At 10:27 PM 12/23/2003 -0800 Deborah Harrell wrote:
>> "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> > Robert Seeberger wrote:
>
>> >I think the point Tom is riffing on is that Rush
>> has repeatedly
>> >claimed that there is no constitutional right to
>> privacy.
>> >That would likely apply also to medical records.
>
>> Why does arguing that there is no constitution right
>> to privacy to have
>> abortions or homosexual relationships at all apply
>> to the execution of the
>> laws of Florida regarding medical records?
>>
>> Or more generally, what is so inconsistent about
>> saying that there is no
>> right to privacy to have an abortion or a homosexual
>> relationship, but that
>> there is a right to privacy that protects one from a
>> government's
>> unreasonable search of your medical records?
>
><jaw dropping>
>How can you *possibly* equate sexual activity between
>consenting adults to abortion? Especially since
>homosexual sex has *no* chance of leading to abortion?
Deborah, I have made no such equation.
Rather, I am referring to the fact that Roe vs. Wade is the _original_
"right to privacy case" in the United States. The US Supreme Court in
that case, did not find a right to abortion in that case - how could they?
- but rather found that 'the penumbra of the Constitution' contains a right
to privacy.
Conservatives, of course, were immediately outraged that somehow this idea
from the "penumbra" of the Constitution could somehow cast aside the
central question of determining when human life begins in this case .
Ever since, objection to this "right to privacy" has been a central tenet
of the pro-life movement.
As you might imagine, the Supreme Court did themselves no favor by invoking
this same "right to privacy" from the "penumbra" in ruling all sodomy laws
unconstitutional - especially in a way that appeared to indicate that they
would soon be imposing homosexual marriage on the United States.
Naturally, this invocation of the "right to privacy" from the "penumbra"
would be simply wholly unconvincing to conservatives - indeed, it would
instead be viewed as an antagonistic source of outrage.
Anyhow, this "right to privacy" from the "penumbra" is very logically held
by many people, including Rush Limbaugh, to be quite different from the
Constitutional protections against "unreasonable search and seizure" that
protect a citizen, such as Rush Limbaugh, from havin his medical records
searched "unreasonably" and without "due process."*
JDG
* - To be clear, I have not read any of the briefs in the Florida case, and
these statements should not be taken as an endorsement of Mr. Limbaugh's
legal position. Rather, I am simply noting that Rush Limbaugh's arguments
were predicted on the Florida prosecutors' search being "unreasonable" and
not following the due process provisions of Florida State Law - and
regardless of the merit of these claims, they are logically different from
the "penumbra" claims of the abortion and sodomy cases.
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
