The respective rights of the government and the people have been debated on various threads on this board.
Here's a quote from author Ayn Rand:
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizen may act only by permission, which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history: the state of rule by brute force".
Another quote from Daniel Webster comes to mind: "Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters"