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REDO THE FIRST TWO AMENDMENTS
BOSTON GLOBE ^ | 16 DECEMBER 2021 | MARY ANNE FRANKS

Posted on 12/16/2021 4:12:50 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist

Speech and guns: two of the most contentious issues in America today, with controversies fueled not only by personal passions and identity politics but by competing interpretations of the Constitution. Perhaps more than any other parts of the Constitution, the First and Second Amendments inspire religious-like fervor in many Americans, with accordingly irrational results.

As legal texts go, neither of the two amendments is a model of clarity or precision. More important, both are deeply flawed in their respective conceptualizations of some of the most important rights of a democratic society: the freedom of expression and religion and the right of self-defense. These two amendments are highly susceptible to being read in isolation from the Constitution as a whole and from its commitments to equality and the collective good. The First and Second Amendments tend to be interpreted in aggressively individualistic ways that ignore the reality of conflict among competing rights. This in turn allows the most powerful members of society to reap the benefits of these constitutional rights at the expense of vulnerable groups. Both amendments would be improved by explicitly situating individual rights within the framework of “domestic tranquility” and the “general welfare” set out in the Constitution’s preamble.

(Excerpt) Read more at apps.bostonglobe.com ...


TOPICS: Reference; Society
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; boston; bostonglobe; maryannefranks; massachusetts; mediawingofthednc; nra; panicporn; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; secondamendment
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

author of “The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech.”

Bimbo... from the privileged life. Oxford as a student when 9/11 happened. Then Harvard where she refined her hate of America.


41 posted on 12/16/2021 4:35:23 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up....)
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To: Noumenon

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

L


42 posted on 12/16/2021 4:35:46 PM PST by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
This in turn allows the most powerful members of society to reap the benefits of these constitutional rights at the expense of vulnerable groups.

A nice summation of the foundational assumptions of Critical Law Theory. In fact, a carefully written - and they were - amendment lays out rules for everyone that do NOT benefit only the powerful. One may certainly criticize the inevitable flaws in clarity of language resulting over two and a third centuries but not because of any tendency toward "inequity".

For example, here is her reimagining of the Second Amendment:

All people have the right to bodily autonomy consistent with the right of other people to the same, including the right to defend themselves against unlawful force and the right of self-determination in reproductive matters. The government shall take reasonable measures to protect the health and safety of the public as a whole.

This is essentially an excision of the right to arms in favor of the right to abortion, with complete dependence on whatever the government considers "reasonable", up to and including prohibition of the possession of the means of that self-defense. We are no longer even talking about rights in the sense of limitations on what a government is allowed to do, we are talking about privileges granted that may on a whim be withdrawn. In short, she simply does not understand the function of the Bill of Rights as a guard against limitless governmental power. That's pretty fundamental.

43 posted on 12/16/2021 4:36:42 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Her Chinese momma taught her well about collectivism being better than caring about individual freedom, then Oxford and Harvard refined it.


44 posted on 12/16/2021 4:37:11 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up....)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
There is NO ambiguity in the 2nd Amendment. Liberals try to ambiguize it with the firt clause but that clause does not affect the status of the rest of the Amendment. It only provides one reason for the ban on infringement of the RKBA. Where is the ambiguity in "...shall not be infringed?" The ambiguity comes in the courts and the legislatures. ALL laws save the Kennesaw GA gun law violate the Constitution.

The 1st is likewise clear but is not absolute in itself. If says "Congress shall make no law...." That leaves it for the states to finagle. That is finessed by the "Incorporation" of the amendments to include the states in that ban. The 2nd is not affected by Incorporation. It already applies to all levels of the polity, arguably including individuals and property owners.

45 posted on 12/16/2021 4:38:41 PM PST by arthurus (covfefe *|)
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To: ealgeone
And there it is folks....a call to turn your protection over to the gubmint.

The author completely (I suspect intentionally) misses the point that the Founding Fathers were making. The intent is to protect us from runaway government ambitions by prohibiting said government from infringing on our right and means to protect ourselves.

46 posted on 12/16/2021 4:41:50 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Biden/Harris - illegitimate and everyone knows it.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Yes. Make it a right to shoot reporters who come within 10 feet of you or your property.


47 posted on 12/16/2021 4:44:16 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: ThunderSleeps
Yep...she thinks like all Leftists do. That gubmint is benign and benevolent and we should always trust gubmint.

Sorry, sister....ain't happening here.

48 posted on 12/16/2021 4:44:23 PM PST by ealgeone
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Hollywood Squares

Peter Marshall : “Pride, anger, coveteousness, lust, gluttony, envy, and sloth are collectively known as what?”

Paul Lynde : “The Bill of Rights.”


49 posted on 12/16/2021 4:44:34 PM PST by DFG
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Bottom of the article...

Mary Anne Franks is the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair at the University of Miami School of Law and the author of “The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech.”

"Cult of the Constitution."

Straight outta Progville, no hope for this one.

.

50 posted on 12/16/2021 4:44:54 PM PST by TLI (ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

” She is also a vocal proponent of hand-to-hand self-defense techniques over the use of firearms: “What troubles me about Florida when it comes to the psychology of self-defense is that our answer for defending ourselves is always a gun. Krav Maga is a nuanced approach to defending oneself and protecting one’s space. You can respond effectively, but no one gets shot, no one dies.”

That’s nice bimbo. Senior citizens should all learn Krav Maga. And even though you are an supposedly an expert, a large male would destroy you despite what you see it so many hit movies today.


51 posted on 12/16/2021 4:45:27 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up....)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

There is no “collective good” in the constitution. It promotes the general welfare by protecting individual rights.


52 posted on 12/16/2021 4:46:58 PM PST by MortMan (You better bring yours, when you come to take mine. - Creed Fisher)
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To: BobL
The Second Amendment needs to be rewritten to more carefully enunciate the list "militia" and "keep and bear arms". Folks who can't parse the language of the Founders always mistakenly think the two are tied together.

The term "Bill of Rights" is just like "Bill of Laden", "Bill of Materials", "Grocery Bill", "Bill of Sale". It is a list. The confusion seems to center around the use of commas in the list. Most people get it.

53 posted on 12/16/2021 4:47:08 PM PST by GingisK
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To: Dr. Sivana

It is hard to believe the author is a law professor.

The Federalist Papers makes it clear that a major purpose of the Second Amendment is to give people the right to keep and bear arms so that the States can form or call up a militia outside Federal control as a check against the Federal power conferred by the Constitution to form and operate a military. This was intended as a reassurance to the States as a restraint on runaway Federal power. Her proposal completely ignores this purpose.

The right to use deadly force in self defense in appropriate cases, including the use of firearms, was already well established by the common law when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ratified. The Second Amendment also constitutionalizes this right. Her proposal eviscerates it.

After all, you only have one life to live that we know about and the government is really in no position to protect it.


54 posted on 12/16/2021 4:47:48 PM PST by plymaniac
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To: Billthedrill

She appears to understand it, she just disagrees with it, and thinks that an authoritarian power is better than limited government.


55 posted on 12/16/2021 4:48:36 PM PST by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
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To: arthurus

This stems from people’s misunderstanding the “Bill”. The “Bill of Rights” is a comma separated list, much the same way as a “Bill of Materials”.


56 posted on 12/16/2021 4:51:15 PM PST by GingisK
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
All the rights of individuals in the first amendment should be taken together as different sides of the same concept:

The core concept of the second amendment is not about the arms per se, it is that the militia is necessary for the security of a free state. The militia, by definition, is an armed citizenry who are protecting the rights laid out in the first amendment.

-PJ

57 posted on 12/16/2021 4:51:15 PM PST by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: BobL

The second amendment does not give any rights to our people. It only recognizes the God given rights that have always existed and forbids infringing upon them.


58 posted on 12/16/2021 4:52:01 PM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Lurker

You damn right! End women’s suffrage!! Haven’t they suffered long enough?!


59 posted on 12/16/2021 4:53:14 PM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: ThunderSleeps

Start messing with the first and second amendments and someday she’ll be writing “The Diary of Mary Anne Franks” in someone’s attic.


60 posted on 12/16/2021 4:53:45 PM PST by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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