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To: Looking for Diogenes
How is preventing the government from doing something tyranny??-Looking for Diogenes

The federal judiciary is preventing the state government from serving its citizens.-NutCrackerBoy

How are the citizens of Alabama who are not Christians or Jews served ... ?-Looking for Diogenes

Wait. Let's agree to the principle.

Tyranny = oppressive power exerted by government.-Merriam-Webster

What would you call it if the federal judiciary ordered the police all over the country to stop arresting crooks? That would be tyranny, right? It would be necessary then to ask: By what law does the court do that?

If you agree with the principle, we can proceed to how this order hurts the citizens of Alabama and all such orders are hurting citizens all over the country.

Please don't reduce everything to an argument where any restriction on any level of government is always deemed good and it cannot possibly be hurting citizens. Don't force me to reduce every argument of citizens being hurt to their having certain rights taken away.

94 posted on 08/22/2003 1:44:03 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
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To: NutCrackerBoy
Wait. Let's agree to the principle. Tyranny = oppressive power exerted by government.

Agreed

What would you call it if the federal judiciary ordered the police all over the country to stop arresting crooks? That would be tyranny, right?

No, that would be bad policy, maybe dereliction of duty. The federal government already says that states may not arrest crooks unless they are read their rights. Is that tyrannical? No. What was tyrannical was when states arrested citizens and deprived them of their rights.

The 'Miranda Rule' is an attempt to secure civil rights while still aloowing police to arrest crooks. It isn't perfect, but it strikes a balance between different needs in society: civil liberties and personal security.

Now you could argue that a citizen has a right to live free from crooks, so that any policy which gets rid of more crooks is beneficial regardless of what other rights are trampled in the process. The Bill of Rights stands in direct opposition to that argument.

Likewise you could say that religion is a good thing and so more (state supported) religion is better, no matter what other rights are trampled in the process. Again, the Bill of Rights stands against that line of reasoning.

95 posted on 08/22/2003 1:57:23 PM PDT by Looking for Diogenes
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