the purchase of goods in their native countries, and increasingly growing voting bloc that holds more sway than American citizens. I haven't even begun to touch on the eroding of American sovereignty in terms of the United Nations or treaties that undermine American values and rights. 4 - Conclusion Citizens are left with little to no recourse against an unrestrained government with enormous amounts of manpower, weaponry, money, interests, and no regard for the limitations of the Constitution. Civil disobedience becomes one of the few peaceful avenues left for citizens vested in liberty. Those that sheepishly condone an unjust, massive government apparatus and suggest that a corrupt and ineffective voting process is sufficient enough to curtail it are fostering apathy and servitude. We are in an age of assaults on the very foundations of civilized freedom ushering in a collectivist era and massive violations of rights. Civil disobedience is therefore moral and just.