Libertarian Judicial Activism

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B.R. Merrick's picture

In the original post, Rockwell said: "Some black-robed occupier in California may not overturn a popular vote against gay marriage..." I would ask, can some black-robed occupier in California overtun a popular vote against n*ggers if he finds it unconstitutional? Is there something sacrosanct about popular opinion to be found within libertarian ideology?

He goes on to say: "Unfortunately, in the American system, there are only states rights. This was a mistake. There should also be town rights, county rights, etc. as Jefferson noted." If anything called rights truly exists, perhaps someone could educate me how states, towns, counties, etc. can have them?

And at the top of LRC it still says "Anti-state." I wonder.

Suverans2's picture

"If anything called rights truly exists..." ~ B.R. Merrick

RIGHT, n. ...5. Just claim; legal title; ownership; the legal power of exclusive possession and enjoyment.

Every individual, unless he forfeits[1] it, has a natural right, i.e. a "just claim" to his own life, liberty and lawfully acquired property, (and no one else's). If you don't have a "just claim" to your life, liberty and lawfully acquired property then there can be no such thing as murder, slavery and theft, for you. How difficult can this be to understand?

[1] FOR'FEIT, v.t. for'fit. [Low L. forisfacere, from L. foris, out or abroad, and facio, to make.] To lose or render confiscable, by some fault, offense or crime... ~ Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language

"Attack another’s rights and you destroy your own." ~ John Jay Chapman

Suverans2's picture

"Every individual, unless he forfeits it, has a natural right, i.e. a "just claim" to his own life, liberty and lawfully acquired property, (and no one else's)." ~ Suverans2

This is why "natural" rights are sometimes referred to as "inalienable" or "unalienable", the individual cannot be alienated from, i.e. dispossessed of, his natural rights by the laws of men.

The law of nature is superior in obligation to any other. It is binding in all countries and at all times. No human laws are valid if opposed to this, and all which are binding derive their authority either directly or indirectly from it. ~ Institutes of American Law by John Bouvier, 1851, Part I, Title II, No. 9

Only you can forfeit your own natural rights, by not recognizing and respecting the natural rights of others.

"Attack another’s [natural] rights and you destroy your own." ~ John Jay Chapman

Suverans2's picture

Here are some of the quotes from Strike to Root concerning rights.

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws...." ~ John Adams

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can." ~ Samuel Adams

"The use of 'religion' as an excuse to repress the freedom of expression and to deny human rights is not confined to any country or time." ~ Margaret Atwood

"Liberty is the soul's right to breathe and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature." ~ Benjamin Franklin

“There is a sacred realm of privacy for every man and woman where he makes his choices and decisions-a realm of his own essential rights and liberties into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude.” ~ Geoffrey Fisher

"The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot." ~ William Ellery Channing

"Attack another’s rights and you destroy your own." ~ John Jay Chapman

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become prey to the active.  The conditions upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime...." ~ John Philpot Curran

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.  That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants.  It is the right which they first of all strike down." ~ Frederick Douglass

"It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy.  History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end." ~ Felix Frankfurter

Reprint Rights from Strike the Root http://strike-the-root.com/republish.html

It is precisely because we have a “right”, i.e. a “just claim”, to certain things, that makes it “wrong” to take them. ~ Suverans2

B.R. Merrick's picture

You've posted a lot of quotes, but I still don't see where rights exist separate from natural phenomena. I have volition, and I have observed that I do not appreciate its being violated by another, that death commences when I am separated from it. I understand what you mean when you say "rights," but explaining it and giving me quotes, whether from STR or not, does not prove its existence. Volition, however, is provable and existent.

Surely, you agree that states, counties, and towns have no rights. That was my main point. I am disappointed in Lew Rockwell's comment.

Suverans2's picture

I posted a lot of quotes merely to demonstrate that at least one other individual, here at STR, and all the authors of those quotes, must know that "rights" exist.

"Volition, however, is provable and existent." ~ B.R. Merrick

volition noun: the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention

will noun: the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention

You may believe that volition, or will, is "provable and existent", however, you may have a very difficult time doing so with those individuals who believe in predestination. For example, do you believe that every individual makes a "conscious choice" to be homosexual, or is it predestined, (at least in some cases)?

Yes, B.R. Merrick, I most certainly agree that artificial entities have no rights, but what you question, in the first half of that "main point", is whether rights, i.e. just claims, exist. Loss of natural rights is death. You cannot even RIGHTFULLY defend your life if you do not have a "just claim" to it.

B.R. Merrick's picture

I may not be able to "RIGHTFULLY defend" my life if I "do not have a 'just claim' to it," but I can certainly VOLITIONALLY defend it, which is the most likely, logical reaction.

Suverans2's picture

No, sir, you don't "consciously decide" to try to defend your life, it is only NATURAL that you try to defend your life, it's INNATE, you were, therefore, PREDESTINED to attempt to defend it; it's a natural reaction. However, if you are not in the "right" when attempting to defend it, you may have a very difficult time trying to find anyone who will support your effort...oh, maybe a bleeding-heart liberal, or two, carrying protest signs, but no one else. If you doubt this, go to the next available execution of a child molester/murderer.

B.R. Merrick's picture

Whether or not I am "in the 'right' when attempting to defend it" is subjective. This is why most people will not lift a finger to stop the exectuion of a child molester/murderer, but will react with a natural, innate empathy when someone esteemed innocent or good is violated. Their subjective minds, filled with empathy, sympathy, justice, and what they feel is right, react negatively to abhorrent behavior directed at the weakest among us, for the most part. So I still don't see where the "right" is in existence, or where I would need it if I am surrounded by empathetic individuals who share a mutual interest in life-oriented society.