[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

Fooling Us Badly With Psyops

The Nobel Prize That Proved Einstein Wrong

Put Castor Oil Here Before Bed – The Results After 7 Days Are Shocking

Sounds Like They're Trying to Get Ghislaine Maxwell out of Prison

Mississippi declared a public health emergency over its infant mortality rate (guess why)

Andy Ngo: ANTIFA is a terrorist organization & Trump will need a lot of help to stop them

America Is Reaching A Boiling Point

The Pandemic Of Fake Psychiatric Diagnoses

This Is How People Actually Use ChatGPT, According To New Research

Texas Man Arrested for Threatening NYC's Mamdani

Man puts down ABC's The View on air

Strong 7.8 quake hits Russia's Kamchatka

My Answer To a Liberal Professor. We both See Collapse But..

Cash Jordan: “Set Them Free”... Mob STORMS ICE HQ, Gets CRUSHED By ‘Deportation Battalion’’

Call The Exterminator: Signs Demanding Violence Against Republicans Posted In DC

Crazy Conspiracy Theorist Asks Questions About Vaccines

New owner of CBS coordinated with former Israeli military chief to counter the country's critics,

BEST VIDEO - Questions Concerning Charlie Kirk,

Douglas Macgregor - IT'S BEGUN - The People Are Rising Up!

Marine Sniper: They're Lying About Charlie Kirk's Death and They Know It!

Mike Johnson Holds 'Private Meeting' With Jewish Leaders, Pledges to Screen Out Anti-Israel GOP Candidates

Jimmy Kimmel’s career over after ‘disgusting’ lies about Charlie Kirk shooter [Plus America's Homosexual-In-Chief checks-In, Clot-Shots, Iryna Zarutska and More!]

1200 Electric School Busses pulled from service due to fires.

Is the Deep State Covering Up Charlie Kirk’s Murder? The FBI’s Bizarre Inconsistencies Exposed

Local Governments Can Be Ignorant Pissers!!

Cash Jordan: Gangs PLUNDER LA Mall... as California’s “NO JAILS” Strategy IMPLODES

Margin Debt Tops Historic $1 Trillion, Your House Will Be Taken Blindly Warns Dohmen

Tucker Carlson LIVE: America After Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk allegedly recently refused $150 million from Israel to take more pro Israel stances

"NATO just declared War on Russia!"Co; Douglas Macgregor


Dead Constitution
See other Dead Constitution Articles

Title: Does the Bill of Rights Give You Rights?
Source: me
URL Source: http://none
Published: Dec 15, 2007
Author: me
Post Date: 2007-12-15 17:34:10 by James Deffenbach
Keywords: None
Views: 132
Comments: 6

Does the Bill of Rights Give You Rights?

In a recent issue of USA TODAY they had an online poll asking people if they agreed that the second amendment gave them the right to keep and bear arms. At the time I read it almost 15,000 people had taken part in it and an astounding 98% of them said yes. I say it was astounding because 98% of the people who took part in the poll were wrong. Neither the second amendment nor any other amendment confers any rights upon anyone. A Supreme Court ruling from 1884 is instructive in this issue. Here is a short excerpt from the ruling and a link to the entire case for those who may want to read it:

As in our intercourse with our fellow men, certain principles of morality are assumed to exist without which society would be impossible, so certain inherent rights lie at the foundation of all action and upon a recognition of them alone can free institutions be maintained. These inherent rights have never been more happily expressed than in the declaration of independence, that new evangel of liberty to the people: "We hold these truths to be self-evident" -- that is, so plain that their truth is recognized upon their mere statement -- "that all men are endowed" -- not by edicts of emperors, or decrees of Parliament, or acts of Congress, but "by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" -- that is, rights which cannot be bartered away, or given away, or taken away, except in punishment of crime -- "and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these" -- not grant them, but secure them -- "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment.

The common business and callings of life, the ordinary trades and pursuits, which are innocuous in themselves, and have been followed in all communities from time immemorial, must therefore be free in this country to all alike upon the same conditions. The right to pursue them, without let or hindrance, except that which is applied to all persons of the same age, sex, and condition, is a distinguishing privilege of citizens of the United States, and an essential element of that freedom which they claim as their birthright.

It has been well said that

"the property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his own hands, and to hinder his employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing whom they think proper." Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 (1884)

http://supreme.justia.com/us/111/746/case.html

************************************************************************************************ It is unreasonable to believe that one group of men could grant anyone any rights by listing some of them on a piece of paper. If that were the case then another group of men with bad intentions could take away the same rights by writing different words on another piece of paper.


The preceding is a letter to the editor which should be in next week's paper. I had sent it about two weeks ago and the editor said she thought I was just sending her something interesting to read. LOL!

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: James Deffenbach (#0)

Join the Ron Paul Revolution

Lod  posted on  2007-12-15   17:41:15 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: James Deffenbach (#0)

Heh. Maybe next time they should ask what the Ninth and Tenth Amendments do!

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.

mirage  posted on  2007-12-15   20:14:14 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: mirage (#2)

Yes, or ask the same bunch which amendment gives them the right to freedom of speech. And the ones that don't look at you like a deer in the headlights will almost automatically tell you the first amendment if they answer at all. But it doesn't say it grants anyone any rights, says that "Congress shall make no law..." All of the Bill of Rights is a restriction on the power of government and nothing in it gives anyone any rights that didn't exist before the formation of government.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

James Deffenbach  posted on  2007-12-15   20:23:46 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: mirage (#2)

Maybe next time they should ask what the Ninth and Tenth Amendments do!

Maybe you mean what the 9th and 10th did. Don't forget, the ruling class and it's followers are convinced that each amendment came with an expiration date.

"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price." Vir Cotto, Babylon 5

orangedog  posted on  2007-12-15   20:24:58 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: James Deffenbach (#3)

All of the Bill of Rights is a restriction on the power of government and nothing in it gives anyone any rights that didn't exist before the formation of government.

Yup. Unfortunately, people don't understand that and they also don't understand that they should rightfully be putting MORE limitations on Government.

Civics education in this country is very sorely lacking.

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.

mirage  posted on  2007-12-15   21:04:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: mirage (#5)

The dumbing down is almost complete. Or appears to be.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

James Deffenbach  posted on  2007-12-15   21:25:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]