Posted on 08/20/2003 7:00:21 PM PDT by Selmo
exodus - "There's another example of sloppy thinking, Chummy, on your part and by our Founders themselves. They named a list of government prohibitions a bill of men's 'Rights.' "The Bill of Rights does not 'list' our Rights. It numbers (enumerates) a few of our Rights...."
Privacy, Travel, Marriage, Property, Rebellion, Secession, and many other Rights of Man were not named implicitly.
Sloppy thinkng, Chummy, as I said. I wasn't trying to insult you, I was just pointing out that imprecise language leaves room for error.
The Rights not listed were covered in the 9th Amendment, "The enumeration in the Constitution (not just the Bill of Rights, but the Constitution as a whole), of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Notice the use of the plural in the word "others."
Neither the Constitution, nor the "Bill of Rights," overlooked even one Right; they merely didn't list every Right individually, as the Founders in favor of the "Bill of Rights" believed American citizens as a whole understood the meaning of Freedom. They were mistaken.
Those Founders opposed to a formal "Bill of Rights" pointed out that naming a list as the "Bill of Rights" would lead sloppy thinkers into assuming that those Rights listed were the only Rights we had. They were correct.
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