Politicians like to talk about "natural rights" before they try to get rid of civil rights
Should our rights be granted by the government, or, rather, was Thomas Jefferson correct when writing in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”?
In this instance, “unalienable rights” include those that we as humans are naturally born with and cannot be taken away or repealed by any person or government. The overarching foundation on which the United States Constitution rests is the primary assumption that the rights of “we the people” are protected from governmental power, rather than granted by that government.
John Locke, in his 1690 “Second Treatise of Government,” put forward the concept that the power of government originates from the consent of the governed, writing, “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.”
Locke’s positions of freedom and liberty “by nature” established the nucleus of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which declares:
“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.”
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