[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 20:01:43 +0100
Wednesday, May 25, 2005, 6:45:05 PM, Brian wrote:
>> B> To your (1) I say you're wrong. In this country
>> B> we've gone mad with invented rights.
JE>> Anyway... what rights would you say have been invented
JE>> over there?
B> The two that come to mind immediately are the right to privacy and
B> right to abortion, supposedly found in the Constitution.
There's no right to privacy in the US Constitution and Scotus said so.
Roe uses an inferred right of privacy, following the precedent in
Griswold. (For those who don't know: Griswold held unconstitutional
a law forbidding married couples to obtain contraceptives.) But Roe
need not have been decided that way and I think it a shame that it
was. Harlan, to whose opinions I referred you (but one of the cases
was wrong, my regret); here is part of his concurring opinion in
Griswold:
>In my view, the proper constitutional inquiry in this case is
>whether this Connecticut statute infringes the Due Process
>Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because the enactment violates
>basic values "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,"
>Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325. For reasons stated at
>length in my dissenting opinion in Poe v. Ullman, supra, I
>believe that it does. While the relevant inquiry may be aided by
>resort to one or more of the provisions of the Bill of Rights,
>it is not dependent on them or any of their radiations. The Due
>Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment stands, in my opinion,
>on its own bottom.
Incidentally a Republican lawyer pointed me to Harlan's opinions --
which he admires and supports -- my thanks to him.
>> B> The U.S. is
>> B> constitutionally barred from using the federal government for these
>> B> purposes, which is why I oppose federalized health care and support
>> B> the abolishment of the Department of Education.
>>
>> By which part of the Constitution?
B> Amendment X. Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government
B> delegated the power to regulate or fund elementary or secondary
B> education, or health care.
I quote that Amendment here:
>The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
>nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
>respectively, or to the people.
and I quote
>Amendment VIII
>Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed,
>nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
an amendment routinely violated by the US
>Amendment IX
>The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
>construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
("Discuss"!)
>Amendment VI
>In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to
>a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and
>district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which
>district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and
> to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation;
> to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory
> process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
> assistance of counsel for his defense.
It took Gideon to even try to begin to instate and enforce just part
of that
(etc.)
and I refer you to the Fourteenth Amendment.
--
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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