Consent is the locus of justice. It is the interface of liberal and democracy. It distinguishes murder from self-defense, rape from sex, theft from sharing, kidnapping from companionship, imprisonment from shelter, servitude from service. Consent is the unnamed invariant insisted upon, however coyly peeking through the splayed fingers of slavery, in the Bill of Rights and refocused, still unnamed, in the Reconstruction amendments, particularly the requirements of the fourteenth. Consent is expressly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as the source of the “just powers” (not ‘rights&rsquo of the government. It is the root of which the particular rights we popularly cite and enjoy are the branches. Consent is the foundation of respect, dignity and trust. Consent is all that keeps us on our own side of the yellow line, literally and metaphorically.