Getting Rights Wrong

by Liberty and Power

It's the Fourth of July, the day we ought to contemplate and rejoice in Jefferson's radical declaration of the"self-evident" truth that all individuals are equally endowed with" certain unalienable Rights, ... among these ... Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Alas, the day cannot be one of unmitigated joy since we have again been reminded that the purported protectors of our liberties have little understanding of those rights. We thus live under constant threat from the very people who claim to protect us.
As you might guess, I am referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Second Amendment case, District of Columbia v. Heller.

The rest of this week's TGIF,"Getting Rights Wrong," is at the Foundation for Economic Education website.

Cross-posted at Free Association.

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Craig J Bolton - 7/5/2008

Two things strike me about that post.

The first point is that the really important part of the second paragraph of the Declaration is not "... that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." a phrase that is, at best, pious theology rather than political philosophy. What is of importance is the reiteration of the "right of revolution" in the phrase reading "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The second point, ties into the first point. That some libertarians and all conservatives are ecstatic about the USSC's opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller just shows how far the American people have fallen from the values of the Revolution. The much more important opinion by the USSC of recent days is the one partially rehabilitating habeas corpus, not the one providing that private individuals may possess pop guns, but never military grade weapons [i.e., weapons that might enable them to effectuate that purported right of revolution referenced in the Declaration].