Our Purpose and Foundation
A lawful body of the people, convened in accordance with the supreme law of this land.
What Is a Jural Assembly
A Jural Assembly is a body of the people — not a government agency, not a political party, not a corporation. It is the people themselves, the sovereign inhabitants of the land, exercising their inherent and constitutionally recognized authority to govern themselves and to hold their public servants accountable.
The word 'jural' derives from the Latin 'jus' — meaning law or right. A Jural Assembly is therefore an assembly convened for lawful purposes: to deliberate, to record, to adjudicate matters of common concern, and to restore the proper order of self-governance.
Jural Assemblies have deep roots in American history. The county grand jury, the common law court, and the township meeting are all expressions of the same principle: that the people themselves are the ultimate authority in a free republic, and that their right to assemble for lawful purposes cannot be abridged.
Constitutional Foundation
The Missouri General Jural Assembly does not derive its authority from any statute, regulation, or administrative order. Its authority flows from the foundational documents of this republic.
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 4
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government."
This guarantee is not merely aspirational — it is a binding obligation of the federal compact. When the Republican form of government has been departed from, the people retain the right and the duty to restore it. The Jural Assembly is one lawful means by which the people exercise that right.
U.S. Constitution, First Amendment
"Congress shall make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble."
The right to assemble is not a privilege granted by government — it is a right recognized and protected by the Constitution. The Missouri General Jural Assembly exercises this right in its fullest and most lawful expression, as a body of the people convened for the common good.
U.S. Constitution, Ninth and Tenth Amendments
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The people retain rights and powers beyond those enumerated. The authority of the people to assemble, to deliberate, and to act in their own governance is among those retained rights — recognized, not granted, by the Constitution.
Republican Form of Government
A Republican form of government is one in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote, and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. It is distinguished from a democracy (rule of the majority without restraint) and from an oligarchy (rule by a few) by its adherence to the rule of law and the protection of individual rights.
The founders of this republic were explicit: they gave us a Republic, not a democracy. In a Republic, the law is supreme — not the will of the majority, not the decree of an executive, not the regulation of an administrative agency. Every officer of government is bound by the law, and the people are the ultimate guardians of that law.
When government departs from its Republican form — when it operates outside its constitutional bounds, when it substitutes administrative rule for lawful governance, when it treats the people as subjects rather than sovereigns — the people have not only the right but the duty to reassemble and restore what has been lost.
"We gave you a Republic, if you can keep it."
— Benjamin Franklin, upon the close of the Constitutional Convention, 1787
Our Mission
To inform the people of Missouri of their rights, their history, and the constitutional foundations of self-governance. An informed people is the first requirement of a free republic.
To convene as a lawful body of the people, in accordance with the First Amendment and the common law tradition of this land, for the purpose of deliberation, record-keeping, and lawful action.
To work toward the restoration of the Republican form of government guaranteed to the State of Missouri by Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution — through lawful, peaceful, and principled means.