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The Constitutional Literacy Project
“The liberties of our
country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all
hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have
received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they
purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and
blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an
everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is,
if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a
struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing
men.” – Samuel Adams
Many Americans know the
preamble to the United States Constitution and the second paragraph of the
Declaration of Independence. They also may be able to recite at least some
of the enumerated Bill of Rights. But few know these documents are
considered our Founding Documents, documents that carry equal importance in
the creation and execution of our government. Even fewer understand the
principles, history and philosophy surrounding the creation of these
remarkable documents. To be an American is to understand and to have a
reasonable commitment to the ideas in America's founding documents. |
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Positive Rights, the Constitution and Conservatives
& Moderate Libertarians
Eugene
Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy
Some recent conversations I've heard about "positive
rights" and American legal traditions made me want
to repeat something I've written before: While it's
true that the U.S. Constitution lacks some of the
"positive rights" that people sometimes discuss
under that label (e.g., a right to shelter, to
medical care, to a subsistence income, and so on),
it does secure other positive rights; and indeed,
some positive rights are a longstanding feature of
American legal traditions. I think such rights
should remain limited, but I think one shouldn't
deny that they exist, and are in some measure
secured by the U.S. Constitution (and state
constitutions).
First, some definitions. The term "right" is a broad
one, which encompasses many different kinds of
entitlement.
Rights can be against the government (e.g., the
freedom of speech or the right to keep and bear
arms) or against private entities (e.g., the right
to be free from trespass, negligent or intentional
injury, or defamation).
Rights can be constitutional (e.g., the freedom of
speech), statutory (e.g., copyright, which is
authorized by the constitution but actually secured
by Congressional statute, or freedom from many kinds
of private discrimination), common-law (e.g.,
historically, rights to be free from private
trespasses, negligence, defamation, breach of
contract, etc.), or contractual, depending on which
source of law secures those rights.
Read more... |
¨Reading:
The Internet Is Not
Government's to Regulate
Jim Harper, The Cato Institute
Imagine that Congress passed a law setting up a
procedure that could require ordinary citizens like
you to remove telephone numbers from your phone book
or from the "contacts" list in your phone. What
about a policy that cut off the phone lines to an
entire building because some of its tenants used the
phone to plot thefts or fraud? Would it be okay with
you if the user of the numbers coming out of your
phone records or the tenants of the cut-off building
had been adjudged "rogue" users of the phone.
Cutting off phone lines is the closest familiar
parallel to what Congress is considering in two
bills nicknamed "SOPA" and "PIPA" -- the "Stop
Online Piracy Act" and the "Protect IP Act.".
¹Viewing:
Understanding Our Government
Many people in the United States -- and around the world -- believe that the
United States is a Democracy. It is not, and for good reason. Our Framers
and Founders bequeathed to the citizens a Constitutional Republic, doing so
for some very good reasons, chief among them was to avoid the tyranny of the
majority, or mob rule. |
It is the mission of BasicsProject.org to make sure that every American is
afforded the opportunity of understanding these remarkable documents, the
covenant between citizen and the uniquely American form of government. We
believe that through a greater understanding of the principles on which our
government was built our citizenry will better understand that e pluribus
unum, the idea that we are out of many, one. Through our representative
form of government and through the rule of law created by our Framers,
common ground can be found and solutions can be crafted for each critical
issue that may arise before the people of the United States. We believe that
by understanding these invaluable tools bequeathed to us for our
stewardship, we will successfully maintain and bequeath them, yet again, to
future generations so the great American experiment can continue.
Examinations
Explore the basic elements of the philosophy used by our
Founders and Framers to craft the Charters of Freedom
and our unique American system of government; our
Constitutional Republic.
Curriculum
Further your knowledge of the Charters of Freedom -- The
Declaration of Independence, The United States
Constitution and The US Bill of Rights by engaging our
Constitutional Literacy Program. Included are an
examination of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers
and much more. |
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