Quote:
Originally Posted by tiniree
And you would put such people as pedophiles in the same category as "unpopular or disfavored minorities"????
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unpopular (adj.) not popular; viewed or received unfavorably by the public
disfavor (v.) to withhold or withdraw favor from
minority (n.) [3a] a part of a population differing from others in some characteristics and often subjected to differential treatment
A pedophile is (as this thread shows quite clearly) "viewed or received unfavorably by the public". Most of the rest of us "withhold favor from" pedophiles, and they are a part of the population differing from others based upon their sexual desire for children and subjected to different treatment than those who are not pedophiles.
So, how is a pedophile
not an example of an unpopular or disfavored minority? They're simply more unpopular and more disfavored than most other groups. Which, by the way, is not at all unreasonable in my view, having been sexually assaulted at knifepoint when I was a kid by a member of that group. I'm just saying that, from a Constitutional standpoint, one of the foundational purposes of the Constitution is to safeguard the rights of minorities, even disfavored ones, from the mob rule of the majority.
Or, as the United States Supreme Court put it in
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943):
Quote:
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The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.
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