[tpaine]

"-- The basic issue here -- between the first two answers (both of which appeal to principles of natural justice) and the third (which denies such principles) -- is the deepest, most long-standing issue in jurisprudence or the philosophy of law: the issue between naturalists, on the one hand, and positivists or legalists, on the other. --"

"-- The positivists hold that might is right. --"

--- The issue is between those of us who live for the liberty to own & use property as we see fit; --- and those who declare they have the power to prohibit any property they see as 'unfit'.

The prohibitionists hold that gov't might is 'right'. -- The 2nd holds that an armed people are right.

[tpaine]

Constitutional bump.

[Lurker]

I really miss the days when stuff like this was posted regularly.

Nice find.

Thanks,

L

[Popman]

...Judge Bork...

I never thought of Judge Bork as a legalist.

[Verginius Rufus]

What black slaves after the Civil War? Slavery ended with the Civil War.

Technically there were a few slaves who weren't officially free until December 1865, because they were living in states not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation, but in practical terms I don't think very many of them were actually compelled to work without pay against their will during the interval between April and December of 1865.

[Teacher317]

Repeal the 16th and 17th, as a start. Then actually enforce the 10th, and we'll be a long way back towards a decent limited government. (Which, by the way, necessarily entails fewer skirmishes into foreign lands, so the liberals should even have a bumper-sticker slogan that could get them on board with the idea.)

Then, for my own personal tastes, a term limit amendment (1 senate term, 2 presidential terms, and 5 in the House. A quarter century in the federal halls is more than enough for anyone.)

Sadly, it won't happen without bloodshed. It never does.

[Christopher Lincoln]

Abraham Lincoln said that right makes might. I think so too.

[The KG9 Kid]

"How it used to be around here on FR" bump.

[bvw]

Sorry, the author brings a few wagonloads of straw and a truckload of used clothing bins to construct so many straw men that the crows are weary unto death.

[Centurion2000]

Good article ... too bad the Constitution is in tatters and won't come back wihtout a civil war.

[Eastbound]

"The prohibitionists hold that gov't might is 'right'. -- The 2nd holds that an armed people are right."

The the final arbiter, of course.

Great post, tpaine. Guess I'll have to get my dictionary out. :)

[budwiesest]

Third, the Ninth Amendment declares that the rights enumerated in the first eight amendments do not deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.

They must be either the civil rights previously conferred on the citizens by the several states or the unalienable, natural, and human rights mentioned in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

Sometimes, it seems these 'rights' conferred by the states include:

The right to be disarmed 'cause we said so and passed a law.

The right to be insecure in your person, places, and effects. And if you are, we'll invent a new class of felony we can probably assign to you.

The right to be nanny-stated to death. Your freedom to act responsibly is, or has been determined (by people who know better), a risk that a 'secure' society should not have to take in today's litigious enviornment. Have a nice day.