Whimsical Rights

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And we come to the crux of the question: Are rights “inalienable” and “endowed by [the] Creator” ? Or are they fabricated by absolutely sovereign states, their constitutions, laws, and treaties? Finally, we get a glimpse into the motivating political philosophy of Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has thankfully resigned his position.

Without mentioning that case specifically, Ashcroft criticized rulings he said found “expansive private rights in treaties where they never existed” that run counter to the broad discretionary powers given the president by the Constitution.

In other words, rights are created by treaties and constitutions, not inalienably endowed by the Creator. The mixture of authoritarian power with absolute sovereignty is exactly what libertarians and liberals alike fear in the current administration. (Although liberals also view humans rights as fabricated by state sovereignty; they simply fear authoritarian power in the hands of the right. They do not ordinarily question its foundation, only its bias toward the right side of the political spectrum.)

If states bestow human rights by fiat, they can revoke them by whim.

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