Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Anybody can sincerely believe in a religion that demands pollution and unsafe working conditions, but they don't get exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws because of them (such exemptions from EPA regulations and OSHA would, of course, be absurd). The same should be true of Hobby Lobby's sincerely held beliefs and exemption from HHS regulations under ACA. The Court did not determine that ACA or HHS regulations conflict with Hobby Lobby's constitutional rights--it explicitly distanced RFRA, the statutory right they claim decides the case, from the 1st Amendment.
What religion would this be? There are already precedents set to where you can't just go in and make up a religion and claim something as your religious right.
What religion would this be? There are already precedents set to where you can't just go in and make up a religion and claim something as your religious right.
Religious beliefs change with time. There could well exist now, or in the future, such a religion--and people with sincerely held beliefs on those subjects. The legal standard is whether the belief is sincerely held. People believe a lot of things sincerely that are false and harmful. We should not give them exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws because of those false and/or harmful beliefs.
On a deserted island, can I speak freely? Can I believe in/worship whatever deity I want? Can I defend myself, my life and that which my own labor produces from the materials around me? If a woman was there with me, could I love her and could we not mutually agree that we are married as far as our definition of marriage is concerned? Etc. At no point in my desert island existence is a society granting me these things you say come only from men and their governments.
And if I should steal what you make or rape your wife? You say these would violate your rights, and I say "what rights?" You can get angry, but there's no one you can go to should you feel these imaginary rights of yours have been violated. All you can do is say "I have a right to X", but without a means to address grievances, that's just talk. I can say "I have a right to an unimpeded view of the horizon" and kill you for blocking the view. Who's to say that right is less valid than anything you invent? I'm fine with it, you're dead, and there's no one else here on our island paradise to offer an opinion.
Rights are a collective agreement, not a force of nature.
Religious beliefs change with time. There could well exist now, or in the future, such a religion--and people with sincerely held beliefs on those subjects. The legal standard is whether the belief is sincerely held. People believe a lot of things sincerely that are false and harmful. We should not give them exemptions from neutral, generally applicable laws because of those false and/or harmful beliefs.
Luckily you don't get to decide how others choose to believe. We have since the beginning of the country tried to protect the constitutional rights of others.
Luckily you don't get to decide how others choose to believe. We have since the beginning of the country tried to protect the constitutional rights of others.
You can believe as you like, but you shouldn't get exemptions from neutral laws because of your beliefs. Would you exempt a company from worker safety laws because its owner sincerely believed that it is mortally wrong to protect the safety of laborers?
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.
Let me explain the concept of natural rights in the simplest of terms:
In the absence of government, for the sake of argument say, after a natural disaster or nuclear war...whatever.
You and I are the only two survivors.
You happen to be lucky or well prepared as the case may be and have an abundance of food, water and supplies.
I however, happen to have an abundance of weapons.
Do you have a right to defend yourself by any means possible against my inevitable attacks?
Or do I have a right to kill you and take all of your food?
If you think you have a right to defend yourself, and that it would be wrong for me to kill you, then you are using and agreeing with the concept of natural rights.
When the Constitution was written we hadn't invented effective drugs for contraception (That would be 190 years into the future) , I think a form of the rubber existed made out of silk or pigs intestines but I wouldn't vouch for its effectiveness. Like everything else that modern technology has provided in the last 238 years of our Republic to better the lives of Americans it is covered onder the General Welfare clause (Article 1 Section 8) that gives Congress the power to appropriate funds from taxes to do anything or provide any product that improves the general Welfare of the American citizens or people under their jurisdiction.
Swing and a miss!
There is no absolute power granted to Congress to do anything they like.
If there were, we wouldn't need the enumerated powers or the balance of the Constitution which itself makes a point to limit government power.
You can believe as you like, but you shouldn't get exemptions from neutral laws because of your beliefs. Would you exempt a company from worker safety laws because its owner sincerely believed that it is mortally wrong to protect the safety of laborers?
It would most likely be mortally wrong to not protect your workers.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
