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There are no natural rights; there are only legal rights. Likewise, the Second Amendment does not grant any rights. See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875). Under the Constitution, all rights exist only by law. In this, the prohibition against "infringement" does not preclude "regulation." Whatever rights that are secured under the Second Amendment, whether individual or collective, are nevertheless subject to law; which is to say that they are not unlimited, much less absolute.
In this Thursday's edition of "find that right," I challenge the board to find the right to contraceptives in the American constitution. What amendment is this right in? Good luck!
While your question is facetious, the answer is that it is a fundamental liberty interest under the 5th and 14th Amendments--so says the Supreme Court.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendell Phillips
Where in the Constitution does it say that a person has the right to any prescription drug?
Where in the Constitution does it say that a person has the right to be married?
Where in the Constitution does it say that a person has a general right of privacy?
First question is probably a liberty interest--so 5th and 14th.
Second is certainly a liberty interest--5th and 14th.
Third is, once again, a liberty interest--5th and 14th.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian
The only rights granted by the Constitution are the ones related to criminal trials. The Bill of Rights (minus the stuff about criminal trials) does not grant rights. It simply lists a few of the natural individual rights that federal government cannot mess with, specifically, just in case they ever tried to forget. The 9th and 10th Amendments then explain that a) just because it isn't listed her doesn't mean you don't have that right or that the right is denied and b) if it isn't specifically granted to the federal government as an enumerated power, then it's not a power they have.
And before anyone invokes the "general welfare" thing as that which creates a positive/legal/statutory "right" to contraception, the person most directly for writing the Constitution and a number of the Federalist Papers, James Madison, argued that the general welfare clause was not enumerated power of unlimited authority. He should know what the Constitution means, since it's essentially his writing.
More philosophically, there is no "right" to anything produced, sold or provided by others. The reason for that is that if you have such a right, then by definition the person(s) producing, selling or otherwise providing that which you have a "right" to are your slave(s). So there is no right to someone else providing you with contraception. There may indeed be a feeling of entitlement, or a government enforced coercion, or simple tyranny that does force others to provide you with free contraception, but it does not make that a right.
The Constitution is:
1) A detailed description of how the federal government will be set up and function.
2) A specific set of detailed powers the federal government can possess. 3) A long list of stuff the federal government is specifically told they cannot mess with, control, abridge, etc.
But besides the rules for trials, it grants no rights.
The Constitution sets up a system of governance. It includes the process by which the federal government can make laws and enumerates the Legislative authority of Congress. The Executive authority of the federal government is vested in the President (though it is undefined) and the Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court (though it is also undefined).
The Necessary and Proper clause + the Commerce clause give Congress immense power to regulate the economy, including the health insurance market. The taxing and spending powers, too, give Congress immense power.
If Congress provides that employers over a certain size will obtain group health insurance, then Congress has exercised its Commerce + Necessary and Proper powers to regulate the labor and health insurance markets.
If Congress mandates that group health insurance shall include cost-free preventive medical care, then Congress has again exercised its Commerce + Necessary and Proper powers to regulate the health insurance market.
No one is obliged to be in the health insurance industry, but if they choose to enter that industry, they must abide by the law (until, apparently, their corporate entity can demonstrate that it holds a sincere religious belief that is substantially burdened by a neutral, generally applicable law, and a court can make up a less restrictive means of accomplishing the goal, even though that same court would find that less restrictive means inappropriate).
But no one is demanding that. All we're asking is that no one prevent us from using our own benefits to their fullest by saying that their religion doesn't permit us to do so.
Nobody is preventing that. You can have any benefits you want and use them how you wish. It becomes and issue when you want someone else to fund it against their beliefs.
Nobody is preventing that. You can have any benefits you want and use them how you wish. It becomes and issue when you want someone else to fund it against their beliefs.
Pacifists are forced to fund war against their beliefs . . .
No. Rights are a cultural construct. They don't come from on high, they aren't written in the stars. Rights are what societies decide they are.
Nonsense. Individual natural rights are a condition of existence. Societies merely decide which natural rights they wish to take away from individuals, and government backs that decision with force.
I am born with the right to speak freely. All a society can do where that right is concerned is allow it, abridge it or deny it completely. Society does not create my individual right, it simply decides how much to limit it.
Nonsense. Individual natural rights are a condition of existence. Societies merely decide which natural rights they wish to take away from individuals, and government backs that decision with force.
No, they are not a condition of existence. They exist because we say they do. Where else do they come from? Are they delivered from on high? Are they written in the stars?
I suggest they come from the author of the book you read in which you learned about these so-called natural rights.
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