Fundamental Rights Should be Inalienable Rights (Part V)

Let’s briefly examine the Conservatives view that our inalienable Fundamental Rights may be infringed by our government monopoly so long as it is in support of morality issues. Conservatives may accomplish this task either by elevating moralistic Fundamental Rights (traditional marriage or procreation) or through legislation. For instance, laws that prohibit gambling, drinking, drugs, and sex. I am not saying all moralistic laws are wrong and uncalled for (crime that violates the rights of others must be enforced), but when a government monopoly makes those decisions, there will be errors in judgement and enforcement. In 1986 the Court upheld Georgia anti-sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick. Georgia did not enforce the law, nor did most states with anti-sodomy laws. Bowers was originally charged for violating the statute but the chargers were dismissed. One reason these laws are unenforceable is because they are generally done in private. Any sexual act in public (sodomy or not) would be a criminal act: lewd or offensive behavior. My point is that moral conservatives can go overboard with legislation that can infringe on individual rights including the freedom of contract between married couples to have sexual relations in any matter they want in private. Bowers v. Hardwick was overruled in 2003 with Lawrence v. Texas. However, the Court elevated sodomy as a Fundamental Right to do so. This too was wrong, sodomy is a right between consenting adults but it is not a Fundamental Right. In both cases, the Court of our monopolized government erred. One final example is marijuana laws. I am against marijuana and voted against it. But it was decided by the people of my state and it should be a decision made by each state on how to enforce and regulate marijuana use. The federal government monopoly should be more concerned with more dangerous and addictive drugs that make it into the United States. Sure, I have an opinion about sodomy and marijuana and neither is something I would promote. But the United States is a democracy and not a tyranny to force or coerce others into our way of thinking. Morality teachings are the job of the family or support groups like schools, churches, or other organizations within the community. Forced and coercive morality teachings should not be the job of the government. Of course, families may fail to teach their children proper morality goals, but that mistake is far less intrusive than when the government fails to enforce morality laws properly: Innocent people will be jailed and have their rights violated. Remember, liberals are not completely free from “morality” enforcement abuse. They have placed a war on cigarette smokers and manufacturers as well as producers of sugar products to name a few.

Finally, let’s briefly examine the flaws in the Liberal view of social justice or what they believe should be a fundamental right: Distribution Justice (socialism). Distribution justice means our government monopoly has the right to forcibly or coercively take property from one citizen and give it another. Of course the Fifth Amendment says differently. The Fifth Amendment says that government can take property only for public reasons and with just compensation. Distribution justice is quite different and obviously violates many inalienable Fundamental Rights such as the right to property and the freedom of contract. There are many specific issues with Distribution Justice. First, who makes the decisions and defines what Distribution Justice actually means (power principle discussed earlier). We have seen and heard many different definitions and a wide variety laws, but it never seems to be enough to satisfy liberals. Distribution justice is a continually moving target whose main objective is to violate the rights of hard working law abiding citizens. Secondly, distribution justice suffers from the partiality principle discussed earlier. Those receiving benefits will be partial to their cause and demand bigger payments and those giving benefits will be partial to their cause and want to limit payments. This leads to class warfare and leads to warrantless claims of the “filthy rich” and “deadbeats”. The bottom line is distribution justice divides Americans. Part of the reason for this is the third issue with distribution justice and that is the interest principle. Most people do not have a problem giving to local causes that help people they know or family members. On the other hand, most people do not want to give blindly to strangers they do not know since they have no interest in their situation. Think of it this way, if a family member dies it hits us hard, but if a typhoon killed thousands of people in Japan we probably will not lose a minute of sleep (even if we give to charities to help those affected). Fourth there will be enforcement errors and abuse when a government monopoly can coercively use force or even violence to distribute wealth. There will undoubtably be innocent people fined and jailed (justice is not perfect) meaning laws will be incorrectly applied. And can anyone deny that government will misuse the massive amounts of data it obtains to implement any distribution scheme. For instance, ObamaCare web sites were not properly secure leaving millions of people vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. Inevitably distributive justice creates chaos and fraud because both sides of the equation will hire lawyers and lobbying firms to win “more rights” for their clients. Distribution justice simply does not work on a very large scale especially when it is enforced by government monopolies (IRS) that use coercion and force to violate the inalienable rights of law abiding citizens for the benefit of strangers. Using coercion instead of consent and power instead of rights accomplishes resentment, jealousy, and overall chaos.

In summary, Fundamental Rights should be inalienable rights or property or contract related. Elevating too many Fundamental Rights creates conflict and chaos in the justice system. A Fundamental Right is common and beneficial to all individuals and therefore Fundamental Rights elevated by the Court should not set off bitterness, resentment, and argument. Finally, our monopolized government should do a better job protecting our Fundamental Rights and rights in general.