I agree. So I vote for representatives who I believe hold those same values. That doesn't make those values Constitutional obligations under the U.S. Constitution.
"And the Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear that the States have the affirmative obligation to provide for the equal protection of the laws for EVERY person."
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
So is it your contention that the words "No state shall make or enforce any law which..." means precisely the same thing as "States SHALL make laws which ensure that individuals do NOT...?"
This isn't difficult. It's simple logic. Asserting that states may not do a thing is simply NOT asserting that states must ensure that private entities do not do that same thing.
"But, since you're on a roll with this patent nonsense, I take it you apply the same "logic" to all unalienable rights, right? Not just the supreme right, the right to live?
Don't be emotional. Leave that for the lefties. This isn't about anything but grammatical construction. The words mean what they say, and nothing more - however much you or I may wish them to.
"If States want to, they can, under your rubric, deny the rights to free speech, freedom of the press, assembly, petition, the right to keep and bear arms, trial by a jury of your peers, parental rights, freedom of political association, etc. Right?"
Correct with respect to to all but RKBA, which is a right explicity extended to "the people" by the 2nd Amendment, and the right to a jury trial which is explicitly extended to all citizens by the 6th and 7th Amendments.
I interpret the words in the 1st Amendment that read "Congress shall make no law" to mean, roughly, "Congress shall make no law."
But, hey, that's just me.
Hank
You talk like the right to keep and bear arms and the right to a jury trial is a gift of government, granted by the Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If your rights were “extended” to you by men, surely men can withdraw them.
Just like you’re contending states can do with most of our rights, including the supreme right, the right to life.
Your views rob the Constitution of all real meaning, gutting it as you do of any true conception of individual, God-given, unalienable, rights, or of any real purpose behind the oath of office.