{"id":270,"date":"2003-12-05T12:14:31","date_gmt":"2003-12-05T17:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2003\/12\/rights_versus_privileges\/"},"modified":"2003-12-05T12:14:31","modified_gmt":"2003-12-05T17:14:31","slug":"rights_versus_privileges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2003\/12\/rights_versus_privileges\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights Versus Privileges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago Say Uncle raised a question on whether driving was a “right” or a “privilege.”<\/a> A few days prior to that, the right\/privilege distinction had been raised in my mind when I read this quote<\/a>, courtesy of Condoleezza Rice:<\/p>\n

The US National Security Adviser seemed confident that the Bush trip will go well and insisted that Bush and Blair still share the same vision. ‘Look, we are realistic,’ she said. ‘We know that people will spend a lot of time reporting the protest. That is fine. Protests are a part of our democratic heritage and our democratic privilege.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Protesting–a privilege<\/i>? What about that Bill of Rights<\/i> thing?
\nThis may seem like semantical nitpicking, but there is a notable difference between a right<\/i> and a privilege<\/i>. Black’s Law Dictionary<\/i> defines the terms as follows:<\/p>\n

RIGHT: “Rights are defined generally as ‘powers of free action.’ And the primal rights pertaining to men are enjoyed by human beings purely as such, being grounded in personality, and existing antecedently to their recognition by positive law.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PRIVILEGE: “A particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or class, beyond the common advantages of other citizens. An exceptional or extraordinary power or exemption. A peculiar right, advantage, exemption, power, franchise, or immunity held by a person or class, not generally possessed by others.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So are protesting and driving rights or privileges?
\nThe First Amendment<\/a> clearly addresses the first question:<\/p>\n

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While government can put reasonable limitations on the manner we protest, we don’t need Dr. Rice or anyone else in the Bush administration to give us permission to protest.
\nAs for the second, courts also consider freedom to travel to be a right. However, the verdict appears to be mixed on whether the freedom to drive<\/i> is a right or not. I’m frankly not sure how to categorize it.
\nIt’s important to be vigilant on how those in power attempt to define our rights. For, as Benjamin Franklin said, “It is the first responsibility of any citizen to question authority.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago Say Uncle raised a question on whether driving was a “right” or a “privilege.” A few days prior to that, the right\/privilege distinction had been raised in my mind when I read this quote, courtesy of Condoleezza Rice: The US National Security Adviser seemed confident that the Bush trip will go […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}