Rights Versus Privileges - Pennsylvania leading once again

Submitted by Susan Kidder, Jul 17, 2007 11:55

Our Founding Fathers in framing both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution explicitly granted "inalienable rights" to individuals and restricted groups (i.e. Corporations) to privileges.

Free Speech is a right, Habeas Corpus is a right, etc. ... or at least they used to be ... but a driver's license is a privilege ... one that is contingent upon the adherence of certain (well defined) stands of behavior.

Pennsylvania has the distinction of being the only Commonweath in the nation to have revoked the corporate charter of a bank that had serious behaved. You led once before, and you are leading now.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
Thanks, Channing, for writing up environmental defense with local folks taking responsibility to drive out the chief offenders---corporate dumpers. But... [MORE]	David W. Lewit	Jul 27, 2007 22:26
i also say hurray! cities towns counties and states must take matters into their own hands when the federal government... [MORE]	Peter C	Jul 25, 2007 12:38
Be mindful of unintended consequences when praising these Pennsylvania podunks. The article uses the antebellum abolitionists as the model emulated... [MORE]	Daniel Martin	Jul 21, 2007 04:33
With regard to Mr. Kauffman's comments about categorizing the Pennsylvania actions as "radical," the headline writers at The Sun were... [MORE]	Mum	Jul 20, 2007 15:04
Hurray for Mr. Morrison, Tamaqua, and those challenging corporations. The "rights" of corporations were given by a mistake in the... [MORE]	Evelyn J. Dymkowski	Jul 17, 2007 19:36
Our Founding Fathers in framing both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution explicitly granted "inalienable rights" to individuals and...	Susan Kidder	Jul 17, 2007 11:55
Please quote the portion of the constitution in question. [MORE]	Exotic Electron	Jul 17, 2007 11:44
Good to see an article on this important and tricky subject. Well done! [MORE]	Jon Swan	Jul 17, 2007 10:25
Dears Sirs: I can assure you that conservative Pennsylvanian legislators would not pass something that is "RADICAL". Controversial is different... [MORE]	Tim Kauffman	Jul 17, 2007 07:54
From the article:"More than 100 largely Republican municipalities have passed laws to abolish the constitutional rights of corporations" Corporations are not... [MORE]	Concerned	Jul 17, 2007 05:29
Good article! It's about time for real people to take rights away from the corporate aristocracy and corporate rule and... [MORE]	Michael Malloy	Jul 17, 2007 00:51