When the Voice of God thunders in the night, "The right of the people SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!" what mental contortions does it take to say, "Oh, but he didn't mean ME, did he?"
Go and read the whole thing. Mark's short essay on Privileges or Immunities is worth your time. As is the rest of his blog.
Newbius
3 comments:
Good link and good points!
In what sort of crazed universe does it avail anyone bereft of their senses to state that the parties (states and political subdivisions) to a contract (the Constitution for the United States) are not bound, themselves, by its terms?
The article is partially correct--ORIGINALLY the Bill of Rights was assumed to only apply to the federal government. The 14th's priv. and imm. clause was a move to apply this to the states as well, but when the Slaughterhouse cases effectively negated the clause, those darned politicians had to make due with other means of applying the amendments to the states.
The most effective method and the one most commonly used is the theory of substantive due process. Basically, if a right (any right, not just those explicitly in the Constitution) is found to be integral to the Anglo-American legal system, it is incoroporated into a person's (note: PERSON, not CITIZEN) right to the due process of law.
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