Shot in the Dark

Wrong About Rights

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Liberals want to strip gun rights from people on the No Fly List.  The only civil rights group standing up for the constitutional rights of citizens is the National Rifle Association.

 But wait, didn’t the ACLU also object?  Sort of.  The ACLU objects to using the No Fly List in its present form to deny civil rights.  If there was an easier way to get your name off the list, the ACLU would be fine with using it to block gun purchases.

 That idea flips constitutional law on its head.  The Founders explained in the Declaration of Independence that Rights come from God, not from government.  The Constitution exists to protect our Rights from the government.  Therefore, the government should not have the power to arbitrarily take away Rights and then allow citizens to beg to get them back (ACLU version).  The government should bear the burden of proving why the citizen’s Rights should be taken away BEFORE the Rights are taken (NRA version).

 To see how absurd the ACLU’s plan is, try substituting other rights.  “Journalists on the No Truth List are forbidden to publish anything bad about Hillary Clinton.  But you can request a special waiver to get off the list.”   Or how about “Women on the No Fetus List are forbidden to get an abortion.  But you can submit an application to get your name removed from the list.”  Can you imagine the ACLU’s response?

 Justice Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion to the new Whole Women’s Health abortion case, saying: “ . . . our Constitution renounces the notion that come constitutional rights are more equal than others.”  Too bad it’s only a dissent; the country would be better off if more people believed that.

 Joe Doakes

The big problem is that a majority of Americans have no idea what a “right” is.

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3 responses to “Wrong About Rights”

  1. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    The big problem is that a majority of Americans have no idea what a “right” is.

    For which, among many many other things, we can thank the progressive infiltration of our public education system over the last 3-4 generations.

    Marx, plank 10, laughing his ass off in the grave.

  2. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Actually Joe, you’re wrong as usual.

    Here is what the ACLU actually said — and it is true that if the No Fly list is modified to provide due process, then the ACLU has no problem with it being used to stop the 90% of those on the list who buy guns and explosives.

    “There is no constitutional bar to reasonable regulation of guns, and the No Fly List could serve as one tool for it, but only with major reform.” Specifically, the ACLU’s position is that the government’s current redress process—the procedure by which listed individuals can petition for removal from the list—does not meet the requirements of the Constitution’s Due Process Clause because the process does not “provide meaningful notice of the reasons our clients are blacklisted, the basis for those reasons, and a hearing before a neutral decision-maker.”

    Hina Shamsi, Until the No Fly List Is Fixed, It Shouldn’t Be Used to Restrict People’s Freedoms, American Civil Liberties Union (December 7, 2015)

    You also failed to mention that the ACLU has put their money where there mouth is, having brought a successful suit in 2006, resulting in the government having to pay nearly quarter of a million dollars in legal fees.

    The liberals — assuming you DO consider the ACLU liberal? — have done more effectively to ensure rights, not just gun rights, while also doing more than conservatives to prevent terrorism.

    Looks to me like we have plenty of people who understand what rights are – and aren’t. The ones who are confused are in the failed red state schools.

  3. jimf Avatar
    jimf

    DG-“…the ACLU has done more than conservatives to prevent terrorism”. “Those who are confused are in the failed red state schools.” She blurts, with absolutely no proof of either of her assertions. I’m shocked

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