Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has long championed the importance of civic education in America. So, it wasn’t totally surprising when he issued a stark warning about what happens when a people abandon their shared history and responsibilities.

The moment came on Thursday morning when Gorsuch appeared on Fox News’ Fox & Friends to debut his new children’s book, The Heroes of 1776. The literary work seeks to take kids on a journey through the harrowing stories of the Founding Fathers and lesser-known patriots during the Revolutionary War era.

While speaking to the justice, network host Lawrence Jones asked Gorsuch about the meaning of a quote from the book, which reads, “The Constitution established the first modern republic in which people rule themselves …” The Trump appointee referred back to the Declaration of Independence, which he said “contains three ‘radical’ ideas: that we’re all created equal, that we have unalienable rights that come to us from God [and] not from government, and that we the people have a right to rule ourselves — not be subjects to some dictator or a crown or king.”