Probably the same mentality as taxes/healthcare
It’s always “I shouldn’t have to pay for everyone else’s healthcare 🤬🤬🤬”
But never “everyone pays less than they already are into healthcare and the actual service becomes free for everyone but wealthy people don’t make billions of dollars off your need to live”
It’s always “I shouldn’t have to pay for everyone else’s healthcare 🤬🤬🤬”
They already are.
I mean not quite, they pay for a portion of it through insurance, but since society is underinsured, the rest of the healthcare just doesn’t get done and people die.
Incorrect. Hospitals must attend emergency patients, even if uninsured.
They make up the costs by charging everyone else more for everything. They also have to jack up costs to pay for malpractice insurance because doctors get sued frequently for all kind of reasons (valid and not).
One could argue that universal healthcare and fixes to patient rights so that civil lawsuits weren’t the only means of redressing a medical wrongdoing would all actually be a lot cheaper for everyone because it properly distributes risks and costs into society as a whole, and reduces long-term and recurrent medical costs. Instead of dumping all that onto “individual responsibility” in such a way that owners of hospitals and insurance companies get rich while everyone else suffers.
No. Quite.
It’s baked into the premiums. If you have health insurance, you are already subsidizing the health care of others.
The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making laws that limit the freedom of speech, or of the press. That’s all it does (with respect to speech). It does not guarantee that anyone who speaks will be listened to, nor does it guarantee that the press will treat every speaker equally. Nor does it mean that those speakers are exempt from the consequences of their statements.
Even with the strong first amendment wording, we do have some exceptions where generally there is another constitutional right that it is weighted against, such as copyright. And there is a long discussion there specifically about whether false statements are protected.
The “Freeze Peach” crowd wants not only the right to spout lies as truth, but they want the right to have the public believe their lies and disbelieve the truth, just because they say so. Our government can’t stop them from saying those things, but the rest of us (including the press) have every right to point out how bonkers they are.
The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making laws that limit the freedom of speech, or of the press.
Unless it conflicts with someone else’s rights, which is why laws against speech that incites violence is constitutional. Yes, you pointed it out later, but that undermines it being stated as directly as this sentence.
The actual text is that absolute, though:
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.
The exceptions have been hammered out in the courts over the years, where this amendment conflicts with other Constitutionally-protected rights. But the fact that this is here, in the very first Amendment, in such an absolute fashion means it must be given a lot of deference when balanced against other things.
it must be given a lot of deference when balanced against other things.
By who? Who has to defer to this interpretation? That’s what matters.
The Supreme Court is not required to decide anything in any particular way. The Constitution could literally say “the sky is blue” and the Supreme Court would have it within their power to decide that the sky is not blue. Forget what the Constitution says. It only matters who has the power to interpret it.
Fucking vote, so we can get more judges on the court who don’t accept private plane flights and free houses from wealthy donors.
Like any right, one person’s right to free speech will sometimes conflict with someone else’s rights. There are many situations where the right to free speech must yield to other rights. Libel, slander, terroristic threats, racketeering are clear examples.
To be clear, slander and libel are both torts, rather than criminal. Depending on how you look at it, you still have the ‘right’ to commit defamation (both slander and libel are defamation)–in that the gov’t can’t hold you criminally responsible for it–but you can be required to make the victim whole, typically through monetary compensation.
But that’s a matter of perspective.
Can you help me understand the concept of tort law? Class actions are tort law, right? So a tort is a kind of rule about a law that recognizes that a law shouldn’t be interpreted to allow that, even if it wasn’t specifically illegal to begin with? Or am I more confused than I thought?
I think that the easiest way to look at it is that tort law is between people (or corporations), and making things ‘right’ when a person does something that hurts the other person, but not in a criminal kind of way. Class actions are a form of tort law, yes. This is a pretty solid write-up. Some things can be covered under both; if, for instance, you punched me in the face and broke my jaw, the state could prosecute you for the criminal activity (battery), and I could sue you for the injury I’d suffered. But my suit couldn’t result in a felony conviction for you.
Americans have more limited speech than most of the developed world. The US is just good at marketing. In political terms, that’s propaganda. Almost everything you say that could get you in trouble, really could get you in trouble legally. There are laws for everything in the US.
My fellow citizens are shitheads.
