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During the recent Senate confirmation hearings, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) asked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whether citizens have a right to self-defense, Justice Sotomayor told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I don’t know.”
Senator Coburn then asked, “As a citizen of this country, do you believe innately in my ability to have self-defense of myself – personal self-defense? Do I have a right to personal self-defense?”
Justice Sotomayor replied, “I’m trying to think if I remember a case where the Supreme Court has addressed that particular question. Is there a constitutional right to self-defense? And I can’t think of one. I could be wrong, but I can’t think of one.”
Senator Coburn did not ask about a constitutional right, Judge Sotomayor added the qualifier of "constitutional" to her response to avoid having to admit that citizens do have the right to self-defense.
The right to self-defense is an inalienable right. It's one of those rights the Founders spoke of that go hand and hand with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Suppose Judge Sotomayor was asked, "Do citizens of the United States of America have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"
And Judge Sotomayor replied, “I’m trying to think if I remember a case where the Supreme Court has addressed that particular question. Is there a constitutional right to (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness)? And I can’t think of one. I could be wrong, but I can’t think of one.”
From her own words, it is glaringly obvious that Sonia Sotomayor embraces a political orthodoxy that adheres to the notion that people's rights emanate from the government they are subject to. Such a belief is contrary, almost to a degree of blaspheme, to the founding principles of America .
America was founded under the principle of individual freedom and liberty, and that we are endowed with natural, or inalienable, rights. Not that we are allowed our rights by some perceived benevolence of government. Just the opposite - as Thomas Jefferson wrote in our Declaration of Independence, our government was instituted to secure our rights.
For a prospective Supreme Court Justice to espouse a philosophy completely contrary to the philosophy of America's founding, he or she should be immediately disqualified from sitting on the bench of America's highest court.
D A Roberts
Senator Coburn then asked, “As a citizen of this country, do you believe innately in my ability to have self-defense of myself – personal self-defense? Do I have a right to personal self-defense?”
Justice Sotomayor replied, “I’m trying to think if I remember a case where the Supreme Court has addressed that particular question. Is there a constitutional right to self-defense? And I can’t think of one. I could be wrong, but I can’t think of one.”
Senator Coburn did not ask about a constitutional right, Judge Sotomayor added the qualifier of "constitutional" to her response to avoid having to admit that citizens do have the right to self-defense.
The right to self-defense is an inalienable right. It's one of those rights the Founders spoke of that go hand and hand with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Suppose Judge Sotomayor was asked, "Do citizens of the United States of America have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"
And Judge Sotomayor replied, “I’m trying to think if I remember a case where the Supreme Court has addressed that particular question. Is there a constitutional right to (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness)? And I can’t think of one. I could be wrong, but I can’t think of one.”
From her own words, it is glaringly obvious that Sonia Sotomayor embraces a political orthodoxy that adheres to the notion that people's rights emanate from the government they are subject to. Such a belief is contrary, almost to a degree of blaspheme, to the founding principles of America .
America was founded under the principle of individual freedom and liberty, and that we are endowed with natural, or inalienable, rights. Not that we are allowed our rights by some perceived benevolence of government. Just the opposite - as Thomas Jefferson wrote in our Declaration of Independence, our government was instituted to secure our rights.
For a prospective Supreme Court Justice to espouse a philosophy completely contrary to the philosophy of America's founding, he or she should be immediately disqualified from sitting on the bench of America's highest court.
D A Roberts
