Posted on 11/15/2009 11:45:32 AM PST by Josh Painter
Not necessarily.
It all depends on whether the federal Bill of Rights, i.e., the first Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, apply to solely the Federal government or to the Federal government and the States (and their constituent counties, parishes, boroughs, independent cities, towns, townships, hamlets, etc.).
Remember, prior to their ratification in 1791, the original 1789 language of the constitution was silent on those matters and left it up to local and state governments to decide policy on those matters as they saw fight. It wasn't until the constitution was amended that we had a sweeping, national policy on right to bear arms or freedom of the press that all states were bound to obey.
The various Amendments were extended to the States with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, after the Civil War, not in 1791, with the original ratification of the first Ten Amendments.
Unalienable rights were not given by man, or endowed by our Constitution. They are the gift of God to all human beings equally.
The Founders made this very clear in the Declaration of Independence, along with the fact that the very purpose of government, all human government, is to protect those rights.
This pernicious notion to the contrary signals the end of our republic, and the death of American liberty.
I’m very glad the bill of rights currently applies to the states as well.
It gives the people some protection from their awful state governments.
Yeah a mixture of raw egoism and socialism. And dung.
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