Quote:
Originally Posted by mcsluggo
that is a pretty damned weak definition of "PROTECT rights"...
what you are saying is that the government exists to protect rights..except in instances where somebody else doesn't want to observe others rights, in which case the government exists to protect THEIR right to ignore other's rights... right?
the purpose of government is to protect lunch counter owners from uppity coloured folk protesting the fact that those lunch counters refuse to serve them.... really?
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The Bill of Rights lays out a lot of rights that are protected under law. Nowhere is there a "Right to eat at whatever restaurant I want." The
federal government exists to protect those rights that are specifically defined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Do other rights exist? Yes, that's why the 9th Amendment is there. But again, I don't see "Right to eat at whatever restaurant I want" to be one of those fundamental, inalienable rights.
The Constitution was put into place to protect citizens from an overreaching federal government, not to give the government purchase to "protect" us from each other by regulating how we think and behave. Disputes between people or groups of people can and ought to be mostly regulated at the state or even (preferably) local level.
Obviously, this is a conservative interpretation. We can agree to disagree.