My rights don't come from laws! No government gave them to me. I was born with them as they were endowed by my creator.
Feel free to say that in court and see how far it gets you. lol
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That (2) to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, (3) deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Exactly where in this does it address whether the NWS was legal or whether HERA was constitutional...or the freedom of speech for that matter? I think your one sentence statement isn't going to cover all rights...
Natural and legal rights are two types of rights. Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are universal and inalienable (they cannot repealed or restrained by human laws). Legal rights are those bestowed onto a person by a given legal system (they can be modified, repealed, and restrained by human laws).
Your original sentence was "Uh, laws don't establish rights. Laws can be used to protect, limit and/or interpret our rights - but they definitely don't establish rights. " The post you made above directly contradicts this statement by calling them "Legal rights" indicating that laws do, in fact, establish rights.
Furthermore, the last time I checked, we are talking about a court of law here. Therefore, we are obviously talking about legal rights and not natural rights.
The Bill of Rights was written and added to the Constitution to protect individual liberty - to put limits on government power.
This is an oxymoron. A limit on government power IS a creation of private rights. We have the RIGHT for the government not to barge into our houses without probable cause. We have the RIGHT to an attorney in court. We have the RIGHT to not have the government squat in our homes. We have the RIGHT for government not to be able to tell us we can't drink, marry and vote. These are rights established, not by God, but by man.
