Most important right guaranteed by the Constitution...

[Beatnik]

I carpool with a gentleman from Peru. He just took his citizenship test yesterday.

On the way to work Tuesday, I was asking him what kind of questions he'd be asked. He did his homework and was practically reciting the questions word-for-word...

He chose one out of the blue: "What is the most important right guaranteed by the Constitution?"

"Oh?" I reply, "What's the 'officially correct' answer?"

"The right to vote."

"Well, Paco, you'd better give them the answer they're looking for, but let me tell you what the most important right really is."

He kind of giggled when I pointed out that you can't do anything about your precious right to vote being taken away if you don't have guns. He knows I'm serious, but I don't know if he took it seriously.

So if this is how we're officially indoctrinating foreign-born citizens, how bad must it be for natural born citizens?

 

[rocinante]

Folks don't get it. They are under the delusion planet earth is a civilized place. Our founding fathers and heinlein understood. I get it too.

 

[leadcounsel]

All of the rights are great ideas, but toothless without the 2nd Amendment to protect them.

 

[husbandofaromanian]

My wife is an immigrant from Romania. I've learned that people from most of the world have lived in crappy conditions and have a strong reality check on what is important and what is just happy talk. That's why immigrants do so well in business here. The only immigrants you will see wringing their hands over firearms will be from western Europe. Next time a tyrant wants to march over western Europe I would like for us to stay out of the way.

 

[Water-Man]

We have the 2nd and we have plenty of guns but this country is still going downhill so I guess those things are not enough. It's what we do or don't do with the things we have that makes the difference.

 

[Vermont]

The right to vote is also pretty worthless without the right to a free press and free speech.

It's hard for me to say that one right is the most important.

 

[jakemccoy]

He chose one out of the blue: "What is the most important right guaranteed by the Constitution?"

"Oh?" I reply, "What's the 'officially correct' answer?"

"The right to vote."

Wow, where in the Constitution is the right to vote guaranteed?

Tell your carpool buddy, he had better hold onto rights that are clearly there, such as the RKBA.

http://www.usconstitution.net/constnot.html#vote

...the Constitution never explicitly ensures the right to vote, as it does the right to speech, for example. It does require that Representatives be chosen and Senators be elected by "the People," and who comprises "the People" has been expanded by the aforementioned amendments several times. Aside from these requirements, though, the qualifications for voters are left to the states. And as long as the qualifications do not conflict with anything in the Constitution, that right can be withheld. For example, in Texas, persons declared mentally incompetent and felons currently in prison or on probation are denied the right to vote. It is interesting to note that though the 26th Amendment requires that 18-year-olds must be able to vote, states can allow persons younger than 18 to vote, if they chose to.

 

[Cohibra45]

We have free speech, but getting it published by the free press is a problem!!! The 'free press' has its own agenda and if your aren't in line with the mainstream press, your words won't get printed/aired without extreme editing to where what you said originally isn't anything like what gets out!!!!!!!:banghead:

 

[Vermont]

We have free speech, but getting it published by the free press is a problem!!! The 'free press' has its own agenda and if your aren't in line with the mainstream press, your words won't get printed/aired without extreme editing to where what you said originally isn't anything like what gets out!!!!!!!

You can blame the free market for that. They wouldn't print it if it didn't make them money.

 

[RPCVYemen]

I think that a pretty powerful argument could be make for the right to vote - since that right allows you to modify all of the others. The fact that amending the Constitution is done by voting means that all other rights (or the legal recognition of those rights, depending on your philosophy) can be modified or destroyed by voting. A Constitutional Convention could rescind any of the Amendments, including the BoR.

That being said, I think the framers got it right. Our (American) freedom depends on all of the BoR. Take away any one, and the others will suffer.

Mike

 

[jakemccoy]

...but there simply is no Constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.

 

[Hoplophile]

While we all love the second amendment, let's not forget how important the first is

 

[Larry E]

When I lived in Seattle it was interesting to see the number of Asian immigrants who bought and shot rifles and handguns as soon as they could legally possess them. They were mostly from SE Asia and Korea, and they seemed to appreciate the value of owning a firearm or more....

 

[searcher451]

You can't cherry-pick the amendments, giving some more credence than others, adopting some while rejecting others. Each has equal weight and importance.

At the same time, the notion of a free press is both interesting and misunderstood. The Founding Fathers knew that it boiled down to this: If you don't like what the other fellow prints, and if he won't print what you'd like him to, then start your own press and print what you want; nothing in the Constitution will stop you. A number of the Founding Fathers did exactly that and started their own newspapers and/or magazines.

The beauty of moden technology is that it has allowed us all to opine at great length on all manner and variety of topics -- although I for one am not sure that we are a better place for it.

 

[camslam]

The right to vote is great, as is free speech, religion, rights to privacy, etc...

But the realities are, talk is cheap, if you can't back up that talk, you don't have anything at all.

You can fight for your right to the other freedoms, but without the 2nd amendment and the arms it gives us the right to own, the rest of our freedoms wouldn't be worth much.

It is too bad most don't realize the what really gives them the blanket of their freedoms.

 

[mbt2001]

The right to privacy, to be free from Governmental intrusion and influence.

 

[qajaq59]

My right to vote would carry a lot more weight if I wasn't reading about the same guy in Chicago being registered to vote 15 times by that Acorn group. Or if I had not heard on the radio yesterday that some damn fool registered a dead goldfish.

 

[Telumehtar]

Personally I think it's a very misleading question. The rights as spelled out in the Bill of Rights are all derivatives of the three basic inalienable rights. And these rights are spelled out in a specific order because those have a hierarchical order to them in order of importance as well. That is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The most important Right is the Right to Life, for without Life you can neither enjoy/excercise Liberty, nor pursue Happiness.

The second most important is the right to Liberty, for without it, you cannot pursue Happiness.

As I said, All other rights are simply derivitives of those three fundamental rights.

The right to Free speech is derivative of the right to Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It can also serve to protect the right to Life Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness by being used to rouse others to the defense of the Constitution and our Rights.

The Right to keep and bear arms, and in fact use them for self defense is a derivative of the Right to Life and Liberty that also happens to serve as a protector of those rights. I would argue also it is a derivative of the Right to Pursue Happiness as I am sure many on these forums will attest that collecting a new "toy" seems to bring smiles to an aweful lot of faces.

The Right to practice your religion is a derivitive of Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, and depending on the Religion possibly even a right to Life(eternal or otherwise).

I could keep going, but I think the picture has been painted...

Note also that we place ever higher orders of reverance on those who give up their Rights in defense of our own. For those who give their life defending this country, we bury them with the highest honors. For those injured or imprisoned we often give them medals, and recognition in honor of their sacrifice and willingness to endure hardship. And finally we have(or should have) a certain level of respect for those wearing a uniform because they are volunteering to put their rights on hold for the duration of their service.

Furthermore our penal system(when it is/was sane) also recognizes this hierarchical order of Life/Liberty/Pursuit of happiness when issuing penalties in lieu of a crime. The concept of Just punishment is built upon the premise of a hierarchical order of Rights.

For minor infractions we often settle for denying the criminal their right to Pursue Happiness in balance with the level of their crime. A speeding motorist will receive a speeding ticket thus taking from them Money(property aka Happiness as classical thought equivilated them).

A more serious crime (theft, armed robbery, assault) results in a stiffer removal of Rights, namely the Right of Liberty, by which we imprison more serious offenders.

And ultimately, the most serious crimes (Murder, Treason) result in the removal of that most Prime Right... the Right to Life.

For those who are pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-death penalty, and many other conservative/libertarian traits, it is this hierarchy(even if we are not conciously aware of it) which allows us to justify being for the death penalty, but against abortion. It is also why at least philosophically we can justify defending oneself with lethal force once our rights have been breached whether by a criminal individual or a Tyranical State.

Granted given that this is a gun forum I am sure I will hear counter arguments about the 2nd being the most important, and while I don't deny that it is VERY important Right... it is utterly and completely useless and without teeth of it's own, unless there is a LIVING person to excercise it.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Grrrrr!!! When I read the Constitution I didn't see a word about any rights being guaranteed. I saw powers being granted to the government and a whole bunch of responsibilities to go along with those powers and a few areas the government was not allowed to go. But nowhere was there any guarantee for anything.

 

[Mr Crowley]

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.


didn't look hard enough
bill of rights maybe?

 

[natecade1]

I agree with those who have said you really can't pick any one part of the BoR as the best.

I'm a legal studies major and spend many hours discusses and researching the legal principles and rights made possible by the BoR.

I would have to say that the most attractive for me is the right of the people to peacably assemble as I am fairly religious. However, I also know that should our country ever ban or prohibit my religion as some countries do it is my RKBA that I'll be excersing in an attempt to retain the right that's been taken away.

 

[MIL-DOT]

(quote) "You can blame the free market for that. They wouldn't print it if it didn't make them money"

Not entirely true.Take the last 20 serial comedies to come out on TV. What do they all have in common? The obvious answer would be "that they're funny". But that isn't accurate either. Some suck so bad right out of the starting gate that they're cancelled after just a few episodes. But what they DO all have in common is that they all tow the leftist, political party line.
They will all have identical views on every major social and political issue, from abortion to sexual orientation to the environment to gender issues,and yes, to gun ownership.
Making money is important to them, but it's secondary to social engineering.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

There have always been lots of guns in private hands in Iraq... but they aren't so much into rights there are they?

 

[green country shooter]

I don't like the word "guaranteed," but the federal government is required to insure that each state has a republican form of government, which I think includes the right to vote. So from that point of view there is a Constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. Article IV, section IV.

And the 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments all refer to the right to vote, though in the context of saying it shall not be abridged in particular cases.

 

[devildog66]

So far as I know the Bill of Rights does not guarantee nor grant rights but it ennumerates the rights considered to be inalienable by the drafters of the document.

Tha said, there is NO amendment guaranteeing nor ennumerating the right to vote. The Constitution only specifies that voting cannot be denied due to race, creed, color, gender, etc.