WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
See Bill McGurn's comment below. The quotation below was likely not meant to be taken literally.
As the ongoing fight between the White House and Catholic bishops finally made its way into mainstream news coverage, somebody on Hardball had to say what everyone knows really needed to be said:
Maybe the Founders were wrong to guarantee free exercise of religion in the First Amendment, but that is what they did and I don't think we have to choose here. The key is that I think there are ways we can go about this where, without infringing on any concern about a woman's health, we can still guarantee religious liberty without which, I mean, there is no way this is going to stand in the court but it's also a huge political liability.
This is, of course, an acknowledgment that this is a religious liberty issue; why argue that the mandate is First Amendment compatible when you can just bemoan the existence of the free exercise clause? Henneberger probably feels differently about the speech and press portions of the First Amendment, but maybe I shouldn't count on it. That sound you hear is me desperately trying to believe that this statement was simply sloppy rather than sincere.
This does, of course, raise the obvious question of what liberties I actually do have in the eyes of the left. Given what they think of the rest of the Constitution, I hope I can be pardoned for not being particularly optimistic when it comes to how they view the Bill of Rights.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
The only thing more unfashionable than the free exercise clause of the First Amendment is the whole of the Second. Sanford Levinson even wrote an essay on the latter.
Feb '12
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Your liberties include saying anything they agree with, raising your kids the way they would, eating anything without a face except eggs, protesting anything they think you should, hugging trees, worshiping dirt, doing anything that may possibly offend a Christian, use of a healthcare system that covers everything except busting your ass, and if you're ever incarcerated, free cable.
Dec '11
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Well, judging by Obama's statements on the War on Terror, your rights include access to a quick death via a missile.
Jan '12
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
The masks are coming off these leftist tyrants. Governor Perdue (D-North Carolina) has even spoken of suspending the constitution so that Obama can accomplish his economic agenda.
This country is in dire need of a severe course-correction. I earnestly hope that the voters realize this and will repudiate Obama and his apparatchiks in congress come November.
Apr '11
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Now, now. Let's be fair. Leftists are all for an absolutist defense of your constitutional rights - so long as you're an Islamic terrorist, a cop killer, a child molesting unionized teacher, an illegal alien, a panhandler, a pornographer ... or, in other words, a registered Democrat.
May '10
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
I consider this a dispute among faiths. Traditional religion versus Our Lady Of The Fashionable Euphemisms.
Edited on February 9, 2012 at 12:49pmMay '11
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
What I find amusing here is that Obama probably did not see this firestorm coming. In his mind, religious people are either holy roller yokels with a third grade education who accept the Biblical account of creation literally, or useful idiots like the congregation of Reverend Wright for whom religion is just a euphemism for community organizing. To Obama, the idea that intelligent and influential people – even, gasp, liberals – could be deeply offended by the government trampling on their deepest moral and religious convictions, probably seems like the sudden arrival of an alien race from outer space.
After all, in the only “true” religion, government is the benevolent God – you pray to it, and it provides for all your needs. In Obama's world, all right-thinking people know this, and the superstitious peasants who cling to their guns and Bibles are not worthy of consideration. Imagine his surprise when the peasants grab their pitchforks and torches and decide that they ARE worthy of consideration. Don't they see that he is trying to help them??? You can just hear him thinking: What is WRONG with these people?
Jan '11
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Infringing on a woman's health? By NOT giving her free contraception?
This is the line that gives her away: "we can go about this where, without infringing on any concern about a woman's health, we can still guarantee religious liberty ... "
You hear what that says? Given a choice between contraception and the first amendment rights concerning religion ... we absolutely cannot disturb contraception. For these constitutional scholars, contraception outranks religious liberty. Oh, if we can accommodate religion somehow, maybe there's a way. But only, as she says, "without infringing on any concern about a woman's health."
It also shows the silliness of using rhetoric that equates contraception to "women's health," as if the convenience of free birth control is the same as rescuing her from an oncoming train.
Jun '10
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Allow me to innumerate:
* We believe in the rule of law while they espouse "social justice."
* We believe in righteousness while they support "peace" (often at any price).
* We believe in The Constitution. They put their faith in the good intentions of a single enlightened leader.
* We know man to be flawed. They believe in a perfected utopia.
* We believe in a self-sufficient and fully empowered citizenry. They want to empower the government (and by extension themselves as the ruling class).
* We use dialogue and dialectic to discern the truth. The have the "narrative."
* We believe in liberty. They are totalitarians, but they don't even know it.
Any questions?
May '11
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
~Paules
Any questions? · 23 minutes ago
Nope, that pretty well sums up what's wrong with us. And, oh yeah, one more: we can think. The defining characteristic of heretics everywhere.
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Eric, All due respect here, but I think Melinda's crime is one of committing irony in a public place. Melinda is a classmate of mine from Notre Dame, and though we are in the same profession, we agree on almost nothing. But Melinda has been arguing against the HHS mandate, has written tough prolife articles -- which in her world is harder than in mine -- and this was a sarcastic throwaway remark meant to convey, as sarcasm does, the exact opposite point: The Founders gave us a First Amendment, and if you take it seriously, it means this HHS mandate is an outrage. The full show and the full transcript bears that out, where she even leads by saying she keeps arguing to her friends who like this mandate "First Amendment. First Amendment. First Amendment." She was also up against a prochoice advocate defending the Obama decision.
I think the original blogger for Newsbusters made a mistake taking this literally. Context is everything. Here's another article Melinda wrote going after President Obama for this overreach. Fair game to disagree with her on health care, but this was a misread.
Re: WaPo's Melinda Henneberger Not a Huge Fan of the First Amendment
Bill McGurn: The full show and the full transcript bears that out, where she even leads by saying she keeps arguing to her friends who like this mandate "First Amendment. First Amendment. First Amendment." She was also up against a prochoice advocate defending the Obama decision.
I think the original blogger for Newsbusters made a mistake taking this literally. Context is everything. Here's another article Melinda wrote going after President Obama for this overreach. Fair game to disagree with her on health care, but this was a misread. · 1 hour ago
Duly noted. The original quotation makes a lot more sense in the context of that particular article. Thanks for pointing this out to me.