Kary L. Moss Quotes
No one should have to choose between their constitutional rights and providing for their families.
The state of Michigan was trying to require adult welfare recipients to undergo random drug testing while adults not on welfare had the Constitutional right to be tested only if there was some reason to suspect them. See #.
Kary L. Moss, Executive Director, Michigan Civil Liberties Union, Press Release, September 5, 2000
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Note the use of the phrase “against the government.” One of the unique aspects of the American Constitution and The Bill of Rights is that the government is considered a potential and even probable infringer on the liberties of the people. It is almost as though the government was the potential enemy. Modern libertarians state this very explicitly and it is ever present in the views of both the right and left wings of American politics. Most centrists recoil at the thought that some citizens see the government as the enemy, but even in America there have been times where the government has infringed on the rights of citizens only to have the courts or future administrations and Congresses correct the error.
The state of Michigan was trying to require adult welfare recipients to undergo random drug testing while adults not on welfare had the Constitutional right to be tested only if there was some reason to suspect them. See for a reaction to the case.
He had been a Congressman before assuming the Presidency. Civil rights was a major subject of debate after the Civil War. One major issue was that of citizenship itself. Many contended that Americans were citizens of a state and dependant on the state for the protection of civil rights. However, the extent to which the Federal government could and should be the guarantor of citizenship issues was in dispute. Today with the issue settled in favor of Federal preeminence, it is hard to realize that this was very unsettled at one point in history. Garfield was one of those leading the effort for more Federal involvement and control.
Many New Yorkers and others felt that since the attack on the World Trade Center was made in the name of Islam, the mosque and commuity center should be built in another location further from Ground Zero. Ellison was debating someone who argued that the Mosque should not be built so that sensitivity can be shown for those New Yorkers who lost relatives and friends in the attack of September 11. Rather than insist on their Constitutional rights, the Muslim leadership of the project, moved the location somewhat further away from Ground Zero.
Most politicians and philosophers would argue that liberty is both an individual right and a group right. However there are money who do not recognize group rights and feel that they are inimical to individual rights.
